cry baby cry

santana, featuring joss stone and sean paul.

i did some vacuuming today. the clamorous churning of the vacuum cleaner was surprisingly therapeutic.. drowning out the soundtrack of the surroundings. when i vacuum i feel as if i could use the deafening hullabaloo as an excuse for my oblivion to the world. noone expects an answer or a reply from me and i can carry out my duties under the querying eyes of others without fear of anyone questioning the aloofness of my actions.


kiku's scoops

kiku and i visited a new ice cream parlour near our residence hall. a modest shop in the corner, the cafe is clean-cut, with minimal space for sitting. but that's not to suggest anything frigid about it. there was a good range of fruity cum chocolatey flavours to choose from and since a double scoop cost only 5kr (S$1.33) more than the single, i say "make a double" .. two generous scoops of strawberry and pineapple yougurt flavour mounted on the cone. kiku also had the strawberry and vanilla with bits of chocolate in it.

lucious. divine. kissably good. the strawberry tasted like spring's promise of wonderful things to come.. but i especially enjoyed my pineapple yogurt.. i have never tried pineapple ice cream, much less yogurt (its less fatty = less tasty cousin).. but sighhh, if the strawberry was spring's unfulfilled promise, the pineapple yogurt was spring delivered on a cone. the fresh tangy flavour painted an image of daffodils sweeping across the heidi's mountains and the subtle sweetness bore resemblance to the underrated there-but-not-there mimosa buds.

as if the treats weren't enough to secure a second, third, fourth... return, the service was impeccable. the manager was all smiles and when we were about to leave, he asked if we enjoyed our gelatos. yea.. can you see me smilingggg? he then went on to recommend the orange sorbet, spooning two tasters for us to try.. "good huh," he asked?

nod nod. must try on next trip.

"oh you guys have to try the turtle" he continued.. huh turtle? (would have scratched head if it didn't seem unhygenic or country-bumpkin-like).. then he actually went behind to the kitchen to spoon tasters for us.. "it's got rum, vanilla, chocolate.." sorry.. -transit to paradise- hence the failure to concentrate on what he was saying..

the 'turtle' had a hint of alcohol which i actually enjoyed! yes me, miss i-pretend-to-be-allergic-to-avoid-alcohol.. the rum provided a novel twist to the otherwise tradtional vanilla-chocolate bits flavour .. turtle is thy name because they have a chocolate called 'turtle' in denmark, which was used it its production.

all mine!

i was almost on the verge of embarressment with the shameless tasting when the manager remarked, "banana's good too..." and i immediately shook my head and said, "nono! we will buy a scoop of that the next time round.." but it fell on deaf ears and voila, what did you know..- two more spoon tasters..

the banana was kiku's ticket to paradise. extremely authentic, it tasted as if ONLY bananas were used.. wow.

oh what a delightful experience.. one trip, five flavours. would i be returning?... well, is copenhagen wet and dreary right now?... hell yeah.. gelato on a drizzly cold dreary day.. well, whoever said dessert was weather-specific?

paradis ice cream

just another chilly day
leaving for spain in a less than a week.. as a result, i have to finish 3 papers by next wednesday.
i feel like a marathon runner, trying to pace myself. but i don't respond well to stress- yes i cannot believe i am using THAT word. i get all snappy whenever i find myself wondering what the heck i am doing in the kitchen wabbling about movies when i should be in my room finishing my papers.
woke up at 8:30am today and miraculously finished one paper before rewarding myself with lunch. another paper due tonight.
i am living proof that ice cream puts you in a good mood. i was working on one of my papers when kiku knocked on my door for some icecream. i granted myself a break, had a slice of stawberry/vanila/chocolate icecream and found myself in a way more pleasant mood then before. =)

tonight i felt like the novelty is wearing off. like tired paint on rusty gate.

blithering fool. that's me.

MUM'S GOING TO NEW YORK.
NOT NOT NOT FAIR!!!
the INJUSTICE of LIFE
you hear me?
BRAT FIT ALERT. CODE RED.
NOT NOT NOT FAIR!!!

group work politics. seven of us and claire and i are gonna kick the five out tomorrow after our presentation. haha.. seems like the other way around.. but we are so sick of working with people who don't show up for meetings. we have a presentation tomorrow and we still have no idea what this JENNIFER KIM LEE looks like. by the way, she hasn't sent in her slides too. HA. but i can't wait to see the look on her face when we annouce our decision. i am in a frightfully sadistic mood right now.

moving on to new york. well wai, i WOULD LOVE TO GO. but i think i owe it to myself to show some self-restraint.. afterall, it is around my exam period. yang's right- new york will not run away. oh who am i kidding.. sigh, i going to sob in my pillow tonight and meanwhile, attempt to suffocate myself.

ugh. i really need to be alone tonight. there's a lot of work to clear before i leave for spain. it's dampening my spanish spirits. today it was just rain. no snow. rain rain rain.. we turned our clocks one hour ahead to keep up with the changing of seasons. is spring really arriving?

hey huiling, of course i remember you! come online more often, there's much to tell you.. haha

IT SNOWED. IT RAINED. but i have given up cursing the weather. my retaliation is to stay INDOORS. HA! so there..

i have my movie, my internet, my munchies.. i don't NEED you, stupid spring weather...

*just watch me crawl on my knees later..

i haven't ebayed in a looong time and today i went coach window-shopping and so many things caught my eye.. i especially adore the marine collection! i have a fetish for the sailor-inspired outfits.. see the fish and bubbles bag? well they have a wristlet and espadrilles to match.. haha.. can you imagine being clad head to toe in the same design.. talk about fashion mis-statement. haha..

i thought the bag would look extremely coool as a work bag. a large orange tote- a fantasy corporate accesory of mine. that is if i ever tragically fall into the trap of walking the path that so many back home are.. sigh, the green and blue slip ons are from stuart weitzman by the way

congruent with our distinguishly English weather, the girls bonded over high tea in the kitchen. there was chocolate cake, cookies, finnish christmas biscuits and five(!) different types of tea to choose from.. oh it was lurve-ly! just adoor-ra-ble

talking to yang made me realise how soon i will be leaving for spain.. yay!

off to dinner now.. toodles

doing the unthinkable. tabulating my travel expenses. going to return home broke and indebted to my parents. needs to sell a limb. maybe my cellulite to undernourished deprived kids along the siberian borders- people who need the blubber to survive winter.

when i stepped out of the residence hall today, a strong gust of wind whacked across sorely as if in mockery of my spring weather enthusism.. then on, it was basically "blow wind blow, i can see your underwear.." sunlight was minimal, weaking piercing through the cracks of cloudy skies... THIS IS SO NOT HAPPENING! i call upon the mighty forces of comic-cartoon-hero-storm-from-the x-men for spring to arrive...... urgh, little wonder if that doesn't work.

i braved the awful weather and emabarked on a forty-five minute walk to the chinese supermarket. you would think that after making such a perilous jouney, i would at least do myself some justice by lugging a suitcase-full load of chinese spices and mix back right? but nopes, i didn't. somehow facing selves and stacks of instant noodles, cooking mixes and frozen dim sum overwhelms me and i am unable to think properly or buy much for fear of making rash decisons.

so my only purchase was a bottle of yeo's szechuan kung pao sauce... arh, i grew up drinking that guy's sugar packet drinks- particularly lemon barley.. then anxious to taste it, i called metz (remember londoner who loves his kung pao chicken?) for dinner.

we threw in chicken, onions, water-rinsed salted peanuts and three tablespoons of cooking sauce and served it on white basmati rice.

verdict? it could have been spicier. it wasn't really kung pao-ish and in fact if it DID taste like what a restaurant would serve, i would pack up my bags and volunteer my services to discovery channel travel and living. i was hoping to be blown away by the heat but i guess the kung pao aspect softened the szechuan blow.. i sound like i am writing some martial arts novel..

bystanders in the kitchen were bewildered by the presence of peanuts in a stir-fry and turned bambi-eyed as the sauce-drenched chicken sizzled in the pan. metz found it tasty but clearly as asians, we were expecting MORE. it was acceptable but i would have preferred it to be sinus-clearing.. perhaps i should be bolder and add real chilis to it in the future.. afterwhile, the bloooooody chills look here to stay and fire in the tums are well-appreciated.

the night didn't just end there as heiko whipped up two batches of homemade pizza and my tastebuds in unison coerced my mind into having a slice of hawaiian. really i had no idea what happened!?! by the time i finished the pizza, i was in semi-trance..

NOT MY FAULT.

today on my way home from the supermarket, i met the wife of a taiwanese diplomat (prelude: i first met her last week when kiku needed help with her visa) and as if by a stroke of coincidence, she launched into a joyful tirade of how much she loves singapore curry.

what happened was that a singaporean friend of hers prepared the mouthwatering dish for a gathering and since then, it has been on her mind. its funny how we stood outside the supermarket for about ten minnutes discussing the difference between curries from taiwan and singapore and the essential ingredients you simply HAVE to add to create an extra oophm.

this wasn't my first foodie encounter for the week as metz, a londoner, was explaining to me that he had once tasted a chicken dish from a chinese restaurant and it sealed its position as his favourite. unfortunately, he just could not recall what it was called and could describe it as being 'sweet'.. as a result, he was unable to re-order it and had been frustrated whenever he was served sweet and sour chicken instead. so i asked him what it contained..

and he replied, "cashew nuts" ..

the first dish that came to my mind was kung-pao chicken but he was unable to verify its name so i asked if it contained dried chilis and he nodded enthusistically.. so there we solved the Mystery of the Elusive Kung-Pao Chicken.. and as he lived in my residence hall, we even made plans to try cooking it.. haha..

isn't food a great bonding subject?

well i think i am going to overdose on bread over the weekend. out of sheer gluttony and my inability to resist a bargain, i bought a 1.45kg loaf of dark rye bread! believe me, even lugging it off and on the dining table requiries a substantial amount of effort.. but its BREADDDDDDD! thus: resistance is futile.

it was time for something fishy for dinner. i made teriyaki salmon pasta. it was a un-tried-and-tested recipe because i couldn't find one on the internet. though the ingredients i used remained on the safe side, believe me (the rice burner), there was always a possibility things would screw up.

while the pasta was cooking, i browned the onions and garlic (no oil here) hoping to enhance their aroma. then i added the oil, teriyaki sauce and salmon together, adding a generous spoonful of honey (thanks to elena) and two cheese slices to create a more volumous flavour. after roughly dicing the salmon, the cooked pasta was tossed in and the dish was done after a dash of pepper and salt. like i said, there wasn't a written recipe and every ingredient thrown in was 'basic instinct 101'.. *crosses fingers.

turns out the exploratory attempt received widespread praise (yes, amongst deprived exchange students) but to justify its popularity, it wasn't like just three people in the kitchen.. more like SEVEN or EIGHT! -a moment of silence please, gloat session is in place- i was on cloud nine when johanna said, "you can cook whatever we order in restaurants".. haha, she should perhaps refrain from visitng the asian restaurants she usually patronises..

well, i'll take the compliment in full stride nonetheless. i shall try to convince andi to make fish a weekly affair since it is such a treat.. "ohhh, Fish Friday" - music to my ears. of course, there was dessert, magaret and birget bought frozen choux pastry.. though it wasn't anything like beard papa's, who was i to complain? i'll settle for anything sweet and icecream-like anytime!

the apple-topped dish is actually lucas's dinner and though i managed a little self-control tonight, the last time he made it, i helped myself to a hefty portion as it reminded me so much of bread and butter pudding. featuring apples, bread and loads of cavities-damaging ingredients, it was an adaption of a german dessert that roughly translates to "snow white something something".. haha.. the amazing thing was that the main ingredients he used would have succumbed to expiration soon.. so in a dash of brilliance, lukas made do with what he had and voila, an irresistable treat was born!

oh is it actually getting warmer here?

i am in a fantastic mood this morning.

i found instant tea! not the tea-bag kind but the stir-in-powder type. i have been searching high and low for them in the regular supermarkets, wondering why manufacturers only produce instant coffee.. oh, i so hope steffi remembers to bring a jar back from germany... ooo, very glad.

this sounds so geeky but i am glad my mini projects are finally taking shape, forcing me to sieve through the overload of information over the internet. it is heartening to know that i am learning something academically useful here.. haha..

the f-word.

i was introduced to this book by darrelle, who received it as a birthday gift for her 21st. before you go "uh-oh!, what's she trying to say", i got to admit i was rather apprehensive about what the book featured. but after reading the first couple of pages from amazon excerpts, i was encouraged by its contents.

it isn't a self-consoling sob story of an overweight person made good neither is a remain-in-denial fairy tale.. i think its useful as it simply reflects our state of mind, when we think of the word FAT. we say it like its a dirty word and with such disgust, as if we could throw in a spit or two. SOB calling out to darr, please lend it to me when i return to singapore.. haha..

a far cry to what i have been reading- mysteries and thrillers. actually i have only gone through a paltry three authors (john grisham, david baldacci and sue grafton) but john grisham's got to be my favourite so far. a friend recommended tom clancy but i think i am going through the grisham novels first.

i find the more i read, the more skeptical i am about the government and intelligence service. the scandals and frauds seem too far-fetched at times but if that were so, no reader would be fascinated by such fiction for quite so long. anyway, it makes for good before-bedtime reading =) and i have to restrict myself otherwise, my lecture readings will never be touched.

on my way home today, i saw a very well-dressed woman walking towards me, yabbing enthusistically on her cellphone, casually swinging her fox scarf to the momentum of her strides.

as in the WHOLE friggin' F-O-X.. not fox fur nor faux fur.

as a meat-eater, i would consider it hypocritical to discriminate against fur-ma donnas but the sight of THAT made me churlish. the accessory came complete with a head and tail and as it hung limbly, it looked as if she had accidentally swinged her poor pet to death. oh! i can't bear the thought of snuggling next to a fox head. ewww.

just when i thought life is all good, read: a non-existent workload, i sub-knowingly agreed to three group meetings over the next two days. oh lordy lordy..

i had fish today for dinner!

a first in copenhagen- sad irony considering how close we are to the sea and yet fish is still a luxury for this SOB. i marinated the salmon cuts with teriyaki sauce- the third and final sauce that mum sent over- and garlic for over two hours, pan-fried them as an accompaniant to the experimental pesto fried rice i had made.

mmm, i love love love salmon..

dearest diana,

happiest 21st!
p.s i can't wait to see you in july

it sucks that i am twenty thousand miles away as i would like to you buy your first RA movie ticket from yangtze cinema. before i break into a chinesenewyear-ish tirade and start wishing you abundance in prosperity, i just wanna say enjoy adulthood! but don't be in a such a hurry to kick off your sneakers and slip into those stilettos.. at least not before july =) ok, you can sort of guess the typical well-wishers that are coming your way, so here's me wishing you the merriest of all your birthdays.

notably dressed in a blood-red polyester jacket, a golden-crown embroidered across his breast pocket marks his pride and duty. my heart never fails to skip a beat whenever i see one of them riding by smartly on their sturdy yellow bicycles.

when will it be my turn? i always ask. will he come up to me with a grin, asking me for my name and details? will he be my bearer of good things to come today?

oh when will mr postman bring me my parcel!?

it was a sunday-in for me.. the cold weather being a discentive to venture out.. i had every intention of reading my innovation management notes but once i saw the words 'teamwork' and 'empowerment,' i knew immediately how cliche and toenail-cringing the article would sound. thus i moved onto my research on vietnam's foreign direct investment, which turned out to be rather productive..

at around five in the afternoon, the girls gathered at the kitchen eagerly awaiting justine's now-renowned chocolate cake. made from real chocolate (and not cocoa powder), the chocolate cake was heaven in a pan- decadent and moist.. like a cross between a brownie and cake.

between tea and dinner, i spent some time in kiku's room.. watching stephanie sun's music videos.. haha.. not kidding! she's such a fan and even asked if i have bumped into her before.. we were going through travel plans and oh, i do hope she can make it to provence in july..

steffi and heiko prepared dinner for the ten of us. it was supposed to be a german traditonal dinner but as most supermarkets were closed, they were unable to get the essential ingredients.. not that any of us were complaining as it was a great meal nonethless. a simple german meal is never complete without potatoes and this meal was no exception. there was potato salad, made by steffi's visitng mum, all the way from germany and sliced potatoes pan-fried with parika. rolls of garlic baguettes fresh out of the oven and who in the right mind would say no to them?.. entrees came in the shape of pork chops that had been sizzling in a pan, infused with the sweet aroma of onions.

what a wrap-up to a fantastic week.

Malmo, Swedan

malmo, swedan

today marked a pebble-sized milestone in my travel endeavours- an impromptu trip to malmo, swedan (the motherland of ikea and h&m)!

kiku msn-ed me around ten-ish to ask if i was interested and this being just another day reserved for vegetating, i thought, "why not".. the two of us were the epitome of efficiency- we only reach the central station at 10:55am and the train was due to leave at 11:03am.. we still had to find train tickets, grab breakfast and cash from the atm. amazingly, we accomplished all that in six minutes, with the queues at mcdonalds' being expectedly long and the wait staff unexpected slow.

our train ride was a smooth 45-min journey across the oresund bridge and it was a good thing we managed to obtain a tourist-friendly map from the information counter. the must-sees or to-dos of swedan's third largest city are situated around around the same area- Stortorget and Lilla Torg. as the main shopping district was nearly ramrod straight, malmo actually felt alot like the softer, less-edgey cousin of inner copenhagen. charming little boutiques and imposing shopping centres share the limelight within the arena and with the crowds weaving in and out, this is probably as busy as it gets here in malmo downtown. a walk from Lilla Torg leads you to Gustav Adolf's Torg, which is another popular meeting/ shopping square.

my highlight of the walk would definitely be the visit to the form/design center. a modest hole in the wall, the display space was clean-cut and well, nothing to harp about but i took delight in the quizzical items for sale in their shop. from the eccentric anna kyyro quinn felt cushions to the rocking horse bunny, there was a need for brat-control, otherwise there would have been numerous 'i want!' outbursts. i even spent quite a while screening the fabric textiles, many of which i had every desire to incorporate into my blog background.

we took a break at the triangln centre where I had the most expensive cheesecake in my entire life- 29 swedish kronas which converts to roughly S$6+. ok I know it doesn't seem like much when i blog about it, but let's not forget three magic words- STUDENT ON BUDGET and back in Singapore, i thought it was ridiculous to pay S$5.50 for a slice from starbucks and this was half the size of a normal starbucks..

the taste verdict? a bite into it almost made me regret the initial begrudging. It. Was. That. Good. the cheesecake looked ordinary, the ingredients seemed commomplace but there was just something about it that heightened the pleasure buds on my tongue. was it the discernly-fresh strawberries? or the sensous cake which melted as i rolled it over my tongue? maybe it was even the biscuit base, reminiscent of carb-goodness.. but very likely, it was the combination of all three factors PLUS creamserved on the side.

traditional swedish architecture>

after tea, we made our way to Malmohus Castle, which was unforgivingly anti-climaxal. perhaps, missing the opening hours of the museum contributed to my lack of enthusiasm cum understanding but i just wasn't very impressed with the red brick architecture. from a distance, the turning-torso structure was by far more impressive.

otherwise, i had a great time in malmo. i can't wait to google all the scandinavian designs and find out more about them..

oh i am so sick of procrastinating.

i will join a food blogging event soon!

Ten Top Trivia Tips about Yixiao!

1. The moon is 400 times closer to the Earth than yixiao, and 400 times smaller!
2. Yixiao has a memory span of three seconds!
3. Yixiao once came third in a Charlie Chaplin lookalike contest.
4. Yixiao was declared extinct in 1902.
5. Yixiao cannot jump!
6. There are now more than 4000 satellites orbiting yixiao!
7. Only 55 percent of Americans know that the sun is made of yixiao.
8. When provoked, yixiao will swivel the tip of her abdomen and shoot a jet of boiling chemicals at her attacker!
9. More than one million stray dogs and half a million stray cats live in yixiao.
10. Yixiao is the world's tallest woman.

I am interested in - do tell me aboutherhimitthem

getting to know myself even better.
this is so random but so much fun.

i was still reeling from the sugar overdose when kiku called me to tell me that birget and anna were preparing lasagne for dinner. honestly, i wasn't in the hungriest of moods but i joined in the gathering anyway.

frozen lasagne, like frozen pizza, is readily available in most supermarkets. it no longer calls for excessive work, not when all you need to do is to pop it into the oven and turn the oven knob. thus when someone prepares them from scratch, the effort is well-appreciated, not to mention gratifying.



us hanging around, waiting for his royal cheesiness

the verdict was unanimous. the layers of pasta, wound around the tomato-sauced beef the tight embrace, captured the flavour and aroma of homemade goodness and the melted mozarella cheese topping brought us one step closer to heaven.

comfort food made for the masses.

it was a glorious afternoon. the day was generous with sunshine and the fluffy clouds which scattered across the blue skies created picture-perfect day for outdoors.. well, i WOULD HAVE gladly spent it outdoors but i had a better reason to stay in- afternoon tea with kiku.

as if to add to the sloth-factor of a lazy friday afternoon, kiku and i kicked back our sneakers and allowed ourselves to be mollycoodled by pastries and hot chocolate.

from her recent trip to cologne, germany, kiku had acquired some chocolate pralines, specially made for hot chocolate! by adding them to hot milk, we attained two mugs of glorious hot chocolate and i guess a deterrant from the regular stir-in-powder mixture only served to heighten our enjoyment.

i bought the pastries from a bakery and by the looks of it, you can't get more danish than this.

the pastry below, is a icing-topped flat cinnanmon roll- every bite of which seemed to send us into a sugar jolt. it was extremely delectable and in appreciation of its finger-licking flakiness, we could not resist the crumbly bits that lie around the empty dish.

the pastry on the extreme right (from the top photo) had a similar butter puff pastry shell but contained a aperitive glob of custard within. i'm usually quite picky about custard, too much of which was have been churlish but surprisingly, this was my favourite out of the three.

i had initially thought of the middle pastry to contain jam or marmalade of some sort.. however, a bite of it proved otherwise.. like a pendulum that swung away from the sweet spectrum, my tastebuds were suddenly unaccustomed to its savoury nature.. i can't put my finger on what lay on the surface but i will make it a point to find out.. it wasn't a bad thing though as another sweet pastry would have been overkill.

it was an incredibly relaxing afternoon that would have been almost illegal to workaholics but i could do this every week...

for my two-month anniversay here, i had initally thought of blogging about things here that make me excercise my facial muscles upwards. but a sudden bout of nostalgia caused me to switch directions and i have decided to focus on the things i miss about singapore instead.

my family. saturday evenings at sushi tei. steamboat galore. discovery travel and adventure channel. my girlfriends back home- ade darr den diana zhu. teh halia for breakfast and supper. brunch at lazy gourmet. red bean bun. my cousins. windows on bukit. coffee bean's cranberry muffin breakfast set. orchard road. 8days.

so it has been a rather uninspiring school week but things are bound to brigthen up! so says, miss optimistic here. kiku and i prepared another asian dinner where we prepared chicken soup and hainanese chicken rice rice -vanessa!, i swear this is a coincidence-

as kiku was stuck at the taiwanese embassy, settling visa application matters, i decided to chop the chicken first so that dinner would be served in time.. what can i say? the meat was almost resistant to my blunt ikea knife and by the time i got to the seventh drumstick, defeatism took over and a new-found respect for butchers surfaced. i am frankly surprised all ten fingers of mine are still intact after that trecherous wrestle.

using a recipe g-mailed to her by her mum, kiku took charge of the chicken soup with black mushrooms. the authentically asian chef-d'oeuvre was pungent with flavour and a winner in hot-soup-for-winter-nights department. as if one mother isn't enough, i have mine to thank for the hainanese chicken rice mix. unfortunately, my culinary skills were not proficient enough for quantity-control and the rice ended up slightly charred on the bottom.. nonethless a spoonful was enough to send me lusting for more native delicacies.

best of all, i am so full.. the fullest i have ever felt in my entire stay here. i feel like i should be expecting contractions soon. NEEDS-TO-LIE-DOWN.

i had a great night. but it was tiring. physically and to a larger extent, psychologically.

today there were eight of us, a number which swelled from the original four. i'm not complaining about the numbers as long as everyone leaves the table tum-tied but it felt awful to exclude others, especially since the two of us could only handle so much. above all, i cannot handle the look upon the faces of those who stepped into the kitchen, bewildered by the commotion and puzzled by the lack of invitation. it makes me wince. unable to face them, i often find myself staring into the granduer of half-eaten mess. of course, i would dislike it even more to be in their position yet sometimes i wish there weren't so many social obligations.

anyway, while the others went out to play (i.e drink at the school bar), i poured over numerous wallpaper websites to find a new background for my blog. no kidding.. haha..how happening.. instead of partying my two-month anniversary away, i would rather google interior design websites to locate wallpaper designers. sigh, but i could not help but fall in love with the designers guild website, at the risk of drooling all over my keyboard. ooo and i tweaked a little here and there to personalise the right bar. and finally after two hours, i'm satisfied at last.

designers guild

i can't believe i'm exhausted from trip planning.

fishcakes and tomato sauce for lunch today.

come thursday, it will my two-month anniversary here.
anything special planned? wait and see.

i went to collect my laundry today, half worrying that someone has taken it out and dumped it aside to use the dryer. to my surprise, i found my clothing neatly folded and placed on top of the machine. aww. some people are just sweet.

i am pretty excited about tomorrow's class as a professor from smu (yes, my home university) is guest-lecturing on the 'political and production economy in the animation industry'. it sounds pretty good as he will be touching on pixar and the issue of outsourcing. i hope it's interesting..

the alcohol-intolerant me had less than ahalf-a-centimetre-bit of bailey's irish cream.. which was more than i could take but it was more agreeable than the others i have tried. i am actually hoping that a little alcohol will help me sleep better..

i haven't been sleeping too well and i strongly suspect it's the strong trail of choclate i have in my blood. really. every meal ends with at least a small chocolate bar (keeping a stash of it in my room doesn't help i guess). have i mentioned that i'm going through just about every rittersport flavour.. hazelnut, dark, white with nuts, conflakes.. so far my favourite is the 'butter biscuit' which showcases a crunchy biscuit encased within milk chocolate. very much like the chocolate digestives that i favour from marks and spencers.

oh today i tried d'aim which has milk chocolate coated over thin but hard stick-to-your-gums layer of caramel. i was eating it in class and when i cracked the layer of caramel in my mouth, my neighbour turned to me and gave me the all-knowing smile. ooo, very enjoyable. current favourite of the moment.

sidenote: ashlee simpson's LOVE is ridiculously catchy.

andi and i had grand plans today. we decided to make our way to the opera theatre, which would have cost an an hour and half by foot per trip.. but first we had lunch at one of the ubiqutious utterly-danish hotdog mobile stands. the hotdog stand is marked by the sign 'polsevogn' which translates to sausage-cart. despite its cramp interior, the proprietor cooks, grills and serves at least ten different type of sausage-related snacks to peckish souls.

this was a first for me and i would consider it undutiful if i didn't try them out before returning home. however, there was never an appropiate time to try them out, much less a willing companion to stand in the freezing cold munching on the boring hotdog. UNTIL TODAY. andi and i had the hotdog and beef burger respectively.

sausage. hotdog bun. pickles. ketchup. tupperwared fried onions. the hotdog was nothing worth harping about. my beef burger was just as unimaginative and i strongly suspect the beef patty was devoid of any legitimate traces of a once-alive farm animal. both the hotdog and beef burger weren't astounding good and neither was i expecting them to be.. in fact, i think my stomach had an easier time ingesting mass produced commodities served by mcdonalds. disappointed? perhaps.. but at least my foray into the once-uncharted addressed any curiosisty i once had.

it was about the experience and a forgetably-chiiling one too. of all the days, we picked the windiest and my fingers were numb within minutes of eating.. in fact, i had to jump into a nearby seven-eleven to defrost after the meal. dear andi was such a good sport though..

we continued with our journey to the opera theatre, weaving in and out of departmental stores and stroget..oh resistence resistence. i wish i had blinkers to prevent myself from oogling at the newest paul and joe collection. despite being able to see the opera theatre from the opposite river bank, we were unable to locate it though i know for a fact we were sooo close.. we had walkec for quite a bit in the uncooperative weather and honestly, a hot glass of coffee in a warm toasty cafe seemed like a much more appealing option than blindly search for the now-abhored structure.

see my hot chocolate! it has a wad of peter beier dark chocolate on a stick that melted upon contact with the liquid, providing cheap entertainment for bumpkins such as myself. yum! i'm still undecided as to whether chocolate has an endorphin-effect on me or if it just the placebo effect.. well i will let the scientists figure that out while i indulge in a delightful chocolate muffin..

after dinner, a few of us caught hitch. well. what can i say- the very fact that i was thinking about my laundry pretty much tells you how interesting it was..

after breakfast, i watched the movie 'the island', starring ewan mcgregor and scar-hot-lett johansson.

initally i was very put off by ewan mcgregor's inability to shake off his wide-eyed-bambi persona (a look that outlived its purpose in moulin rouge) but you later realise, when explained in the movie, that he was supposed to possess the mentality of a 15 year old. damage control accomplished.

this movie about clones as 'insurance policies' and their 'sponsers' felt like an adaptation of kazuo ishiguro 'never let me go', in which clones were portayed as non-humans with very human-personalities. though not quite on par with my sci-fi favourites minority report and gattaca, i felt the film was effective in ushering a new perspective on issues- issues that would make us question whether it is worth killing a live to save another.

i especially liked the part when ewan mcgregor as lincoln 6-echo asked his sponsor, tom lincoln 'how much he cost'.

"five million" TL replied..
"is that alot" L6E again asked and TL justifies, "small price to cheat death..."

could we forget to value life if death were so easily averted?

the residence is awfully quiet as quite a few hallmates are currently on a cruise, organised by the international office, to oslo. well at least the noise-makers are gone..

i used another one of the precious homesent cooking sauces for dinner tonight. CURRY! well, chicken curry paired with garlic coriander naan to be specified. fingers replaced spoons and forks as cutlery of the night as everyone gamely tucked into the curry and naans.

i am glad the curry matched everyone's palate (probably the first time in history where the germans, french, finnish and singaporean ever agreed on something). a testimony to this achievement was the toasting of more bread whose sole purpose was to mop up any lingering traces of curry sauce on the plate. haha.. i think my tastebuds have gone soft as i actually felt the spice biting my tongue and had gone through two glasses of water by the time dinner ended.

i thought of preparing dessert as well and mango lassi seemed like the paradisiac accompaniant to the spicy entree. but i decided against it due to the lack of originality and created a self-made unnamed concoction instead. i even borrowed wine glasses from a hallmate to create a more asthetically pleasing treat.

using almost-the-same train of thought as mango lassi, i used mangoes (canned ones since it was impossible to find fresh mangoes) to form the base of my dessert. the next step required me to hack a bar of white chocolate and hazelnuts into ickle bits and so that i could layer them over the mangoes.. before smothering it with orange yogurt.

food-wise, i favour constrast- why esle would i choose to have ruffles original with vanilla icecream? i was seriously banking on the contrast between the velvety tongue-nipping yogurt and sweet soft mangoes.. not forgetting the added punch provided by the white chocolate and crunchy nuts. i was a little apprehensive about the eventual turnout and MAYBE i should have had a bite before serving it. yet, the subsequent nods of approval and empty wine glasses not only provided relief but allowed me to bask in stepford-wives glory.

feeling incredibly inspired. i just need more people to cook for.

tis' the season to apply for exchange

i do realise that some people are currently applying for exchange back in singapore. so here are a few pointers.

• cost of living in country. big difference between countries such as poland and denmark.
• if you plan to travel extensively, the range of budget airlines that fly in and out of the country of residence matters. i hope this helps
• first language english? personally i would recommend a population that speaks english but does not regard it as their first lagnuage. like in copenhagen, most items in the supermarkets or instructions are in danish.. it is without a doubt slightly nerve wrecking at first but you will appreciate the eventual stretching of character.
• travelling with a friend is good. -pause-one friend. sig bekendt. un amigo. the worse thing you can do is to surround yourself with fellow singaporeans, form mini colony and cook curry noodles everyday. bad idea unless you crave for your comfort zone. then again, why are you doing the exchange?

on hindsight, please take whatever you read with a pinch of salt.. sometimes you only hear the good stuff.. for now, i can't think of anything more pressing.. will update this list as i go along!

oh dear, i have a sudden craving for my mum's dumplings.. breathe...

my head is spinning from staring at too many provence city map- from analysing the location of our hotel and main train station to locating the town centre and places of interest.

an extension of my branch-length attempts to control my winter budget, i have begun packing lunches for school. thereby realising yet another childhood fascination. i have always had a softspot for packed lunches, especially those in plastic lunchboxes. i remember once reading a japanese picture book and envying the japanese school children with their boxed bentos and riceballs that fitted snugly against one another in perfect symmetry. perhaps the wholesome look of something thoughtfully prepared was an idea that appealed and stayed with me throughout the years.

don't worry, i haven't gone all zany and gotten myself a cutsey pink-overload-hello-kitty lunchbox.. instead, i'm using an everyday plain lunchbox that i bought from woolworth in durham. and though i have ideas of preparing riceballs, toasted ham and cheese sandwiches paired with exactly five cherry tomatoes (just enough to fill up any remaining space) would suffice for now.

end of the week for me yay.

Les poissons, les poissons
How I love les poissons
Love to chop and to serve little fish
First I cut off their heads
Then I pull out their bones
Ah mes oui, savez toujours delice

forgive me, for i have just caught disney's the little mermaid.. and i absolutely adore the scene between chef louis and sebastian the crab.. buy, rent, download the little mermaid today!..

oh boy oh boy yes yes yes..

i have so many movies to keep me company this weekend.. credit goes to hannas of course who generously let me choose from his extensive movie collection and who advised me on which program to download hsould windows media player not work.

munich, pulp fiction, fantastic four, the island, hitch...

i should go hang the 'do not disturb' sign on my door knob now...

another slow and relaxing day.. i had to wake at at seven for an eight am lecture.. but we got off an hour early as our guest lecturer didn't turn up. haha.. and i was home by nine thirty, which is the time i would usually start my day at..

sometimes i feel my life here is so uneventful, anything that makes me crack into a smile and light with blithe is blogworthy. but isn't that what life is? seeking joy in the little things in life. like if i were to state why i'm feeling peaceful, iy could be a myriad of reasons from the pleasure that my friends got from dinner to reading the tags on my blog...

anyway

thanks to mum and international parcel service, we (being those present for dinner) enjoyed a sumptous teppanyaki chicken dinner.. i first marinated the chicken with teppanyaki sauce out of a bottle, then left it alone to absorb the aroma for an hour. using onions and garlic, i then panfried the marinated chicken, adding a little bit of water every now and then. voila! i emerged victorious and the dish was met with appreciative groans of satisfaction.

oh i can't wait to try out the curry and teriyaki sauces!

this weekend has come and gone. i enjoyed my first weekend back in copenhagen by simply doing nothing.. the day usually kicks off with a long drawn breakfast, followed by a little course reading.. then enters the not-too-difficult decision of what to have for lunch (pasta anyone?).. a little more mucking about.. throw in al pronto grocery trips.. dinner at seven.. more lounging around before heading back to my room to the embrace of the internet.

the importance of being idle.

i was just reading an ex schoolmate's blog and i can't believe she is still talking about 'fats' and 'getting fat'. i would have thought that leaving smu and singapore could work wonders for her self-esteem and rid all that self-hate.. i remember being so psycologically tormented by her in school because weight and fats was all she could talk about, despite being one the 'blessed ones'.. she didn't make fun of me or anyone but she just kept berating herself, i felt like i should be doing the same since i am rounder than her. i just so glad to be out her company.

thursday night at emma's was a pretty big deal for me because a. it's a well- fact i HARDLY venture out after sunset. b. i NEVER take alcohol so pointless for me to pay a club entrance fee and c. i can't really entertain the thought of all that passive smoking.

(clockwise l-r) justin from lyon, hector from milan, heiko from germany ; katy and her brother from iceland and whatshisname? ; andi, me, heiko and hector ; me again..

but club emma was comme il faut as i had promised some friends to give the a chance when i return from belgium. furthermore, emma had a couple of persuasive qualities in her favour.. first being girils entered for free before 12 and it was non-smoking! --> zouk: you could really learn a thing or two here

i enjoyed my first foray in emma.. though like wednesday nights at zouk where girls entered for free, the club was proportionately crowded as in you actually had space to dance, instead of just bobbing up&down on the same spot.

the music was danceable to with r&b, a little house and some funky doo-da african sounding music.. and they had a few professional dancers who leaped onto the podium and bar top when the going got tardy..

(clockwise: l-r) chris from canada, whathisname?, igor from brazil, me and andi ; chris again and janosch ; johanna from finland, me, chris and katy ; me lovin' the wallpaper.

a few interesting facts:
- justine is actually pronounced as SHOOS-tin and not justine like in JUS-TIN timerberlake.
- katy's real name is katikas and having grown up in both luxemborg and iceland, she is able to speak 6 languages! english, german, french, luxemborg-ish; icelandic and i-forgot-the-last-one. can someone please hand her a united nations career application form ..
- igor's surname is CHAN because paternal side is chinese and they moved to brazil from shanghai during his grnndfather's time.
- chris from canada is orginally from greece and he has two middle names and a seriously tongue-boggling last name which i shant attempt to spell nor pronounce.

and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

for dinner tonight, kiku and i decided to prepare an asian meal for our fair friends of the west. it was initially mind-boggling to decide what to prepare since the boundaries of asia extended to china, japen, thailand, singapore etc etc.. and even if we were to narrow it down to food from taiwan (she being from there) and singapore, we would still be swapped with the variety..

i had originally thought of doing a noodle soup dish like ban mian or chinese chicken noodle soup but the lack of big bowls and chopsticks made it difficult to execute.. fried rice was scrapped for being too unoriginal and uncreative.. so finally, we decided on fried noodles since it was easy for non-chopstick-using folks to handle AND supposedly simple to prepare. we even visited the chinese supermarket yesterday and bought shao cha jiang (chinese barbeque sauce), bak choy, chicken fillets and noodles for our fried hor fun/ kway teow/ rice noodles. the end result was satisfying and everyone (yes, all nine of them!) relished at the idea of being introduced to a new dish for thhe first time..

yup, they have never tasted kway teow before and we were to describe to them what it was made of and what the dish was called and what type of vegetable we used.. german steffi even professed a liking for the bak choy..

we served tang yuan for dessert and they were so amused yet daunted by what lay beneath the white cushiony surface.. they poked and pricked, unfamilar with the oozing filling and later torn between which flavour they preferred- the 'black one' and peanut? some even later voiced interest in visiting the chinese supermarket.. i am just so very very heartened by how receptive everone was and the fact that two large saucepans of fried hor fun was effortlessly polished off.. how encouraging~

right now, i am trying to convince a friend to visit singapore and to travel with SIA... i am even trying to tempt him by introducing the concept of the SIA girl.. and he has just informed me that return tickets cost 1571euros, should he fly in 2008. haha..

STOP SNOWING!!!! 

new background graphic provided by angela lewin extremely cool designer.

i thought of it was a cruel joke when someone knocked on my door at eight thirty in the morning.. and since the tapping didn't persist, i refused to crawl out of bed, preferring the humble comfort of my duvet. but on my way out for breakfast, i found a parcel was lying in my path.

more importantly, a parcel from home! i thought the stamp-ridden back of the parcel bore an uncanny resemblance to an incident when the weasley's, in an unsuccessful attempt to muggle-lize, mailed an equally stamp-ridden letter to harry potter in one of the books.



i ripped and snipped the parcel open with gusto that would have rivalled a lost desert wanderer who had fortuitously found a carton of bottled water.. look what i received- my summer clothes and cooking sauces!



i do happen to think i underestimated the weather when i told my mum to send over some summer clothes for the eventual arrival of spring but it was still snowing today! yes, in march! however, the cooking sauces should come in handy.. teriyaki, teppanyaki, curry mix and sambal chili.. sweet.

i have to figure out though how to use the japanese sauces without including any meat.. suggestions guys?

last night, a few of us decided to make pizza for dinner. not frozen-pop-instantly-into-your-oven pizza but REAL pizza made from scratch.. which naturally includes mxing the flour and water, kneading the dough, leaving it to rise, adding the toppings so on and so forth.. phew, i am seriously not used to all the hard work for one meal.

of course, i was more of the loyal apprentice, rather than trusty sidekick to heiko who orchestrated the preparation with the ease of a pizza master.. for eight people, we made three large rectangular pizzas with salami & onion and a hawaiian mix of pineapple & ham.. crumple in the mozarella.. sprinkle in oregano and basil.. voila! pop the pizza into the oven the pizzas and wait for it to primp

the end result was marvellous! fresh wholesome pizza free of all that nasty additives... to describe it as scumptous would have been an understatement.. one pizza crust, as unanimously agreed, exuded wasy-to-tear-apart softness while the other crusts were more cookie crunchy.. so i had the best of both worlds.

i never thought i would get to say this- but it feels good to be home. one day i will snap a police mugshot of everyone in the kitchen and introduce them to you guys back at home!