Bounty ahoy!

One shot glass, one mug, 2 massive voucher books, 2 bars of fairtrade organic chocolate, lots of drink coupons, one muffin, tons of lollipops and sweets, 3 pounds worth of '1 pound' vouchers for Wilcos, coupons for Sainsbury's, a number of keychains, an array of different flavoured condoms, two samples of mostuirizers and facewash, 3 teaspoons, 2 ladles..

Not bad work for 3 days of free goodies from Fresher's Fayre. There goes FF 06/07!

It's amazing what a thick face and kiasu-ness can net you in free goodies.

Can't wait for that time of year where all the law firms to get together and try to court us law students with their goodies. Ahhh.. Excellent....

Of hide and seek, dodgeball and Jehovah witnesses...

Fresher's Fayre!

It's the new academic year in Notts.. which means its that time again.. to go around grab lots of free stuff, people guilting you into giving up your email address (I lost count how many times I did this), being approached by Jehovah Witnesses.. (I get approached by 'em quite often wherever I am.. Do I look that God-forsaken?) and of course, signing up for societies!

I remember blogging about the bellringing society last year.. This year I came across, the hide and seek-soc. The ideal soc to seek the inner child within! (their words, not mine) I can't help thinking it's more for people who've had deprived childhoods but i guess...hey, whatever floats your boat!

I'm thinking of taking up dodgeball this year. Partly inspired by the movie and also looking to try something different. Yeah,I've got to remember the 4 Ds! Dodge, dive, dip and Dodge! And.. if you can dodge a bullet, you can dodge a ball! Lol.

Hmm.. The dilemma you face at this time of the year is... so many societies/activities, so little time. I'm thinking of taking up salsa after a brief tryout of ballroom dancing. The problem is all these societies will do everything short of duress (posting their most attractive members is a common tactic) to recruit members just to boost their treasuries knowing that most people sign up and don't end up participating in most activities. Choose wisely, I must.

In other news....
While browsing through youtube.. I came across clips from an episode of Buffy where it's a 'musical' episode(Once more, with feeling)! Joss Wheldon's pure genius! Basically in this episode, Buffy's sis, Dawn summoned a demon who causes the whole town to go into a musical frenzy. This has to be one of the best episodes as it captures the backstory of the characters (ie: Buffy's reluctance of being the slayer, Buffy and Spike?, the 'Buffy' gang, Tara & Willow) Check them out here:

The Buffy gang has a theory - Jazz hands and it's the bunnies, I tell yer! Heheh.
I'll never tell
Buffy's going through the motions
Buffy goes to save Dawn.. Giles: 'She needs backup!' LOL!
Where do we go from here

Be sure to check out the other clips. The singing's not bad and the tunes are rather catchy. Good Stuff!

Ahh, yes Joss Wheldon infuses comedy, good drama, good dialogue and good taste. Buffy's much more than just a fit bird prancing around with a wooden stake with Joss around. Sadly, all good things must come an end.

'nuff said.. till next time.

Iron Chef.. Here I Come!

Breakfast. Very English. Mushrooms, Onion & Cheese Omelette (not tossed very well as you can probably see), tomatoes. Just missing the bacon and sausages...

Spaghetti Cabonara! Voila! Abit too creamy, to the point of 'jelak'ness. *sigh* Still working on the proportions.

Dinner. Roast Chicken made with honey, soya sauce and chili powder. Mom's recipe. Ahh.. Yes. Decorated nicely as Seng and Liza asked me over to dinner so needed a dish to bring over. Picked up a few tricks on food deco from working at the conference centre. Sprinkle some parsley and frozen peas to give your food some colour!

Yes, still a long way to competing in Iron Chef perhaps but tis a journey I enjoy! Although I have to admit I'm at the mercy of the expiry dates rather than me cooking and eating at my whim and fancy. That explains the common theme of cherry tomatoes in each dish! Heh. Btw, cherry tomatoes are supposed best kept out of the fridge to perserve the taste.

The roast chicken came out abit raw but Seng gave some advice he picked up from cooking class that I should have pre boiled the chicken and then tossed it into the oven then. Mm.

'till next time peeps.

A hard day's work and random stuff

You know you've down something with your day when you've polished 15 cases of glasses, served coffee/tea to hundreds of people attending a convention, cleaned up like 30 over tables, cleared those tables and chairs and last but not least, clear the whole exhibition area. *phew* To top that up, I came back to discover my housemate doing housework so I got guilty and volunteered to do the bathroom and all. Nevertheless, a day's work does not go unrewarded. We all got some lunch and some ice-cream (it's really hot today.. almost like M'sian weather 'cept much windier)from the guys in the conference centre. Self reward's good too.. nothing quite like a cold glass of raspberry smoothie *insert product placement here, leave a comment below with contacts and we'll possibly work something out*

To top all that off... a good night's sleep.... mebbe after a good night out. Heh.

I've thought of loads of stuff to blog about during those 'the body is there, but the mind is somewhere else' moments. So, to be fair to all those moments.. I shall blog in numbered form on certain random things.

1. Having a nice solid ass helps in butting doors open. No, I'm serious. And who needs to do butt firming/toning exercises when all you've got to do it some waitering/waitressing. Just use that ass!

2. It's amazing how you can spend 3 hours of pay in just an hour on a mediocre Italian meal. (my bro can cook food just as good ffs)There's this restorant in Beeston called, Amour (yes, love in Italian) towards the Beeston train station. A couple of us went there for a farewell for a friend. Entering the classy restaurant, the imagery of pound notes flying away was clear in my mind.. *sigh* But it's not everyday, you bid a friend farewell..

3. Frankenstien Food. I made a special trip down to the city to complete my ingredients for my Cabonara. Thing was.. I forgot the bacon! In the end , I had to improvise with tuna... Another akward thing was getting the proportions right cooking for a single person. In the end, my cabonara was abit too creamy and I ended up using Tuna instead of Bacon.

4. The pope. Yeah, so he did quote someone who thought Islam was rooted in violence but that doesn't make him believe in what the man say. The media's just out to get him to sell more papers, isn't that obvious? I could quote say Hitler or Chairman Mao but does that make me a facist or a communist? It would really depend on the context, no? In the Pope's speech.. he was talking about dialogue.

5. 911 conspiracy? http://www.loosechange911.com/
It's interesting stuff. Yet again, it tells you to question everything, not to take anything for granted. It really does get you thinking. The gist of it is did the US government create 9/11 to get things done? A must-watch.

6. Ahh.. lighter stuff. ROBOT CHICKEN.. I've said it before, I'll say it again.. good stuff. Mostly dumb but some parodies are good:
Starwars Parody
Rapper Bugs
Harry Potter

7. Since we're on the topic of Star Wars.. there's this video on google:
George Lucas in Love (yes, parody of Shakespear in Love and also how he got his ideas for SW)

That's all for now folks!

Of Cooking, and Work...

I could swear I posted a post about what I've been up to lately and Yoda Speak and even posted a comment on Jess' blog but nada! Wierd. Bleh.

And the show goes on...

Decent home away from home meal, I did have today. I had left over curry from yesterday and cooked up some rice. I can proudly say the meal was 80% Malaysian, 80% coz of the salad and frozen peas in the curry. Heh.

I'm feeling quite confident with my cooking although finesse and presentation ain't really there. Tossing a cheese onion ommelete usually results in egg splater on the stove or a semi scrambled omelette. And in the all threes times I've cooked curry, I've had to fish out my veg/potatoes to spare them from being burnt coz they cook much faster than the meat. Ah, well... baby steps.

It's good to be back to work as well. Something to make the day feel as if it's gone squandered and this may sound well but I haven't dreamt till I got back to work. (Tis was a wierd dream of fishing and Mrs Kang taking over the school with an iron fist and we were all wondering why Mr. Liew didn't do anything to stop it.. wierd indeed, no?)

An interesting thing was that the place I work at (East Midlands Conference Centre) came out
in The Evening Post with this black lady complaining on how she was told to leave coz of the dresscode of black skirts and no black trousers. I didn't get to read it but that really raised an eyebrow.

Ah, well.. that's all for now, folks!

P.S. If you're in search of Entertainment, watch some Robot Chicken on Youtube. The 2nd season's quite decent. There's one SW spoof of Emperor Palapatine and there's a Harry Potter skit on Puberty.. Good stuff!

Of random things...

A post dedicated to random stuff. Coz I'm currently unoccupied, unemployed (for this week at least). Nuff' said.

1.0 - Maritial Bliss. A man gets married to goat. The owner of the goat married the man to his goat and forced him to pay a dowry for the goat after he caught the man having sex with it. To quote the brilliant owner of the goat,"They (the elders) said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife"
Talk about shotgun weddings, eh?

2.0 - Melbourne's Uni got their own Malaysian Society now eh? I heard the former one was shut down for embezzlement and I'll like to wish all the best to this new soc. A good friend of mine's the liason office, Jerome Chin! It's has a pretty nifty name MOMU. Lol. Check it out here: http://momumomu.blogspot.com/
They've got even a video on Youtube explaining about our 'mamak' culture. I didn't make it past a minute of the video but the guy explaining it sounded a bit stiff.. then again, he was probably trying to be loud and clear. Good stuff still. This goes some way explaining our mamak culture compared to the culture here to get a few drinks at a student bar (the booze there is cheaper you see), dance the night away and order takeout after that. Mamak's still pretty much cheaper and the food, the glorious food!

3.0 - This is a rant a long time coming. I had the oppurtunity to witness firsthand shabby leadership the past year and this past month particularly. It has led me to believe that leader's certainly aren't born and common sense ain't that common. With a year of a phase of reading self-help books (John Maxwell's books on Christian Leadership are great btw) and some limited experience, I'll probably have a few things to say. You've heard of the Dummies collection and possibly the KISS! (keep it simple stupid!) series but now, you're gonna hear about Joachim's FFS series on leadership. Heh.

It'll go something like this. (I've lost most of my steam on this issue but I'll try to express it as best as I can)

FFS, Communicate! Know the people you're working with and take a genuine interest in them and keep them in the effing loop. Communication leads to better tranparency and members will definetely happier knowing what's going on. It makes them look less like an idiot when they're with you. If you're socially disabled, pick up the book: How to make friends and influence people. Rant: For example, if you ask a member of yours to go all the way down to the city to meet the rest of committee, fucking update him on what's going on. Rather than let him waste the trip down only to find out they don't need your help.

To hammer this point home, I quote John Maxwell: “People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

FFS, give low expectations and deliver high not the other way round! Don't mislead your members into believing things such as disbursements for travelling all the way down to London and back and promising your customers something they potentially won't have.

FFS, get off your high horse. Humilty is key. In most cases, you're there coz the people put you there and so them a service and serve them. Don't serve yourself. Apologize if they're any hiccups and admit it rather than pass the buck around. I personally have a low tolerance for such people. Cover-up all you like but the truth will find you and bite you in the arse eventually.

There's more to write about the person I'm trying to dedicate this to. Your whole committee doesn't have a high opinion of you and neither have I. In truth, after our next event, I'm glad and satified to be done with your committee.

*sigh* Rant done. With such 'leaders' at this stage at life, I don't look forward to the so called leader's in the working world. Btw, in my eyes, politicians (especially in Malaysia) can't be called 'leaders'. They're precisely what they are. Politicians. But don't you get me started on that. Pff.

'Nuff said.

Cooking 101

Alright. I told myself I'll start actual cooking this week and I have. The house hasn't burnt down and my fingers are still intact.(I cut my finger last time we made fried wantans at the medic girls' place >.<)

It was a simple dish made with pre-made thai curry sauce so that made it much easier. Tossed in some meat and potatoes and some brinjals (it's called aubergines here but some call it eggplants..wierd) I had to keep on adding water to keep it from burning and I had to fish out the brinjals or risk them being disentegrated coz the bloody meat and potatoes took so long to cook! Argh. But I have to say, there's a sense of pride of doing something for yourself by yourself.. at least till the point, the food goes into your mouth. It tasted slightly above edible at least and I could swear the sauce tasted better when I was tasting it while cooking it. Furthermore, I was kinda impatient and the food tasted slightly raw. Medium-rare in fact. >.<

Ah well, with cooking this bad, it can only get better. Still months away from cooking a decent candlelight dinner if the need ever arises. *shrugs*

It's that time of year...

Sources have indicated to me that the Malaysian Society of Notts Uni just had their Pre-D briefing just today. Ahh.. yes, that time of year.

I remember last year's Pre-D. I was keen to meet a fellow Sarawakian in the form of Rudi but he couldn't make it in the end. It's akward going to Pre-D although everyone probably looks just as lost as you are. Looking back, I can only remember meeting Priya, Teong Weng( who sat on my right) and Praveen asking a question something to do with the internet on campus...

But most of all, I remember asking, ' Do they provide soap and shampoo in halls?'. Yes, so if you've gone to a Pre-D and not asked a dumb question, you're successfully one step ahead of me. In hindsight, it was a "Big Moose" moment (ref: Archie) or what we we at 4/5 s might consider a "Jo Ong" moment.( You see, back in our Form 4/5 years, we always had this guy, Jo Ong who would ask out of context or wierd questions out of the blue... especially in Mr Alex's Chem class. Lol.)

I guess asking such a question also goes towards building your 'persona'. Yes. Persona. Perhaps, people might remember me better, yeah.. that's it! (For the wrong reason perhaps >.<) I mean, see, I remember Jo Ong! But then again, our class only had 30 plus people. Leanne and Prav remember me asking me that question. Heck, I also introduced myself during the one of the NMS meetings as 'the guy who asked about...'. Then again, you're reading about the guy who addressed himself to his coursemates as a 'cheap bastard' in the course of trying to run for a post but that's another story for another day.

There was an article in.. Fortune on Personas, I think it was an editorial... where it wrote about how companies hired CEOs based on their personas. It's not who you are or what you can do.. but in how you portray yourself and how it helps bring in the MOO-lah to the company. Talk about creating artifical value, eh?

Then again, I doubt the writer had anything in mind about a guy asking about whether halls provided shampoo or soap. Meh.

I hunger....

It's been 3 days here and my tummy grumbles periodically. Maybe it's to do something with the fact that I was locked out of the house yesterday (and hence, sucessfully alienating myself from true food sustenance; Kit Kat bars and bananas can only do soo much) after running errands/buying groceries. The bloody key couldn't bloody open the lock. Rather than wait hours for my housemates to return I decided to drop off the groceries and head to the library. In the end, I got in thanks to Alex returning early. Marco's advice was to turn the key more violently next time. Hm.

Argh. I've got something against keys now!

Mm.. I'm no expert but I think my tummy's grumbling could be transalated into 'We should have had more Malaysian Food dammit' or "Where's the bloody inflow of Malaysian Food??!!" or somewhere along those lines. Hm, a saying comes into mind : The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.

And home is where the heart is.

My advice to those still in Malaysia: Enjoy it while you can!!!