Archive for October, 2006
today has been an awesome day. everything is going right. plus McDreamy chose Meredith. all is well with the world.
and it’s Halloween! Happy Halloween, everyone!!! come on tell me, what are the plans, what are the plans?! as for moi, i’m going out for dinner with my brothers tonight. hopefully i get to coerce them into dressing up along with me, heehee.
edit: i have an urgent request! if any of y’all happen to have Halloween props or other Halloweeny stuff from your school/workplace/house/under your bed that you could lend me after Halloween is over, PLEEEEEEEEEASE let me know!!! email me, leave a comment, call me on my mobile, whatever. i’m totally desperate! i sooo need stuff like lots of black cloth, jack-o-lanterns, DIY coffins, jars of gory human bits.. anything i can use to decorate a place for Halloween! please lah lend me lah if you got =( i’ll love you forever! i’ll give you Reese’s peanut butter cups! anything your heart desires!
October 31st, 2006
i’ve escaped to the ever-conducive, cakeandcoffee-stocked refuge of Starbucks to accomplish two things. one, study for upcoming econs test. two, prepare for a philosophy vs science debate that falls on the same day as my econs test.
well. it’s been over 8 hours of sitting here, and i’ve not finished either task. i shall blame this on my prioritising nonabilities – instead of reading blogs and replying emails and designing posters for deadlines further than my test and debate, i should be focusing entirely on said test and debate. and instead of trying to churn out the perfect case for said debate, i should study for said econs test first, because said debate is going to be one of those unintelligent pseudo-intellectual debates that i will, in retrospect, regret spending so much time fretting about.
siiiiigh. me needs another mug of hazelnut hot chocolate and a slice of rocky road.
wah wtf my bro just walked in and tapped me on the shoulder. argh how’d he find me!!! i told no one of my whereabouts!!! is my own brother stalking me??? is he here to buy the last slice of rocky road before i do???
… too late, bro. ALL MINE!
being in Starbucks never fails to yield amusement. last week there was this hip black dude who caught me not-so-discreetly eyeing the bling he was wearing. only a black guy can pull off bling without looking like a right fool! anyway he caught me not-so-discreetly eyeing his necklace, so i was all ‘ohmygod i love your bling, where did you get it?’! some more he totally layaned me when i asked for a picture!
takjadi pic. nvm, his eyes are not the point, the BLING is!
then there was this one time i was singing John Mayer’s Your Body’s A Wonderland a tad too loud. (it’s the damn earphones, they totally screw up your gauge of how loud you’re singing/talking) then suddenly this girl started singing along with me. and then a guy started taking pictures (or a video?? omg surely not) of me on his mobile phone. and the dude behind me tried to strike up a conversation by saying he liked John Mayer too, but i managed to brush him off by cleverly putting my earphones back on. heehee.
today, there are a lot of students around studying. no doubt prepping for their SPM exams which are just around the corner. ahhh brings back memories of my own SPM time. *nods sagely* back then my bum was practically married to the seats at Coffee Bean Ampang Point. and then come the weekend, I’d be pulling all-nighters at Mt Kiara’s Starbucks cos that’s when they open 24 hours. hehe the funniest Starbucks encounter there was this guy from the WWF who approached waimin and i to model for him, after requesting if we would kindly pick him up off the floor in the event that he passes out from caffeine OD. like, whateverrrr, man.
another Mt Kiara Starbucks moment : there was this one night i wrote Martian a poem, likening him to coffee. HAHA. back then we had this little fling thing going on. it’s so weird that we’re in a proper relationship now .. honestly back then i never thought we’d transcend the no-strings thing. one day i gotta blog about our story. how we met, how we got together. better yet, i’ll get him to blog his version too!!!
Starbucks moments aside.. right now i’m trying to tell myself that it is NOT socially apt to look over other Starbucks patrons’ shoulders to see what they’re doing. but i cant help it!!! i soooooo miss high school physics. and high school biology. and that’s what the girls at the table next to me are doing arghghhghg. they’re trying to figure out how to solve the elevator acceleration problem. OI ASK ME LAH i know how to do, i know how to do!!!
=(
one girl from that table has recieved a phone call, and i’m guessing from the way she’s moved away to another table, and from the way her two giggly lipglossed friends are crowding around her trying to listen in, it’s her boyfriend or crush that’s calling. so cute! i oso want.
ahh shitadilly it’s started to rain. coooooold. but a very good excuse for more hot chocolate. and cuddling.
hmmm. *looks around for hot stranger who would not say no to cuddling*
October 29th, 2006
i’m back from my weeklong trip in Hanoi! :) i’ve been napping like crazy, and i say napping not sleeping, because my slumber keeps being interrupted by bouts of consciousness where i wake up and worry about all the stuff i have to finish up. i flop onto my back, look at the ceiling and go, wake up girl, you got work to do! but then of course, i go back to sleep. therefore as of the past 24 hours, i have had no life. O, my bed! O my best friend and my mate!
btw no, there’s not a trace of chocolate in this post :P
hanoi’s version of sidewalk cafes
two cute kids at the Temple of Literature
two even cuter kids at the Temple of Literature
inside the Temple
in Hoa Lo Prison. this is the one and only pic i have of the wartime prison. the place was so terrifying and disturbing, i couldnt bring myself to take anymore pictures.
with a couple of very friendly locals at a streetside noodle stall
Martian and a wall
Pinkpau and a wall
before the light turned green and i got run over
a parent and his daughter at a park in central hanoi
one of those streetside stalls again. this one served very yummy beefsteak!
the Opera House
a little fishing boat in Halong Bay
Martian and I on the boat to Halong Bay. this pic was taken by a sullen French photography-Nazi woman
even Halong Bay isnt free from the haze
Martian kissing a KingKong-shaped island
part of the funny menu during dinner at Bobby Chinn’s that night. it’s one of the best restaurants I’ve ever been to – all foodies MUST check it out when dropping by Hanoi. marvel at the splendid decor, laugh at the hilarious menu, sample the omfgdamnbloodygood food paired with equally omfgdamnbloodygoodwine, then have some shisha or cocktails at the bar. MUST.
me having yummy Kem (ice cream)!
Hanoi cybercafes. no sign of Dota here.. not even O2Jam!
huh wtf
naughty wooden statues at the Ethnology Museum, hehehee!
so that’s my Hanoi trip. cant believe it’s over so soon.
other Hanoi posts :
Hanoi Part 1
Hanoi Part 2 – Chocolate Buffet at the Sofitel Metropole
October 28th, 2006
when i was younger, i lived in a terrace house that was one of many similiar-looking houses in a quiet and comfy suburb. red shingled roofs, little puppies, kids on bicycles, neighbours leaning over the fence to chat … that was my childhood.
i used to get on my little orange bike, creatively dubbed McOrange, and cycle around the neighbourhood doing kiddy things. sometimes i would go on a hunt for flowers of different colours then mash them up and mix them with water to get natural ink. (i stopped doing this in 2nd grade when i learnt alamandas were poisonous and i couldnt find another yellow flower substitute for my flora-mashing endeavours.) other days i would cycle down the street to this kuih stall operated by a portly, pink-cheeked malay woman and her husband. they made the best curry puffs in the world. i used to buy 5 for a buck- then i’d have one, give my grandma one, give my housekeeper one, and give my dog two. even back then i knew my priorities.
one day when i was 10, my brother (on his red bike which remained nameless for the entire duration he had it, despite me wanting to christen it McRed) and i found this little grove a few streets away from our house. it didnt belong to anyone cos it was by the side of the river, but apparently some people had taken it upon themselves to turn it into a little haven. there was a swing set there, and a stone table complete with little stone stools. i remember then i’d just finished reading Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden… and i would go to this little grove by the river and pretend it was MY secret garden with MY swing set and MY stone table with stone stools. i spent many hours there after school, just reading books or looking for worms in the ground. but then when we got the PlayStation a year later, i abandoned my secret garden for Crash Bandicoot Warped. which was a bloody good game btw.
in that house, i had my own room but i never slept in it. i used to sleep in my parents’ room instead. yeah yeah i was one of those kids who slept in between their parents, thinking it was all very cutesy and happy clappy, and being completely oblivious to the fact that just maybe i wasnt always very welcome in their room. anyway i didnt like my own room very much, because when i looked out the windows, i could see into my neighbour’s room – and he was this weird Mat who would blast bad rock music after each argument with his mother, who would duly retaliate by banging pots and pans around in the kitchen. it wasnt the most pleasant auditory experience, so i would retreat to my parents’ room that was at the other end of the house and faced the street. i’d read my books there, then i’d fall asleep inadvertently, the way children sometimes do.
because my parents’ room looks out onto the street, each time a car passed by my house at night, its headlights would swim across the ceiling, forming a polygon of reflected light that slowly diminished as the car disappeared down the street.
it’s very surreal – just lying there and watching the sheets of light float over the ceiling and away.
10 years later, i am lying in bed 14 floors above the ground in a hotel in Hanoi, unable to sleep, watching those same patterns of light dance across the hotel room’s ceiling. vietnamese lights from vietnamese cars on vietnamese roads look exactly like malaysian lights from malaysian cars on malaysian roads. the boyfriend is fast asleep next to me, dreaming his martian dreams, that i will later find out were about me and my friends. i reach out to hold his hand, and at my touch he turns around and envelopes me in his strong arms before kissing my cheek.
just lying there and watching sheets of light float over the ceiling and away, it’s all still very surreal.
October 27th, 2006
after consulting his travel Bible – which is the Luxe City Guide – Martian wanted to take me to the Sofitel Metropole for its famous Sunday brunch. ‘Sundays were made for the Sofitel Metropole’, a sign at the entrance boasts. but me being me refused to wake up that early, and so we missed the only chance we had to experience this existential validation of every Sunday we’ve ever had.
but then! we strolled past the Sofitel the next day and GUESS WHAT!
THEIR CHOCOLATE BUFFET IS ALL WEEK LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
of course we went in!!! and i *DIED*. i swear i died. but here are some pictures to tempt your palate. mine was satisfied 50 times over that afternoon :P
clockwise from top – chocolate spring roll, royale chocolate cake which was @#$%(%*$ly awesome because of the peanut butter base at the bottom, chocolate croquant, chocolate mousse
the ubiquitous chocolate fountain that came with the ubiquitous marshmallows and fruits. this one had mango in the fruit selection. chocolate + mango = no
chocolate truffles
chocolate creme brulee!
little chocolate nems (spring rolls)! crispy flour skins that ooze out chocolate when you bite into them. yummmmyyyy.
butter biscuit tarts with chocolate filling. VERY good indeedy.
hard white chocolate sandwiched between dark chocolate pieces
marshmallows coated in chocolate, sprinkled with chopped pistachios
chocolate canneloni! sooo nice because there’s so much chocolate in each bite
chocolate cake in fondue and raisins
chocolate cookies, yum
NOISETTES MY ULTIMATE FAV TYPE OF CHOCOLATE EVARRRR
pralines. Martian loved them
last but not least, my fav – the Chocolate Bombe, which is a moussey icecreamy sort of cake topped with gooey chocolate sauce. each bite is like an express ticket to heaven.
siiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. and so much more. they had other stuff too- like chocolate ice cream, different types of chocolate ganache, chocolate mousse, milk and pieces of chocolate with diff cocoa concentration for you to make your own chocolate milk… and all for USD 8!!
it’s official – Sofitel Metropole’s Chocolate Buffet is what I came to Hanoi for.
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October 25th, 2006
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