Thursday, February 01, 2007

Somewhere in between...


The great thing about this term is the fact that lectures are in the 2nd half of the day, ie: the afternoon. Good for nocturnal people, bad for morning birds, ie: me. My attention span is lacking during the afternoons and I end up dozing off in the middle of lectures. Bleh.

And another addition to all this is that lectures are staggered an hour apart. What do you do when you have an hour to kill on campus? Well, surely any good, hardworking law student would be take the succinct opportunity to revise before and after those very lectures, no?

So here I am instead... stalking people on their blogs, facebooking and giving people the chance to stalk my life. I like to think blogging of a safer way of stalking and its much much less invasive and of course, a great way to burn time in between lectures.

Well, I've survived the aftermath of exams. Results are out next week but I'm just gonna keep that at the back of my mind.

It's strange how life during exams are. So isolated from the world. I didn't even know it snowed in Notts till the next day when everyone's msn was like: It SNOWED!! OMGWTFBBQ! And I just looked out the window and went like , ' Oh yeah, It snowed alright.' Bits of unmelted slow littered out on the backyard. Hm.

Although, this has been an interesting January for the UK in general. Typically, January is the most depressing month of the year with mounting debts from Christmas, exams for us students coupled with gloomy, depressing weather but lo, and behold! With global warming comes one of the warmest, sunniest January for the UK. Mm.. guess that gives extra meaning to the saying ' There's a silver lining behind every cloud'.

It's Warwick Malaysian Night this weekend and after having a hand in Nott's last year, I'll say it's good to be just a spectator for once. I've heard soo much about Warwick's Dikir Barat and their moment of judgement approaches! Joachim Leong shall has a say whether they live up to that expectation (yes, I like the sound of my own name)

Well, that's all for now. Cheerio.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Indieee music!

It's inevitable. It's a calling. It's your vocation as a student.

As a student, you have to appreciate indie music. It's only natural to support the underdog, no big labels behind them, usually just talent and a sincere voice behind it.

One such indie artist which has my thumbs up and head filled with his songs is Mark Wilson. It's really strange how I came across him. You see, there's this guy Mark Wilson who used to be in Rutland Hall and he joined this We love Mark Wilson group and turned out to be not referring to him but this indie artist. Long story short, I checked out www.markwilsonmusic.com, downloaded the free Extended Play (which is basically a short album, somewhere between a single and an album) and here i am, raving about him.

His voice is unique, reminds me of Pete Teo abit. There's this one song, Stones and Sticks on his Myspace page which has this sense of a climax coming with the crescendos but yet, the climax never comes, proving that it's not the destination that matters, but the journey. Some of his lyrics are really cryptic, yet to decipher them all really but beautiful nevertheless. Amazing how his voice and the music weave together to form excellent compositions.

Brilliant artist. Oh and the EP is free. Didn't I mention that?

Friday, January 19, 2007

Everything comes down to poo!

Yeah, you heard me. Everything comes down to poo! Well, not really. But the latest episode of Scrubs was a musical one, kinda like the Buffy's Once More With Feeling musical episode. Whereas in Buffy, it was a musical demon, here in Scrub's, it's a patient who keeps hearing everyone in the form of music. Not bad plot devices, no?

Anyway, here's the video of one of songs featured, "Everything comes down to Poo!":



EDIT: Oh, and I found that NBC posted on youtube the Guy Love song and even a short clip on the making of the episode.

Guy Love (not as gay as it sounds, but it's a real Hoot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF6rSGfUdyg

The Making
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE9EaCKsFUU

This episode of scrubs is an absolute classic! A must-see!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

This blogger...

can't really be arsed to update to his blog it would seem. :s

I'm deeply apologetic to people out there stalking me but of late, I've had little to no motivation to update.

Summing up my Christmas and New Years would be.. I stayed in the UK. My parents came up to spend Christmas with me and my bro. Lots of nagging, babying, pampering and somehow parents always have this tendency to go mental and start cleaning and rearranging the whole house.I had a hard time finding my stuff the next few days after they left. Although long gone, their mark on our house still remains. Tons of 3 in 1 drinks/instant stuff, you name it, I have it. 3 in 1 Coffee, Ice Peach Tea, Ice Lemon tea, Milo Fizz (which is a mix of coffee and milo), lots of Maggi Mee, meat jerky (although I have to say in relation to my last post, my bro has raided most of mine but hah! I got most of his too!), instant soup and the list goes on...

But don't get the wrong impression here, it wasn't all pampering on their part! Me and my bro did quite abit of cooking for them! Well, especially my bro. I made brownies for Christmas, best batch I've made so far I've got to say. Made braised lamb which I shall dub as Joachim's signature dish!

Mm.. I'm in the midst of exams. I've got two papers in one day on Thursday. Family and Criminal Law. Mm.. so I've been reading on how it's actually legal to marry your cousin (UK's one of the few Western countries that allow this), a case on how a woman discovered her 'husband' was actually a woman after two years of marriage after discovering a fake penis in the drawer and much more. Neat stuff.

Well, that's all for now. All the best to those out there with exams!

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Tripping the light fantastic, baking and umm..family tax.

Meep. I'm back! After half a month, here I am.

Much stuff has happened of late.. took part in Notts Varsity Ball which is a ballroom/latin dancing competition. Me and partner, Liyana got thru 'till the 2nd round for jive, cha cha and waltz and got thru till the 3rd round for quick step for the individual part of the competition. Some of the other Nottingham beginner couples made it 'till the semis and two even made it till the finals! One couple which really made it through quite far in most of the dances was this couple comprosing of two girls. What really set them apart was the fact that they were really confident and you could really see they were enjoying it all.

That's probably a stark contrast to my thinly-veiled smile with my mind actually really in deep thought about the beat and the steps. Lol.

Ah well, baby steps. Not a bad outing for our first competition still. Cambridge really stood out and swept most of the prizes I have to say. For the team event, I couldn't take part as Liyana had to rush off to Warwick to tend to her boyfriend. *sigh* Yes, tis be sad. I, Joachim Leong, left on the dancefloor. Heh. Nevertheless, that didn't stop me and Leanne(who came to support a friend from Manc) from shouting out our support for Notts! (Although I have to say, the hordes of Cambridge students possibly drowned our voices out..)

At the end of it all, it was one of days where I was so beat that I slept like a log till the next morn. Mm.. Sleep.


Hhmm.. In the culinary department, at a pure whim.. I baked something. Edible. And no paramedics had to be called in thankfully or neither was the services of my brother or Alex, my housemate (both 5th year medics) were required. I baked Jamie Oliver's recipe for Brownies! Lots of sugar, butter, sour cherries, pecans, Gold and Black's dark chocolate and a touch of the family baking magic (courtesy from my mom's side.. alright i'm possibly making this up, but do humour me.) and an hour and half later, voila! Umm.. slightly soggy but yummy brownies! I possibly did a mistake of taking it out of the baking tray too fast resulting in the brownies unable to retain its square-ish structural integrity due to the fact that the chocolate takes sometime in solidifying. Hm.

The next morning, the brownies seem to be in better shape although they were kinda crumbly and were not squarish as they are meant to be. For the tasting bit, I took some to lectures and tried to find guinea pi.. I mean, honest food critics. It was well recieved... so, it was a success! Just have to work on getting them into the squares and I'll probably try 'em with some cream with lemon zest.


A common question which I get after I let it slip that I'm staying with my bro, is: how's it like staying with my bro? Well, I've gotta say.. something's never do change.

Before my bro came down to the UK for his Alvls, we've practically been living under the same roof for the whole of our lives. And we still did each time he came back in the summer. What usually transpires back home... is my mom, being the rationer and supplier of the household's goodies would store goodies (chips, sweets, chocolates, goodies in general) usually for either as gifts for others or mostly for special occasions(ie: family outings). When me and my bro were much younger, we would actually 'forage' through the cupboards in the house in search of these goodies and share it among ourselves. (and also effectively share the blame with each other when my mom usually finds out, which she usually does, being the acute, sharp Mom she is... God bless her)

Over the years, we've changed tactics and so has our mom changed hers. She started hiding stuff deeper in the house and had secret stashes usually in her bedroom and we also started to 'hunt' these stashes individually. (so we could get more to ourselves, you see..) Usually we'll get hold of these stashes and hide in our rooms and finish the food off before the other or my mom finds out its gone. When one of us discovers the other has found something, we usually force each other to share it (or if we're feeling guilty.. we'll tell the location of the goodie and share it to effectively.. ahem.. share the blame.. i mean, guilt) Lol. But in most case senarios, the other would have nearly finished the can of pringles, the bars of chocolate and a fight for the last chip or the last square of chocolate ensures. Survival of the fittest and all that stuff.

In hindsight, maybe it's the urbanization of our survival skills. Honing our hunting/foraging skills.. I mean, isn't it a jungle out there?

Alright.. So I've probably given you a bad impression that me and my bro led an improvished childhood and we fought over tooth and nail over everything. Lol. Nah, it wasn't like that. There were many a time where my mom would usually buy something and ask us both to share it out. This usually resulted in either of racing to finish it up to see who could get the most of it. Like a 1.5 litre of ice cream usually lasted 48 hrs tops after being purchased. Mom would always said "Learn to enjoy it slowly, don't race to finish it off...!"

And well, here we are today. We still race off to finish stuff we bought together for the household or poach each other's goodies. Each time we buy ice-cream, we're race off to finish it to get as much of it. (ie: the 8 Mars Ice Cream a month ago. grr..^%^*%$@*. Yes I do keep track!)

Why, just a few weeks back, I bought some jellybabies and left it in my cookie jar and it was meant for a couple of friends I had asked over for dinner. I left it on the dining table and left for class. When I got back, I went up to my room and the jar was right there next to my comp, half finished! *sigh*

Something's don't change alright although nowadays we don't actually duke it out but cuss and swear at each other for a while. (usually.. it's me doing the cussing coz I usually buy most of the sweet stuff/crisps) But thinking about it.. my bro buys most of the comics and I read it off him. (And he cusses and swears when I don't put them away nicely) Hmm.. Maybe we've got a kinda symbiotic relationship here going.

Well, I term this phenemenon... Family Tax. In our family, whatever's yours is mine and vice versa. Resistance is futile.. hiding the goodie will merely result it in being finished or taxed even more heavily.

The guy who said, "Nothing's certain but death and taxes"' probably didn't know the Leong brothers staying on 45, Highfield Rd, Dunkirk... But he certainly knew what he was talking about. Hm.

Overandout.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Easy listening...

Alright, let me be forward here. I'm not probably the last guy you'll want close to your comp/radio if you're trying desperately to keep a party alive. I'll opt out for Keane, Coldplay, Travis rather than any rap/RnB anyday...

Came across this cool artist, Final Fantasy (no, nothing to do with the FF series) . All he plays is a violin but he remixes it to come out with cool effects for his songs... This one's called "The Dream of Win and Regine". I find the girl in the video kinda cute.. in an eccentric way with her massive headphones and red hiding hood cloak... Lol. Each and every man to his own, now. I'll admit it's umm.. an unique video. Then again, most indie videos are.



I find this even cooler.. It's his renderation of Bloc's Party Modern Love. You've got to know the original to appreciate it tho'.



But above all, here's the song which is currently stuck in my head. Sentimental lyrics, they are but that's me.. a sentimental easy-listening slob. The video's nifty too.. it all seems sterile, precise and flawless. Everything's in synch, how things can seem to just fall in place. Or maybe it's celebrating the electronica component of song. Hm.




Enjoy!

Monday, November 06, 2006

Maritial Bliss... (no goats this time)

Finally, after a long hiatus.. I'm back!

It's been an eventful hiatus with my cousin's wedding a few weeks back and Notts Malaysian Games on this weekend. Add in tutorial preparations and viola! Jam-packed, hectic weeks!

It's ironic that after my last post, I managed to get a peek at Birmingham's Bullring and have a quick stroll and a coffee in Cambridge on my way to Bath. It was funny (as in ironic funny, not haha funny) when I was having my packed sandwich (yes, economical I am) and coming up from the escalator from the train station in B'ham and lo, and behold! A starbucks waitress was serving free mocha and a free brownies right in front of me. If a ray of light was to shine right down on her, heck, I'll convert my religion to Starbucks! It was like.. dessert and coffee to compliment lunch. Booya!

Mm.. I'm familar with it's stone buildings after my last trip down here last Christmas. It's a picturesque, hilly town. Unfortunately, the weather was rather dreadful while me and my bro were there but the wedding went well, nevertheless. Basically, we went down on Saturday morning and reached there in the evening.Toured around Bath abit on Sunday Morning before the wedding service at the chapel in the afternoon and there was the wedding reception later in the evening.

Photo composition ahead! (photos, thanks to my bro)


A rainbow over the horizon as we were changing trains. Neat, eh?

Bath!! Limestone buildings,river and all...

'Brotherly love'. 'Nuff said.

In deep thought with hot chocolate. You can't call yourself a tourist without stopping by somewhere for nice hot drink, now..

My cousin, my uncle, my bro and me in a pre-wedding photo.

The wedding progamme booklet...

The groom and the best man await the arrival of the bride...


Yeap, the wedding vows bit. If anyone has any legal reasons why this couple should not be united, speak now or forever hold your peace! Yea, he really did say it.

There goes the newly weds!

A wedding reception photo of the the lovely couple...

The first dance as husband and wife for Anthony and Eunie...

Can't blame a guy for grabbing a few winks on the long ride back...

Yeap, well those are some of the pics I scoped out. I think I'll be loading the rest on to facebook in time to come.. it's just so tedious to post pics on blogger.

A few other points of interest of the wedding were:

1) It's English tradition to hold the bride's arm on your left, so that the man's right hand was free to wield his sword to defend his bride. No kidding.

2) The priest, a rather nice guy, gave a joke about how the congregation always thinks about the bride's and groom's nerves but never the priest's! And he said he would always get someone remarking about the weather and whether with his 'connections', he could do something about it. His reply to that would be, " I deal in sales, not management.

3) Me, my bro and my uncle were the only relatives on the groom's sides. We're related to Anthony through our mom's side (the foochow Lau side) and in my uncle's speech he mentioned about his 9 brothers and sisters and how our family has mushroomed to over 160 neices and nephews and hinted to Eunie that we expect her to keep up with our former PM's call to increase our nation's population to 70 million. We, Laus have been keeping our 'qouta' up.. I probably shouldn't be typing about this coz I might be scaring my prospects away. Lol. Noooooo! Come back.. it's all negotiable!

Heh. Well, that's it all from me, peeps!

'Till next time.