monday blues

on the contrary, i'm actually feeling pretty good today :) managed to get my laundry done in the morning, thereby finally getting rid of the fishy stink the fish market has left on my sweater and lab overalls (thank heavens). got a worthy stash of scented candles from home & co. while waiting for my laundry. i'm addicted to scented candles. and i do strongly believe they help me sleep soundly and well :) as do sean john's unforgivable for men ;) i even snagged a relaxing eye mask in safari print amongst the lot! lol. i'm looking forward to going to bed tonight :)

i discovered the very item that kept me going during the lectures in nus back in those good ol days, here in an asian grocery shop at melbourne central.

pucca chocolate!!!!

lovee. i used to have them everyday in nus, always trooping down to the nus co-op for a pack before lecture. i missed them. but today, i rediscovered them in the asian grocer that i believed i will be visiting regularly from now on. it's right opposite school too! :) had them en route to kumon centre and that kept me happy all through centre. haha. and since i'm on the topic of snacks..

tao kae noi crispy seaweeds!

my personal favourite (or at least one of the many) that i didn't think i could buy here in melb. i got addicted to them from the first bite prob last year when my bro got a pack. i've never stopped since. anyways, i managed to find them here as welllllll!!!! :) this i discovered just slightly earlier than pucca in a korean grocer shop, which is conviently located opposite school too. try the wasabi flavour, it's yummy and addictive as hell. i feel less guilty piggin on these as compared to chips, which i have, and am proud to announce, cut down considerably this semester. have only gone through 1.5 pack in these 4 mths, and this was prob what i would have consumed in 2 days last semester. still loves them though.

and so, i have just finish a pack of tao kae noi after steak and mash. drinking my barley water now in a bid to hydrate myself. i'm forcing myself to drink more water nowadays, which of cause is a good thing.

i'm just rambling on because i'm procrastinating. am supposed to do my writeup for an application for the conference award/scholarship. oh yea, i will be attending my first ever conference and probably presenting my research in the 58th australian cereal chemistry conference at gold coast this september. the one exciting thing that will be happening next semester :) now i just have to convince them to pay for my airfare and accom or, if they really like me/i'm lucky, an upgrade of my registration to full registration where i get to attend all social functions without additional cost, thus allowing me to rub shoulders with all the right people in this field. awesome.

all i need to do now is to start writing and promote myself. oh boy.

yet another sunday..

poached eggs.hollandaise sauce.spinach.smoked salmon.sourdough bread.dill.
lamb.spinach.chickpeas.fetta cheese
apple rhubarb crumble.blueberry sauce.cream.
freshly squeezed orange juice. long black.
loooooooooveeee
i heart mart 130.

semester is ending in one f week.
24 more days to advanced immunology exam
29 more days to meat fish poultry exam
31 more days to h.o.m.e
:))))))

beams

a lill buzz

martin martini was f. awesome down at espy tonight. the venue was great, the sounds were solid, the crowd was high and crazy. everything just works. i was consumed in the energy of it all, getting lost in the buzz and simply moving to the beat. gigantically fantastic :)

this band is going to be big. i can feel it in my bones.

to all who squats in london come august-september, head down to soho theatre to get your socks knock off.

i mean it.

amusing randoms

the tram that got married on 16/05/08.

the cheerful cap with it's propeller that spins madly as martin dashes down the slope on his bicycle. lovin the red scarf and happy cap combi :) (i look way too dull and sleepy next to him, and i really should stop slouching)

the man with his dual identities



plus another.

i was sitting on a crowded tram this morning next to a guy who was reading a book. when he was nearing his stop, he folded the corner of the page where he stopped reading. he took a plastic folder (the sort you put a piece of paper in) from his bag and put his book in it and sorta wrapped it like a lil parcel before putting it in his bag. makes me wonder why a guy who folds the corner of a page would go through the extra trouble of protecting his book with a plastic cover before putting in his bag. i couldn't quite figure it out. but that's just me.

4.40am, location: footscray

this is what we crawled out of our warm snuggly beds at 3am for:

another visit for liz's meat, fish, poultry tech course

the mad arrays and varieties of fishes fresh from the fishing boats.

huge ass yellow-fin tunas, swordfishes, salmon, snapper etc

the shellfishes, crustaceans and one of my favourites..octopus :)

was interesting chatting to the sellers about the type and varieties of fishes available, the prices, harvesting methods and how to tell if the fish is fresh. saw a tumbler that softens octopuses/squids by spinning them slowing in a barrel-like mesh cage on a horizontal axis and that was highly interesting. had the most amazingly fresh tuna sashimi in my life after with succulent clams and pan-fried snappers (which i descaled and gutted), all purchased at awesome prices at the market and prepared in the pilot plant back in uni. missed out on the salmon and smoked eel though, cause the salmon took so long to bake and we were all full to the brim by the end of it.

the tuna sashimi was unbelievable and i'm not kidding when i say it's the best i've eaten ever. even without the wasabi and with just a dip of soy sauce (plus it was sliced by the student ourselves from the chunk bought), it has just the right amount of bite with the tuna fresh sweetness filling your tastebuds. no hint of fish stink whatever so.

pure indulgence.

mamma mia!

some random pictures of the week..



me and my torn levi's to school on monday. my mum hates it, i loveeee it :)



bored at pilot plant with flavio. the strange barrel-like machine is the spray dryer and the cone thingy is the atomizer that makes liquid flavio into powder flavio.



my favourite bocconcini with cherry tomatoes and rocket salad on friday night with sex and the city!

and so, i woke up just in time for lunch on saturday after a late night of sex and the city. ah, the beauty of weekends :) caught 21 at the cinema with the housemate, vaughan and clara. that sparked off a whole night of discussions on statistics, casinos, roulette and beating the system.
very interesting movie, stats for the brain!

met up with the rest after at claypots for a night of merry-making, good seafood and chardonnay. the restaurant was packed and the 10 of us were packed off into the bar area instd. sat along the couch in a single file which was amusing to see but it turned out amazingly well. food had to be divided into 3 portions, served in small platters and placed along the lill bench in front of the line. peeps were goin from one end of the line to another with glasses of wine and nibbling at food at different points. awesome dinner :)





half stumbled happily after dinner to sans churros down the street. ordered generous servings of churros to go round the table with more discussions on stats and brain picking questions.



ended the night back at our st kilda pad with card games and more talk (team meeting in vaughan's words) about betting strategies of roulette. 21 was highly inspiring as could be seen. hah.

spent today chillin at mart 130 again with latte, muffin, cake and lecture notes.



can't help but marvel on the way back at the sheer beauty of st kilda in the evening.



it's off for more sex and the city, assignments and bummin for me now :)

cheers x

pilot plant

drats, i'm getting bored and sleepy waiting for flavio to be done in the spray dryer..after which is a gruelling wash up of the monster machine. have a thousand scientific papers to read in my file but am just not in the mood to do that at the moment. the high pitched drone the spray dryer gives off doesn't help matters either. bleah. but on a brighter note, weekend is here again! :) that means late mornings, brunch, laze, bum, movies, good food. beams. apart from the impending dateline of the immunology review paper, i'm pretty much happy :)

had the boys-girls badminton playoffs last night and no prize for guessing which team won ;P we girls played an awesome game against the boys. pity we only had an hour! the feather shuttles i bought turned out to be rather weak. started losing feathers after probs 20 hits :( clara and i are so gonna stock up on feather shuttles when we get back to spore in jun hee.

yay, flavio is finally done. time to do the washing and head off to enjoy my friday evening :) peace out peeps. x

sick and miserable

having flu is the dumps. not to mention the public sneezing and nose blowing is utterly embarrassing as well. the lemspi cold and flu capsules better work its magic tonight :(

the morning started off on a bad note. went to the lab early in the morning planning to run my spray run for flavio, only to be informed that i can't do it today nor tmr due to prac classes goin on. urgh. redeemed the day by plonking myself at mr tulk with my stack of scientific papers on milk allergies and promptly ordered meat balls in sugo with sourdough and cafe latte. finished off with a lemon tart, which vaughan gallantly served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side as a bonus. loveee. martin was at tulk with eddie perfect too and was hugely delighted and excited by my goth martin martini clown tee. hah ;)

badminton's most likely on again this thursday night and vaughan has already issued a challenge for singles. yoks. so guess what i went and bought myself after tulk...a new tube of feather shuttlecocks :) essentials for a good game of badminton! (clara only has plastic ones which i abhor and we ended up leeching on others' discarded feather shuttles the prev. time)

so here i am back home, because i skipped my first lecture of the semester. well, i'm not feeling so good for one pluuuussss the guest lecturer will be doing a similar lecture topic that we did before in molecular biology last year, which was lectured by him. same powerpoint slides and all. pretty much justify my skipping doesn't it? haha. anyhows, housemate being the nerd he is went for the lecture which means meelin and myself will have a voice recording of the lecture :) yay for once to the housemate for being a nerd!

in heaven

dinner was so totally awesome i feel the need to gush about it. remember the seafood place i mentioned in the earlier post? went back today with adrian and tried their malay and moroccan claypots. we were in awe. speechless apart from the repeated 'this is so so so good' after each mouthful of the rich and flavourful mix of gravy, rice and seafood. the malay was a combi of sticky rice, clams, mussels, stingray and bak choy drenched in a creamy laksa gravy. the morrocan was a combi of cous cous, mussels, clams and eggplants. each delicious in their own ways but i must say i love love LOVE the malay claypot. the laksa gravy was rich, yet light in taste, complementing the sweetness of the seafood to perfection. never knew sticky rice could make such a good player in a main dish (i only knew sticky rice with mango, which i absolutely heart) but it did, and it was a brilliant addition. absolute comfort food on a cold cold night like this and i've never felt more satisfied and content :) doesn't hurt that we topped the excellent dinner with churros dipped in warm dark chocolate and white chocolate ice-cream on the side from sans churro.

i'm in heaven :)

full house.straight.royal flush.double.

saturday was awesome :) slept in till late noon, did some work for uni, last episode of sex and the city in disk 1 (boo. need to go rent more) and housemate made pizza and bread. a good slow afternoon followed by BADMINTON with housemate, vaughan and clara!! ok, i was terribly excited because i miss playing so much! all those good times playing with the boys at khatib, nus, chinese swimming club and wherever :( well, housemate was skeptical of my skills prior to the game. in his words, he is good by default (though he does not have the faintest idea what badminton is about, much least held a badminton racket) while i think i'm good. rolls eyes. guess who had the last laugh after the game ;) anyhows, doubles against vaughan and clara was good. we are already thinking of making it a weekly affair. yay. the smashings, lobings and drop shots was pure exhilaration. worked all those sleeping back and shoulder muscles pretty hard :)

and so, poker night at clara's place followed after the badminton game. the usual poker faces gathered with wine, beers, baileys, vodka and $$$.

i was happy and high with my wine, baileys, waffles, ice-cream and building towers of chips. lost everything in the end haha. never really have any luck with gambling. bleah. as the saying goes, bad luck on the table, good luck in love? hmmm.

i'm feeling the aches today. doesnt help when i'm developing a cough. pure torture when i go into a coughing fit i tell ya. on a brighter note, abs are developing baby :) anyways, have got the house to myself today with the housemate out at his relative's. made an asparagus and mushroom risotto for dinner with plenty to pack for lunch tmr :) righttt, it's time to give mum a call. need to drop her the 'i'm coming home for holidays' bomb tonight. i hope she has received my mother's day present and is in a gooood mood. haha..

sex and the city

i know i know..i have been slow in jumping onto the sex and the city bandwagon but here i am, and loving it. it was sexually hilarious. haha. we opted for a tv series instead of a movie tonight and i must say that was a wise move. dangerous nonetheless because series can be ever-so-addictive and you just have to keep on watching. oh wells. time to practise some self restrain :)

had a gorgeous dinner down at acland street in a bustling cozy lil seafood restaurant tonight. started off with a nice range of cold tapas and white wine, while eagerly awaiting the arrival of our kingfish. it did not disappoint, tantalizing our tastebud with its burst of fresh sweetness laced with a hint of sourness from the balsamic eggplant puree garnish. simply heavenly :) no photos to show for unfortunately cause my camera is horrendous under low light conditions. i like the concept of having a side bar room where diners can hang around with a glass of wine while waiting for tables or to adjourn to relax after a good dinner over at the restaurant side. this shall go down in my lill notebook of ideas for my future restaurant ;) can't wait to go back to try their paella, claypots and more fishes. yum.

all i need now to complete this great friday night is to snuggle under my thick soft comforter, bury myself amongst my pillows and catch my beauty sleep :) sweet dream world x

just a click on the mouse

it's done. i'm officially $1139 poorer. but guess what? SINGAPORE, heeeerrrrrreeeeee i cooommmmeeeee :)))))

the (pseudo) italian stallion

he have breakfast with me at our lil kitchen table
he cooks me my favourite food when i'm down or hungry
he ask me if i want hot water every night
he goes jogging with me
he watches House and Rocky and what not on tv with me
he listens to me while i whinge and bitch
he buys me books as presents
he serves me more bocconcini in my salad because they are my fav.
he lugs my huge bag of clothes for me during our monthly laundry trip
he gives me massages when i'm tired and stressed
the list goes on..but most importantly,
he knows my (verbal) meanness is a show of love for him
:P



"should we shag it now, or shag it later?"

that's my housemate for you.

:)

the week

time is suddenly whizzin by. seems not too long ago that i was bloggin about my weekend and here i am again, 8pm on a sunday night. just came back from a run and it was awesome cause i hafnt ran in quite a while. legs are giving me a lill problem though, which is preventing me from runnin the distance i would like :( some sort of water retention near my ankle seem to be happening when i run, you can feel a blob there when you run your hands down the calf to the ankle. feels like it's gonna burst anytime. had the same problem back when i was runnin more during training days as well. some advice dr sj?

anyways, had a look at flavio on friday again (which will be a regular thing) under ESEM. pretty cool machine we have there.

spent saturday sleeping in which was so totally fantastic. been missing those days where no alarm clock is used and i can just wake up when i wake up :) so saturday was such a day and i got my much needed sleep. housemate and i decided to take it nice and easy with a late brunch of fish and salad at acland street with some sweets and coffee at sans churros after. san churros is my latest addiction btw :) the churros with melted dark chocolate spells heaven. as they say, chocolate is our salvation.

we decided to do risotto for dinner again and this time it was with red cabbage, mushrooms and blue cheese. yummmmm! did that over ROCKY III :) bani came to join us after for a movie slumber party, complete with ROCKY IV, lost in translation, chips, cookies, cheese and wine. now that's what i call a nice chill saturday :)

and so, today started real good (cause we slept in again hah) with brunch at my current favourite mart 130. sat out at the veranda with coffee and a good book to start. have i mention before paulo coelho, de author whom i worship, rocks my world and soul? well that deserves a whole new post by itself :)

our brunch and sweets, the reasons for my undying support :)

bani came by after work as well and this concludes our mart 130 escapade for the week.

Mr Tulk

2 days in a row.