Kumpulan Orang Biru, and other Christmas thoughts

It's been threatening to snow. But it hasn't yet. I've forgotten what it's like to have feeling in my ears. Thus all I would like to have for Christmas (and preferably before) is this - warm fluffy (and preferably pink) ear muffs!

Alternatively, I will also settle for:


Mini tabletop vacuums!
Available at Robert Dyas for only 4.99, and come in an assortment of cute animal shapes too. Personally I'd like a little pink pig. Wouldn't you?








Christmas presents aside, we spent last night watching the Blue Man Group, which is really hard to describe so go here and read about them. And you'd better not miss out on the videos! I really can't decide if the best part of the night was having to wear ponchos throughout the show (ah, memories of rainy Odac days) or getting teepeed by humongous rolls of toilet paper. If you've never tried swimming in a sea of toilet paper, go watch the Blue Man Group instead of buying more Kleenex!

Above on the left is just one of the three men in blue (MIB), and frankly I find anybody covered in a latex layer of thick (and still wet) blue paint to be rather creepy. But covering an audience member in blue paint, hanging him from his legs and swinging him face first onto a white canvas is surprisingly rather artistic. So are flourescent UV pipes!

Me, Lionel, Lu and Grace with The Band!

Chien Liq and his prized Blue Man saliva painting,
lovingly spat onto a blank canvas for him

And Matt, who got Blue Man-handled!

As the busy bee

Some of us have discovered the tricks of the trade on Bullbearings. Some of us have just learnt how to outscheme the computer program. *cough* I've just been trying my hand at it and earned 40 pounds in half an hour just from trading US Dollars and Japanese Yen. Now if only I could cash it in for a new pair of leather boots!

Have I ever told you how easy it is to make wontons? And how easy it is to overcook them?

Need to run now. I did say I was going to get started on DSPs about 6 hours ago!

Mr Newell, you are SO not a Harry Potter fan!

I'm going to spoil Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (HP&GoF) for you if you haven't watched it yet so read at your own peril.

I'm gutted! Where was the Quidditch World Cup match? What happened to all the obstacles in the third task? Why were the triwizard champions made such shallow characters instead of the extremely talented wizards/witches they were? Why didn't they show Harry picking up all those neat charms and spells for the triwizard tournament? How could they completely write off the house elves and SPEW? Why did Rita Skeeter disappear halfway through and why didn't they show Hermione bottling her beetle animagus in the end? That would have made a much better ending than Hermione's melancholy theatrics in that 'trying too hard to be bittersweet' ending.

I take my Harry Potter much too seriously. But anal retentiveness aside, it was an amazing movie. I'm not trying to nitpick on the details. I'll admit the CGI was perfect, the magical creatures were spectacular, the setting would make Peter Jackson weep, and I cried when Cedric Diggory died.

I just wish it had been more magical than a display of special effects. Shame on you Mike Newell. You ought to know your Harry Potter better.

Fiesta Pina!

It was pineapple day yesterday. Don't ask me what that is, I made it up! We had 2 pineapples in our kitchen yesterday because it's 1 for 1 at Sainsbury's.

So I made pineapple fried rice (Amar you would have loved it, and cooked it better probably!) and pineapple curry with fish! Mmm mm mmmm! It was a dinner worthy of inviting Justin over for.

Justin for some strange reason thinks I'm an amazing cook when all he's ever tasted is my Tiramisu. Apparently Lionel's been telling him that he'd rather eat my culinary concoctions (or disasters) than eat out at any Chinese restaurant. My explanation of that is 1. If he doesn't say so he won't have ANYTHING to eat at home and 2. Have you ever tasted Chinese food in London? It's rubbish with a touch of ajinomoto (MSG) 3. He seems to have mentally blocked out the time I served him very hard, burnt fried rice way back in the first year.

But since Justin is taking Lionel's word for it (and the rest of the emperor's gate folks who only say I cook well because they don't want to cook themselves!) I'm still trying to find a day when I can proudly invite him over to taste my 'wonderful' cooking.


Here's all that is left of yesterday's pineapple rice. It has thus become my lunch. Yes I'm gonna eat out of the frying pan. I'm lazy to wash up more plates.

Alcohol makes me blush

I love a good photo. Especially one taken after downing a Smirnoff. We're so red... and I'll blame the red light bulbs at Sanjeev's 'Heaven or Hell' house party. We're in the hell part of the house. It must be hell when Andy's multiple personalities (hyper vodka chugging Andy and zoned out Andy) start showing. He managed to take a lovely photo though... and even caught the incriminating Smirnoff in Lionel's hand. I made him hold it 'cos it's girly.

Illustrations...

The Christmas feeling is in the air. I know it, because Starbucks and their red cups are telling me so. It's just me and my Gingerbread Latte on this cold November evening. Mmmm, I've gotta fashion some Christmas deco for my room to make it a little more festive.

Christmas would be really nice if only I didn't have a mountain of courseworks blocking the view. Like right now.

I think Amar has the right idea though

by the way...

things I forgot to mention which I think are worth mentioning...

1. Guy Fawkes Day was a blast! Quite literally
2. Maomao, I will never forgive you for sending us the restaurant game! I can no longer do courseworks normally, or start them for that matter.
3. I have to get my eyes checked. Nicole just found out she's short sighted and that made me put abit more thought into those blurry looking lecture slides.

So Exciting!

No time to sleep. It's overrated anyway. These eyebags aren't disappearing no matter how many hours of snooze time I get. What the...

Raya weekend was, all Amar. Spent it at house parties (Sanjeev's and Yunju's) and I can't even remember what else on the weekend. My memory is going. How am I going to finish my courseworks like this?

Pasar Malam gave me a cold and a new addiction to mehndi tattoos. I should post up the designs Sau Yin and I drew. Gorgeous dragons, pheonixes and waterlilies. Want a tattoo? You know where to find us.

I wanted to blog about an article in November's GQ. About this guy who was bashing a Perodua Kelisa with a mallet. Amar if you still have the issue, put the photo up. I think it's a lovely bash to the heads of our egotistical national car producers. The Kelisa isn't a car. It's just a reason to generate a national economy. (I also believe it is the main reason for the high accident rates during Hari Raya, but lets not go there)

I have such an exciting week ahead. Watch as I rush to make deadlines and burn the midnight oil (and then start lighting every flammable object in my house that will create light) to cram numbers and German into my head. Do applaud me if you see me hand in everything on time.

Otherwise, I need to get Fidel's guitar fixed. Two of the strings have snapped and I can't improvise on three strings. And I need to pick songs for bible study group and practise before Thursday. Yeah, I'm being good. I'm going for bible study now. My mum can't stop smiling.

It's me again

We've finally got internet at home, and all is right with the world again.

Well not particularly so. Fiery riots in Paris and now Argentina makes you think that people never learn. Aggression is trendy. Forget about helping the Asian Earthquake appeal (which I did, mind you - I bought a couple of cupcakes and gave away all my cash). Lets just burn stuff down to show everyone we mean business. Even if it's in response to an unconfirmed claim as in Birmingham; sparked off by a rumour which proved to be untrue. They're pretty thick in the west midlands aren't they?

Anyway I thought this silent movie from Vidu was interesting. The comment box is free for your interpretations; random, disturbing or otherwise. I promise there's nothing Freudian about it.

I know I've been hiding here in my little (or not so little) part of London, ignoring several birthdays. I haven't even had the time to cancel my contract line, let alone look for birthday cards (or addresses for that matter). And so, in a very belated (and sheepish) shout out:

Happy Birthday Yin Tse, Maomao, Kim, Jilly and my Grandpa (who doesn't read my blog but knows that I write. Alot.)

There's no need to wish Ayish, after all her 21st birthday party must be one she'll remember for a lifetime. Lets just say that the invitation strictly insisted on everyone dressing up for a black tie evening and that dinner would cost no more than 5 pounds at a secret venue on Knightsbridge that the birthday girl herself did not know off. So imagine the utter shock and horror of 30 elegant suits and gowns entering a private room at McDonalds with a rather, erm, tipsy Ayish. Hopefully the alcohol helped to numb the shock a little. The very amusing things Linsteadians do. I'll post up Nicole's photos when I get the chance.

I wish I had photos of my night at Lehman Brothers though. Imagine being on the top floor (that's 31 floors above ground) overlooking all of London and the Thames with fireworks going off opposite the South Bank! Whipping out my camera phone at that time would unfortunately have been most unappropriate. I just took a mental snap shot - Kirsten Dunst style. Watch Elizabethtown. That's my advice for the week. I got free preview tickets but I would have gladly paid for it, if only for Kirsten Dunst. What Orlando Bloom? Let's go on a roadtrip, just you and me.

Amar's here for the weekend. Enough said.