FITS AND STARTS

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Food glorious food

During the Xmas break I was talking about this chili pan mee that my friend told me about. And I found a review on it here! I was drooling over the pics and thinking about how I would probably like to have two bowls. It looks soooooo gooooood. That's gonna be my new mission for summer. I have already dropped the kuey teow soup aka pork mee on Jalan Imbi mission cos after MF said that kuey teow soup does not have meatballs and lap cheong I felt very foolish and now I must go and clarify my facts first. Just thinking about it makes me laugh. I had been talking about it for ages, then suddenly MF said what she said and I was stunned. Like oh. I never thought about it that way. And err. How come I didn't know that? It's weird cos I've eaten it before and it makes me wonder if I wasn't sure what I was shovelling into my mouth. Ugh. That, my friends, is a sign of pure gluttony.

As I was daydreaming over EU Law today I started thinking about why I feel really miserable in London sometimes. And I came to the conclusion that it's primarily because I DO NOT HAVE GOOD FOOD TO EAT (haha, I bet you thought I was gonna blame it on the weather). Screw the weather la, I stay at home most of the time anyway cos Andrea and I are busy trying to unlock all the Advanced Level circuits on Mario & Sonic Olympics for Wii.

Guaranteed a high-level indoor workout, muscle pain included

Food is like the key to my heart, stomach, mind and soul. Once I start thinking about food all my defences melt away and I am a helpless pile of slush. When I'm bored I like to look up food blogs, and pictures of steaming hot bak kut teh, sang har mee, dim sum, pork mee, etc makes me really happy. And then my stomach will growl so I'll open my fridge, expecting to see bak kut teh, sang har mee, dim sum, pork mee, etc but then I blink again and crap why are there only raw veggies and fruits in front of me. Wahhhh the feeling... it's like getting stabbed 7249 times in the bowels. My flatmates and I don't share mealtimes, plus we have VERY different dietary needs - so I usually only cook when I'm at Eugene's place. But then again my cooking skills are quite limited so I can't make bak kut teh from scratch. Arggghhhh bak kut teh. I love it too much!!!!

My current playlist is the soundtrack from Les Choristes. French sounds fantastic. They're singing things that sound like "je pa tu tu" and "epi fini d'ete" and when you try saying stuff like that your tongue gets alot of satisfaction. Sometimes I hear my French classmates speak French and it sounds so fun that I just wanna open my mouth and have all these French words flow out of me too. But I can't, so maybe one day when I am super free and have no impending assignments I will take up... the cello! Hehhehe. Okay got work, bye bye for now.

Friday, January 25, 2008

A "short" post

Andrea, Constantinos and I were having a chat the other day and somehow the topic of height came up. Andrea is 164 cm ++ and Constantinos is 180 m, I think. Andrea said that when she was in Sixth Form apparently she was one of the shorter ones in class and then Constantinos said oh ya my mum is short, she's like 158 cm. I had an idea of where the conversation was heading next so before even waiting to be asked, I said that I was 153 cm. And my goodness they couldn't believe me. I told them about CBN, how most of us are peppered around the 152-156 cm range, that people have compared us to a flock of penguins, that I have a friend who is MY HEIGHT but thought she was 158 cm, then attempted to be realistic and settled for 156 cm instead, before finally learning the heinous truth that she is only 153 cm. I told them about how my mother is only 150 cm, my older sister is 152 cm and that shorties are no anomaly in Malaysia. Constantinos said that it's good to be short because you can bully tall people into getting things from high up shelves for you. (Andrea then proceeded to shove my instant noodles into the top most shelf of our food cabinet.)

Anyway, to put off my reading on shareholder litigation, I have compiled a list of the boons and banes of being 160 cm and under.

Advantages

1) You fall into the petite range of clothing stores, and sometimes they have things that the standard range doesn't.
2) You can buy standard/tall clothes and make the sleeves/hemlines shorter. But tallies can't buy petite clothes and make them longer.
3) You have the luxury of choosing small or big cars to drive. Tallies can only drive big cars, which also means that they have to work harder to find parking spots in warzone areas like the square opposite Ming Foong's house.
4) When in an aeroplane, it doesn't matter that you can't reach the overhead luggage compartments cos there are always taller people around to do it for you.
5) If you have a problem with being short, wear heels to give yourself a lift. But tall people who have a problem being tall have no way out... unless they like walking on their knees.

Disadvantages

1) In crowded areas you're always fighting for air.
2) If it has been your lifelong dream to be an air stewardess or catwalk model, then you can just FORGET IT.
3) It might just be me, but I think short people are harder to be heard even if you have a loud commanding voice. When tall people speak people sit up immediately and listen. When short people speak people just think you're trying to be smart.
4) On rainy days in London, expect the worst. Everyone will bump into regardless of whether you have an open umbrella, cabbies will miss you and drench you with disgusting puddle water instead, Tube rides are nauseating, etc.
5) You can't carry off haute couture.

Weighing up both ends of the spectrum, I have to say that I'd rather be short than tall. I have to bear with armpit odour wherever I go but so what. And I suppose it's a pity that I'll never ever ever ever be the next Natalia Vodianova, but models are pressured to stay thin, smoke and eat nothing so screw that I must have my bak kut teh. Oh and most guys prefer short girls over tall girls anyway ;)

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Back to black


And so another year has come and gone. I hate that my end year hols are so short. There's never enough time to do the things I want to do, see the people I want to see, and see more of the people I'm already seeing. I skipped Wednesday's lecture because I was too tired. Thank goodness for Commercial Law on Thursdays. When I got my timetable at the start of the academic year I was like WHAAATTT I HAVE A 9 AM CLASS, but then my tutor said, ok you know what we'll make it 9.30 am instead! And since then I have not stopped worshipping the ground he walks on. The early morning walks to school are frightfully cold, windy and devoid of sunlight. By the time I reach the doors of Bentham House I am bent over in one direction from carrying my super heavy textbook and laptop in one hand, my hair is stuck to my lips, my eyes are watery and my nose is red and runny. But as soon as my tutor walks into the room everything is bright and sunny again and I really cannot stress how much I enjoy Thursday mornings with Philip Rawlings. Today we were talking about debit cards and someone said something silly like, "30 years down the road cash will become obscure" and "muggers are going to start ambushing people with debit cards". And Prof. Rawlings said, "hmm but that's not going to happen in Bloomsbury because there aren't any bushes around". HAHAHAHA. EVERYONE in class laughed. So you see, I am not the only one in the world with a baaadd sense of humour.