goodbye

Thursday, May 29, 2008

At this point of time, I would like to wring my internet wires, chop them up into tiny bits, stomp on them then burn them all in a metal container. But, I’m using a wireless connection which means I have nothing physical to vent my frustration on. It’s particularly annoying that I can’t watch any videos, play card games/mahjong (viwawa!) or even hold a decent conversation on msn without being disconnected at least 10 times in an hour (or more). There’s a technician coming tomorrow so hopefully it’ll all be fixed by then, or I may be tempted to lug my laptop to school just so I can have a few hours of stable connection. =/

Anyway, back to backdated posts. My birthday week usually involves lots of pigging out and stuffing myself with whatever I’m craving/I had been craving at the moment. The meal on the 18^th involved 2 fish dishes, 2 crabs (with mantous), peking duck, prawns, vegetables, fried rice and dessert for my parents, my grandma, my brother, my three cousins and I. I would post pictures of the food and people involved but I didn’t think of it till I was halfway through my crab and I didn’t want to dirty my handphone so I got my cousin to take shots and all he took were people. And we all look completely ravenous and undignified... Hence, no photos! Really stuffed myself silly that day, so I skipped dinner at my auntie’s house and went straight to dessert. We had cake! Apparently quite a few people on my mother’s side of the family have birthdays in May so we all shared a cake. That was my only birthday cake this year, but quite fun. Don’t really celebrate birthdays this way much any more. =X

Went shopping on Vesak Day but didn’t really buy much. I was essentially trying to hide in air con buildings the whole day since the weather was SO DARN HOT! Stepping out from an air conditioned environment, you can literally feel your limbs heating up then slowly reaching optimal temperature where perspiration and sweat unabashedly pour out of your glands. This is a sign to head for the nearest air conditioned place you can find and hide in there for as long as possible. Sun down would be a perfect time to resurface and populate the streets again, if not for crowded places being quite warm as well. (When the H has all been burned up, the core collapses, causing a sharp rise in temperature which triggers He fusion.)

My actual birthday was much more uneventful since I spent the morning at BBDC completing yet another 2 stages of my course. (If all goes well I’ll complete everything by this Friday then stone for 14odd days before it’s my official test!) My afternoon was burned in school, though made much better with 保如姐姐 accompanying me for lunch and presenting to me a very creamy and pink, strawberry cake from Breadtalk. Still fell asleep during lecture though. Astronomy is tonnes of fun, though I seem to nod off during bits of it (especially the videos) and the physics aspect is quite hard to cope with. Perhaps even subconsciously I’m resenting physics, but I sort of get what’s going on, which is good. And the test is in mcq, which is even better! Went out for dinner after that with cg, Brendan and bong at some small Japanese restaurant near City Hall. The food was not bad, and they were watching Indiana Jones! (Provided much needed entertainment while the guys were discussing soccer and NS.) Shopping was limited after that since the shops were all quite ready to close but wk popped up! (Not pop literally, actually not quite figuratively either, but well.) Adjourning to Ben and Jerry’s for dessert, cg and I found out that a combination of kiwis and somethingelseIcan’tremember blended with apple juice tastes like banana and Jolin Tsai isn’t someone cg’ll be forgetting any time soon. Strawberry cheesecake at B&J’s just doesn’t quite cut it for me, though the brownie chocolate(?) flavoured ice-cream and lemon sorbet were not bad. (=

The day after involved more driving and more lessons, though it was more than worth it in the end. Got my first set of contacts that day and after struggling to stick them in my eye (and removing them after all the trouble then putting them back in again) I wore my contacts for the first time! And consciously blinked lots while I had them on anyway. After scouting around for a suitable gym bag for wk to lug to Australia and not finding any, we trooped off to absolutehaven, which is this restaurant along the row of shops opposite Paradiz (which is no more…). But on the way there it started pouring, the sort of heavy rain with strong winds that you basically can’t evade. I found leaves stuck on my leg + optical shop bag after seeking shelter at Selegie Arts Centre… Thankfully the rain got lighter after a while, (since I was feeling quite hungry after only an apple pie for lunch) and we could go for dinner! Shall try not to go on and on about the food (though it was all really really yummy!) but the photos don’t do much justice to it anyway. The restaurant itself isn’t very big (or doesn’t seem so from the outside) but it’s quite cosy and has a nice ambiance (they were playing Michael Buble ^^).

Absolutehaven, view of the outside from inside.

Absolutehaven view of the further inside from the inside.

We started with a Pancetta & Salmon Platter, and the vinaigrette made it quite suitable for an appetiser. I loved the smoked salmon that was wrapped around the salad greens… Mm, definitely good enough to eat on its own. X)

Then we tried the Kidney Bean Soup, which sounds a bit odd but doesn’t taste too bad. I didn’t really like it that much, though the bf did. The flavour was a bit mild for me I guess, and bean soup reminds me more of dessert than something salty.

He had the Ribeye Steak with Port Wine Sauce which was imo slightly overdone on the outside (I still liked the beef at Lawry’s, slightly bloodier though) but still quite tender overall. The potato gratin matched the beef well, though apparently it was a bit 腻 after a while.

I tried the Pesto-Crusted Cod which came with asparagus, mango salsa and soft-shell crab. This is probably the first and one of the few rare times I’ll actually say I liked the asparagus. Maybe because I don’t usually eat asparagus in the first place, but these were nice! And the cod was fresh and oily in that full-of-good-omega-fatty-acids way, plus the skin was crisp and crusted with pesto(some herby sauce of some sort). The soft-shell crab was nothing to wow about, though it was quite a substantial piece, not the sort of stringy more flour than crab stuff you get at some places. It did taste much nicer with the mango salsa though. I think I have strange food mixing tendencies, probably inherited from my papa. ^^

For dessert we had Tiramisu and Passionfruit Panna Cotta. He didn’t fancy the mascarpone cheese layers in the tiramisu, but we both agree the coffee liqueur layers were yummy, though I adored the whole thing anyway. The passionfruit panna cotta was more to his liking though, I don’t really like the texture of panna cotta? Somewhat like gelatin imo, not nice and creamy like the mascarpone cheese layered between the coffee soaked layers... Yum yum!

That marked the third day that week I had dessert. Terribly fattening birthdays are. =/

29/05/08

My internet connection was supposed to have been fixed this morning but it’s not. This post alone took me 2 days to do and my photos are taking more than 3 hours to load because it keeps getting disconnected! –am very annoyed- But anyway I should finish all my driving lessons tomorrow! After that should be going for a few more revisions then my driving test. Hopefully I’ll pass it on first try. X) No last minute nerves or horrible road conditions either preferably.