News of the world... and all that goss...

Yesterday was an interesting day in terms of fulfilling my gossip quota. This girl is after all gossip/pat-kua/kaypoh central.

The first story wasn't so much gossip as congratulatory news. Congratulations to my ex-coursemate Asa and his wife, my ex high schoolmate, Awanis on the birth of their new baby Azalea! Such a pretty name!

And following more baby news is the one we're awaiting from my seniors Hawa and Kolget. Will keep an eye on that.

And in other less joyful news, while chatting with an old primary school classmate, I discovered the shocking news that an old friend/schoolmate/pri-school mortal enemy had a sex video of hers leaked all over the internet. Apparently all the buzz was in Australia and word never reached Malaysian shores... until now. *ahem* And of course it is now being passed on by vile word of mouth, from girlfriend to girlfriend. The only rather comical part of this is that, being girls none of us know where to start searching for this video. Or as one girlfriend said: "I wonder what keywords you'd have to type into Google to find it? It's not like I regularly search for porn"

Finally at the end of the day, after a round of late night badminton, I arrived back in my room to find my msn blinking furiously. Apparently Iylia couldn't wait to gossip about our Prime Minister's new bride! Iylia and I don't talk politics. We gossip about it like two makciks at the market!

Oh well, it's a brand new day. Let's see what other interesting gossip lies in store for me.

If I had one piece of advise to give, it would be to never drink the water your noodles are boiled in

Being a re-app/hall senior (who more accurately doesn't do very much for her hall), I get inundated with questions all the time, which I'd like to think I answer with a sense of wordly wisdom, offering incredibly important pieces of information which are vital for your daily life.

What you probably don't know is that most of my answers are rubbish and handed down to me from one-off experiences, quirky habits or my mum. All of which are usually not realiable unless you are me and think they are really important and above all... think that they work.

Take for instance my propensity for not keeping the water from my boiled instant noodles to use as a soup base, and boiling a new batch of water instead. The eco/humanitarian warriors are screaming at me because I'm wasting water that a Somalian child would trade his donkey for, but here's my theory. When you boil instant noodles - what's left in the water is wax and other cancer causing agents (everything's a cancer causing agent these days). Well, I'm gonna die from the ajinomoto in the instant noodles anyway... but here's the other (neurotic) part of my health plan. When eating Indomee in particular, I throw away the bumbu powder and only keep the garlic, sesame oil and soya sauce. It still tastes good. Honest! This is important information, I think you should know.

My latest gem of information came about while searching online for cooking conundrums. I've been trying to figure out the importance of selecting the right type of wok and seasoning it properly. Why it's so inportant to me, I have no clue. Perhaps it's just a fundamental part of my Chinese DNA. Anyway, kuali.com gives a wonderful explanation of how to season your wok properly (which only involves oil, old pieces of ginger and spring onions... and you thought they didn't really mean SEASON, didn't you?). This reminds me of another important piece of advise - if all recipes fail (including mum's), kuali.com is your next port of call, always!

Kicap manis and maggi chilli sauce (preferably the bawang putih one) are vital ingredients in your kitchen. If used in moderation, it can cover up any cooking mishaps.

Never wear white when cooking. Never wash your hair before cooking either, or live to regret it.

Always offer to cook. That way you never have to wash up. Believe me, it's easier.

Other incredibly important things I've learnt are to soak satay skewers for at least an hour, add sweet potato to the flour when making onde-onde and all ovens are different and moody - get to know yours better.

I don't think this post has a point. Nor do I know why it's become skewed towards cooking. But it's only typical of me to use food to rid my mind of Speech Processing and this morning's exam.

p/s: Dr. Naylor is no longer the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse all in one. He is kind and benovolent, his mercy knows no bounds, he rules supreme in the kingdom of cepstrums and formants where mel frequencies are normalised (I hope).

Updates for the week

1. If I had to be a character from Sex and the City, I might be a hybrid of Charlotte and Miranda. Compulsively old fashion/conservative and yet power hungry.

2. Watching Heroes at 4am in the morning surprisingly has not messed up my schedule... yet. I still woke up before 9, probably due to the rising panic for Speech Processing on Thursday.

3. The EE library really is the most wonderful place to study in blissful quiet and at the right temperatures. *sticks out tongue at people melting in the main library*

4. Coffee gives me pimples. It took me 24 years to figure that out!

I'm sleepy. Goodnight.

If I need to explain myself

1. I have been away. In Chicago. It was cold and the snow fell horizontally (that's not a logical sentence but you had to see it to believe it). I shopped so much, I now have to live on Indomee for the rest of the term. I spent 2 days studying in the wonderful student union at University of Illinois. I wish our union were like that. When I got back to London however, I had to kiss the sunny ground and shout for joy at the beautiful sound of the English accent! Lionel and I both agree that we could not thank our lucky stars more for not going to UIUC for undergrad!

2. My laptop has died. Actually my laptop's AC jack is just loose and needs soldering... and I will slap the next person who tells me "4 years of Electrical Engineering and you can't solder?". I can't, alright! Leave me alone. Actually the more worrying part is taking my laptop apart and finding the little wiggly bit on the motherboard that I have to solder back... and I have nightmares of snapping the board or losing the screws, so until I find someone kind enough to do an outpatient surgery on my laptop... my laptop is dead.

3. Exams are in exactly 1 week. I have not studied... enough. No one would actually believe me if I say I haven't studied. Neither would anyone believe me when I say I haven't studied enough... but it's true this time! Really!

4. My sleep cycle is completely whacked. You try going 6 hours backwards to the US and then staying up all night trying to finish your FYP report!

and for all the reasons above... blogging shall be stagnant and appearances on MSN rare.

But you know where to find me...

Tiada masa lah...

Sebab malam ini aku akan dihibur oleh Evita. Janganlah menangis untuk aku...

On another note... I need to stop acting like a fresher and grow up. And that includes getting my work done on time and not yak away until 5 in the morning.

Meanwhile heard in room D5...

"You know I have two grandmothers? Eh, you also got two grandmothers???!!!"
"Erm, doesn't everybody?"