chixxed Aloud

 the call home today was heartwarming. it landed smack in the middle of dinnertime and while instructing mom to find this particular dress in my wardrobe for h to bring over, i could overhear a conversation in the background between dad and h about airborne things. and then the phone had to be passed to h to tell him about the dress to act as backup in case my mom fails to find it. i couldnt be more bothersome. 

thanks to a discreet metal canister in the cupboard, i made myself half boiled eggs in soy sauce and white pepper and crustless toast for breakfast today. (tip: put eggs in lidded metal canister for 10 minutes - accuracy is essential -  in boiling water then voila)

 When youre starved of curry and need a quick fix (forget indian take-out):

Ingredients

Boneless chicken fillet 
Madras Curry Powder (1-1.5 tsp depending on your severity of starvation)
Double Cream (you'll know when to stop pouring)
1 Spring Onion
1 Tomato
1 Shallot

The way to do it

Cut up chicken into bite-sized pieces.
Marinate in double cream and madras curry powder for 2 hours or so.
Chop up spring onion, tomato and shallot.
Pour a teeny olive oil into pan, throw in shallots when oil is heated.
Pour chicken + marinate into pan, stir with shallots and leave it to cook and bubble.
When chicken is almost done (you'll know when its cooked), stir in tomato and spring onion.
Leave it to cook for another 1-2 mins and
YOU'RE DONE.

Serve
Eat with naan or rice while its piping hot.
Serves 1.

Best impromptu, fuss-free meal ever made.

ok. i can't remember how much i spent. but i'm going to have to return like 3/4 of the things i bought because they're mostly random impulse buys and i don't think i can afford to keep all of them. also i would like to kiss and make out with the return policy here. its absolutely pro-consumer and so so good to chronic unhealthy shoppers (like me).

Perhaps choosing not to go home for christmas this year was both a good and bad idea.

Lets start with what's bad first: i'm home-alone. having the sun set at 3.30 minus whatever cheeriness the sun might bring is not funny. slipping and falling on the road because i mistakenly wore my pair of high heeled boots out is not only tragic in itself, but because i smashed the lovely hot muffins i bought with my flailing hands while falling makes the entire situation even more poignant. not to mention i have to keep calling home like doing some sort of reporting duty to reassure my overly anxious mom that I'M FINE AND COPING WELL hur hur.

Tell you what's good: i make myself fantastical desk-bound meals because i have the whole kitchen and all its equipment/utensils to myself. i take long hot showers and soak in the bathtub with rose petals( ok this i'm exaggerating although i'd like to drop by loccitane on boxing day to buy some bath bubbles on sale) and read several pages of my book before getting out when my skin starts to become wrinkly. turning up the volume on my iHome speakers so that ingrid michaelson could be heard everywhere in the house from my room; skyping loverboy in the kitchen while making beef stew and saying 'i love you' at the top of my voice without being discreet; leaving dishes unwashed in the sink till several hours later - basically going about life without the need to be considerate because there is simply no one to be considerate towards. i never realised until it happened - but this is actually quite liberating. 

Merry Christmas <3

the dark gets abit oppressive doesn't it. i constantly feel that i'm running out of time because the night is closing in on me at 3pm in the afternoon.

lunch went really smooth today! i kept everything simple* and fuss-free* and i think i might have tasted a hint of 'mum' in it. cooking for myself never fails to remind me of home and mum's cooking, it is the smells that get to me. ugh i really want to go home for christmas! but oh no, i shall stay here and be a good girl and try to make out what famlaw is all about.

i've been very distracted by recipes recently - or more like, food in general. i find myself thinking about what to cook for the next meal, how i can add just that little extra something to tweak the taste of a previous dish and how wonderful it'd be if the kitchen had a food processor and all the various baking utensils that is essential to a flamboyant kitchen. gah if only i could swallow 'how to be a domestic goddess' by nigella lawson, whole. i want that book!







*steam egg with mushrooms and spring onion thrown in, honeyed pork with dark and soy sauce, stir-fried carrots and pakchoi with garlic

financial relief is a pain in the ass to do. i can't believe i've spent the entire day editing ONLY 12 pages of notes; not only is it frustrating, i think my stomach's protesting from all the binge-eating in between. ok i promise myself to cook proper food tomr - jacob from last year is coming over for lunch and i better prove myself to be a decent cook, esp since he's going to think that all chinese food will taste like my cooking hahaha shit i've got a huge burden to bear.

i bought a bread toaster today because i can no longer resist my cravings for crisp buttered toast. it is the single, most predictable (and plain) sort of breakfast food that i would take for granted if not for a lack of a toaster in the kitchen. i think i could possibly eat toast for the upcoming meals in the next few days. here's a list of all the possible sandwich combinations so that i may not forget - honey roasted ham and cheese with tomatoes, peanut butter and butter, honey and butter, kaya(yes! i can get kaya here) and cheese, jam and peanut butter, caramelised onions and cheese what else what else. lemme go raid the fridge now.

why why why does this always happen.
a thorn in my side that sticks and stays,
administering varying degrees of pain
in different disguises.
fuck.
i'm trying to keep tears at bay in the law cafe.

1 teabag
250ml of hot boiling water
sprinkle as-much-as-you want ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons of condensed milk
2 teaspoons of evaporated milk
chair with a slouchy back

perfect for a crisp autumn evening when the sky has gone dark.

...and with all possible caution and mental tiptoe so to speak, I chose the timely opportunity to divulge my deepest darkest secret to the light of my life, the purveyor of all my romantic ideals and my one and only.. knight of the night?

I think I've been degenerating into a lethargic state over the past 3 months ever since summer break began. Late night suppers (I tell you, countless trips to chomp chomp to satisfy chronic cravings for chicken wings, hokkien mee and white carrot cake - its always the same!), aimless afternoon drive-outs, pilgrimages to the movies, lying in bed for hours and hours on end past what is considered sane and healthy, propped-up leg reading etc etc. The pace just can't get slower than this.

But I think this internship at wongp has prompted me to think and re-think my goals for the upcoming academic year. No, not because I have been inspired by my mentor or the partners in any way but because I suddenly have so much time on my hands that I'm forced to burn, with absolutely nothing to do. Ok wait I'm not being entirely honest here. There was a fiery speech made by one of the managing partners over tea last Friday that proved to be quite insightful, like some grossly rich bed for afterthoughts. It was very overwhelming in itself though - partly because of the info overload and his personality belonging to the 'type A' kind - so I would rather prefer NOT to sit through it again.

So ANW as I was saying about all the goal-setting stuff, Sepmtember is now January and I'm in the perky mood for making new year resolutions. Conversations with the 'disagreeble' boyfriend (oi you coined this term yourself) and the much more amicable girlfriend (contrast is essential haha) have also prompted me to consider what is it that I really want to do with my life. And consequently, where I think I could be headed soon.

Oh yes I'm sure everyone goes through this philosophical phrase in one way or another, and in varying degrees too. I'm going through mine now so put up with me thanks.

maybe its because exams are over and im suddenly feeling very lonely without my books that i found myself looking at past entries and thinking how more cringe-worthy they can get. =( today was spent in wollaton park laying out in the sun like biscuits baking in an oven. the weather was better than most days and i wished i had more guts to lay splat out in a bikini! i think i shall invest in a good deck chair next year and spend spring/summer studying for the exams beside the lake, feeding the ducks with my lunch during lunchtime so that i can save on some calories while at it. sounds like an awesome plan yessss

eat an entire orange, follow it up with salt and vinegar chips and feel your tongue go queasy. ugh.

its been so long since i wrote anything here. if i could breathe in the air of this place, i would probably choke on cobwebs. trip out to river island was invigorating. got that thing i was eyeing on since -i can hardly remember- for 21.99 pounds which translates to uh 40S$? and it was selling for 70 the last time i caught a glimpse of it on the racks in raffles city. hurhur good deal no? my puny mind has been fussing over it and i must stop feeling gleeful about the whole thing now that ive to return to foreseeable events wrt the doctrine of frustration. oh lord god, keep me sane and focussssed.

i want to be barbie because a plastic tan never fades!

always.
tell someone what you'd like on asos.
it might just end up on your doorstep. =D

right now, i could write an essay with all the 'i's adorned with a little heart on top.

hexhexxoxo

14/2 edit : and again!

it started snowing so hard yesterday, i found myself rolling face down in ankle deep snow over a gentle slope after lunch and in between lectures today. was pretty good fun until my feet got really red swollen and painful because i was wearing flats with no socks on =( but i shall be back tomorrow and probably have a fancy go at making a snowman.

i received a parcel today! a long tube shaped thing about 3/5 of my height. i'll need a lot more willpower than i can imagine to resist ripping it apart though XD

the trip up to york was a good breather. now ive got no excuse but to get down and dirty catching up with whats hot and new in lectures. one of the lecture halls in the law building got peacefully occupied by pro-palestinian student supporters today. i was secretly hoping that lectures would be cancelled cos of it but of course, such good things dont happen to me. they handed out flyers saying they intended to get a letter of condemnation from the school and also to demand for scholarships to be made for palestinian students to come over to study? YEAAA and all that money's gonna come from the 25% of the student population that is international and paying exorbitant tuition fees. =/ that was me being cynical.

on another note, i think honey makes my day. i spread it on toast in the morning when jam gets too cloyingly sweet, i mix it into my bowl of oats and milk when they mess up the proportions. yay =)