Friday, September 14, 2012
♥ What I do when I need to mug
I just realized that my 'history' tabs jumped from Nov 2010 to Aug 2012! Almost 2 years of not posting! Oh well... the almighty Facebook has pretty much overthrown blogs. And I'm so lazy now to blogggggggg...... By the way I need to study for tomorrow's renewable energy test T.T
Go go shoo!!
Go go shoo!!
3:13:00 AM
Thursday, August 16, 2012
♥ The story of Florence gelato and me
The top 5 things to do in Florence are:
1. Eat ice cream everyday
2. Buy leather goods
3. Eat florentine steak
4. Go shopping
5. Go to piazza Michelangelo to see the sunset
Being the devoted traveller I am, how can I leave Florence without doing all of the above things? I window shopped while lugging my luggage all the way from the train station to the hostel. I ate my first rare steak in my life, because eating florentine steak any more cooked than rare is just a waste. I bargained for the first time in my life for a leather pouch (I really don't like bargaining. Or any related forms of disagreements) I walked half an hour and climbed a hill at the end of a super tiring day to see the sunset (oh it was worth it though!!) BUT. BUUUUUT. All these are nothing. NOTHING. Compared to the devotion I gave to to do number 1. I love gelato with my life. But at the end off this tragic story I'll have to re-evaluate my love for ice cream. For the time being that is.
You might wonder "how can any story involving ice cream be remotely related to the word 'tragic'??" Oh trust me I thought so too. Ice cream can only mean heaven, bliss and 'oh goodness I want mooooooore'. So when I landed in the land of gelato disguised as the city of Florence, I was ready to execute to do list number 1 to its very last letter. I have only 2 days in Florence and there are over 50 flavours of gelato! What to do?? The only solution was: (obviously) eat ice cream everyday! And not JUST everyday. I had 5 scoops on the first day. And then I had 3 scoops on the second before lunch. After lunch ended (at 3.30......) we were shopping/walking back to our hostel when we decided to have our last bite of gelato before we leave Florence for Rome. So we looked through at least 5 ice cream parlours (yeah they had at least 10 along one street) before we decided to buy at this shop that was the cheapest. Since I was still quite full from my steak and pizza lunch, I asked for just 2 scoops: this lusciously dark dark chocolate and golden mango.
Innocent enough right? I mean, ignoring the 3 scoops in the morning and the half-kilo steak..... and a carpet-sized pizza................
But the steak and pizza was shared amongst 3!
Ok back to the story. I ordered my 2 scoops of ice cream. And then the woman was excitedly scooping and scooping and scooping HUGE blobs of ice cream into my cone. It wasn't scoops, it was BLOBS. She wasn't even using the normal ice cream scooper, she was using something like a miniature spade. For my second scoop of mango she just dug out a huge slab and started dropping it onto my chocolate gelato sitting on top of my cone. From midair. Because it was just too much to properly position it onto the already overflowing chocolate scoop. So When she was finally done she had in her hands an ice cream cone the size of the leaning tower of Pisa. And that was still not the end! She started sticking those round wafer biscuits the size of my palm onto the ice cream. So when the massive sculpture finally landed in my hands it looked something like the leaning tower of Mickey mouse.
And then I stumbled over to the cashier to pay. My friend also got a similar mass and she paid first. While I was still marveling at the massiveness of my ice cream she came and gave me a 晴天霹雳.... And told me that the cone costs 8.70€!!!! EIGHT EUROS AND SEVENTY CENTS. THAT'S LIKE THIRTEEN SGD?!?! FOR AN ICE CREAM?
My world spun.
We walked out of the shop in a daze, with a dripping monster in our hands and 9 euros lighter in our pockets. And we created quite a commotion on the streets. A man grabbed his wife and warned her to "be careful". Another woman came up to ask how much did our ice cream cost. We could hardly walk straight, because it took up all our concentration to prevent the ice cream from dripping everywhere. I wasn't kidding when I said it's leaning. (My mango actually toppled over later.... But i managed to save it at the expense of my third piece of tissue) The saddest part was.... The chocolate ice cream, forming the base of my structure, drips as if its never known what being solid means. It doesn't help either with a 36 deg temperature and an unforgiving sun. By the time we reached our hostel i'm not even done with half of my ice cream and I have chocolate all over my hands, my mouth and my hat. We were just supposed to grab our luggage and leave for the train station, but we were so 狼狈 we had to hide in the laundry room to try and finish our ice cream before we could resurface onto the streets. And at 4.30 the manager of the hostel came to say that they're closing And we have to leave because we have no keys and will be locked in. But one look at my chocolate fountain and our ice cream bloated faces he relented and said we can stay in the laundry room till we finish our ice cream.
So we sat and ate and slurped and sighed and moaned.... The cone never seemed to decrease in size. It took me another 20 minutes and all my determination to finish the last bite. And by that time I could hardly stand. And after that we floated in a world of ice cream to the train station. I don't even know how we managed to get the train in time.
Now I'm on the train to Rome, while leaving Florence further and further behind me, I recount this sad and tragic tale of how an innocent order of Firenze gelato brought my ice cream journey to a screeching halt.
I'll wait till tomorrow before I consider whether to start my engines again
Ciao!
3:57:00 AM
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Dear Room,
we first met on 20 august 2010 and had been getting along really well for 3 months and 3 days. you've provided me with shelter and warmth while i kept you away from the clutches of entropy. i admit that i've neglected you slightly over the past few weeks which caused you much despair when you realised you're about ready to enter a pigsty competition. i thought we made up over the freshly scrubbed, bright and shiny toilet bowl last week, but no... apparently you still have much unvented wrath towards me. but i have to say, it's really a bit 小题大做 when you decided to throw me out this morning. how could you??!! it has really hurt me deeply, i'm afraid. even after trudging 1 hour in the freezing november rain (twice!) in an attempt to get back to you, you still refused to see my utter devotion. the conspiracy between you and your old brother, the stairs, to trip and throw me down was totally heart-breaking. please remember that you still depend on me to shoo away evil dust bunnies and monstrous cobwebs. but i'm ready to forgive you if you are willing to welcome me back with open arms. we still have to 相依为命 for another 7 months. cheers to a happy cooperation.
Sincerely,
your feeling-betrayed tenant
p.s. i promise to scrub your floor this weekend ok? deal?
we first met on 20 august 2010 and had been getting along really well for 3 months and 3 days. you've provided me with shelter and warmth while i kept you away from the clutches of entropy. i admit that i've neglected you slightly over the past few weeks which caused you much despair when you realised you're about ready to enter a pigsty competition. i thought we made up over the freshly scrubbed, bright and shiny toilet bowl last week, but no... apparently you still have much unvented wrath towards me. but i have to say, it's really a bit 小题大做 when you decided to throw me out this morning. how could you??!! it has really hurt me deeply, i'm afraid. even after trudging 1 hour in the freezing november rain (twice!) in an attempt to get back to you, you still refused to see my utter devotion. the conspiracy between you and your old brother, the stairs, to trip and throw me down was totally heart-breaking. please remember that you still depend on me to shoo away evil dust bunnies and monstrous cobwebs. but i'm ready to forgive you if you are willing to welcome me back with open arms. we still have to 相依为命 for another 7 months. cheers to a happy cooperation.
Sincerely,
your feeling-betrayed tenant
p.s. i promise to scrub your floor this weekend ok? deal?
9:13:00 PM
Saturday, September 25, 2010
today, i was washing my hands in the library's toilet... and i pressed on the tap... and it didn't budge. no water came out. so i pressed, pressed again, pressed harder! but it still refuses to budge -___- i was thinking "eh is the tap stuck? is it spoiled? should i move to the next tap?" and just as i was about to move i saw this woman washing at the other end of the row of sinks. and suddenly realised: oh. the tap needs to be turned, not pressed -___-
so i was like omgomgomg DUMB!! and hanging my head and going after the soap. and the soap box refused to budge either when i pressed it! i went totally o.O! then i saw this small rectangular hole and thought "hmm maybe the button fell out. let's be smart and press there" but still nothing happened. and by then the woman had already finished scrubbing every nook and cranny of her hand. i was like AARRGGH can't be this one's spoiled. so i bent down to take a look. and realised you're supposed to pull a lever towards you to get the soap out T.T
not to mention i fell off my bike today, lost my way to the duwo office, and crashed into another bike on the way back
ultimate suayness!!
so i was like omgomgomg DUMB!! and hanging my head and going after the soap. and the soap box refused to budge either when i pressed it! i went totally o.O! then i saw this small rectangular hole and thought "hmm maybe the button fell out. let's be smart and press there" but still nothing happened. and by then the woman had already finished scrubbing every nook and cranny of her hand. i was like AARRGGH can't be this one's spoiled. so i bent down to take a look. and realised you're supposed to pull a lever towards you to get the soap out T.T
not to mention i fell off my bike today, lost my way to the duwo office, and crashed into another bike on the way back
ultimate suayness!!
4:02:00 AM
Monday, September 20, 2010
haiz... i'm like this walking tragedy. remember my heavenly chicken soup yesterday? well i had some left, so this morning i happily heated it up and poured it into my beautiful thermos so i can drink it during lunch. my bag was already bursting with my 900 page textbook, notebook, pencil case and water bottle, so i put it together with my lunchbox into a popular plastic bag and skipped merrily off to get my bike. ok no wait. edit: i rushed hurriedly down to get my bike, cos i was running late >< hung my plastic bag on one handlebar and my laptop bag onto the other bar and whizzed off!
since i was running late, i took a shortcut, which was a gravel path that twists and turns a bit. and due to the uneven loading on my bike handles, a moment was produced in the clockwise direction about pivot point P... and i almost crashed into a tree o.O had to swerve madly like 4 times before i got my balance back. and i was like OMG malu!! cos everyone else were cycling breezily past me in a straight line. and that's when i realised one of the plastic bag's handles had snapped. but since i was still lamenting over my face-throwing, i didn't really bothered about it.
ok... so i got onto the proper bike track and everything went smooth and well, except for the fact that i'm running even later. and i was almost reaching my faculty already. i was like YES I'M REACHING! when suddenly my left bike handlebar was released of it's load and there was a loud THWACK on the ground. no prizes for guessing but yeah, the whole plastic bag snapped -___- and there was my thermos and lunchbox in the middle of the road and SOMEONE ALMOST CYCLED OVER IT! i was like OMG ultimate malu! so parked my bike, picked the stuff up and somehow managed to stuff them into my bag. and rushed off, cos i was blocking half the track
and i was late for lecture T.T
BUT
that's not the end of the story.
when i took out my notebook and pencil case to start taking notes, i caught a whiff of my heavenly chicken soup. i was like hmm how come my pencil case smells like my soup? OH CRAP! and i took out my thermos and instead of hearing sloshing i heard this clinking and there you have it, the vacuum layer's totally shattered T.T and the bottom of my notebook was wet! and so was my 900 page textbook! that cost me a bomb! maybe even 2 bombs! waaaaaaargh.... tragedy!!!
so while the lecturer was going on about thermodynamics, i was crying over my thermo flask T.T
and now my textbook is on my heater, which is turned to full blast (which isn't very warm at all). the only positive thing is at least my textbook smells nice now T.T
since i was running late, i took a shortcut, which was a gravel path that twists and turns a bit. and due to the uneven loading on my bike handles, a moment was produced in the clockwise direction about pivot point P... and i almost crashed into a tree o.O had to swerve madly like 4 times before i got my balance back. and i was like OMG malu!! cos everyone else were cycling breezily past me in a straight line. and that's when i realised one of the plastic bag's handles had snapped. but since i was still lamenting over my face-throwing, i didn't really bothered about it.
ok... so i got onto the proper bike track and everything went smooth and well, except for the fact that i'm running even later. and i was almost reaching my faculty already. i was like YES I'M REACHING! when suddenly my left bike handlebar was released of it's load and there was a loud THWACK on the ground. no prizes for guessing but yeah, the whole plastic bag snapped -___- and there was my thermos and lunchbox in the middle of the road and SOMEONE ALMOST CYCLED OVER IT! i was like OMG ultimate malu! so parked my bike, picked the stuff up and somehow managed to stuff them into my bag. and rushed off, cos i was blocking half the track
and i was late for lecture T.T
BUT
that's not the end of the story.
when i took out my notebook and pencil case to start taking notes, i caught a whiff of my heavenly chicken soup. i was like hmm how come my pencil case smells like my soup? OH CRAP! and i took out my thermos and instead of hearing sloshing i heard this clinking and there you have it, the vacuum layer's totally shattered T.T and the bottom of my notebook was wet! and so was my 900 page textbook! that cost me a bomb! maybe even 2 bombs! waaaaaaargh.... tragedy!!!
so while the lecturer was going on about thermodynamics, i was crying over my thermo flask T.T
and now my textbook is on my heater, which is turned to full blast (which isn't very warm at all). the only positive thing is at least my textbook smells nice now T.T
7:10:00 PM
Sunday, September 19, 2010
ok i dunno what overcame me yesterday, but i bought this whole chicken at the market. WHOLE chicken. you know with all the wings and legs attached. ok i wanted to make chicken soup, and supermarkets don't really have chicken with bones and i need the bones for the soup. but still!!! why oh why was i crazy enough to buy a whole chicken? then just now i took it out of the fridge and stared at it, not sure how am i supposed to magically transform the chicken-shaped mass of meat and bones into the normal chicken chunks we see in soup.
in the end, armed with a pathetic looking knife, i began to tackle the chicken. haiz... you know usually hawkers or your mum uses the huge 菜刀 to chop up the chicken. but i only have the medium sized one for veggies and fruits! T.T and i dunno where to begin! so i went for the obvious parts i.e. all the bits sticking out. took quite awhile cutting down the wings and drumsticks! and bones are so hard! but found out if i chop at the joints it's easier XD
right... after i finally got the 4 bits off, i like "ok, NOW what?" how are you supposed to know where to hack first?! and neither chicken nor knife were coorperating very well. in the end i had the break the bones by hand and then slice up the meat into reasonable looking pieces, which i promptly dumped into the pot.
ohohoh i hear the heavenly sound of my pressure cooker going off! which means the soup is done! ahh!!! self cooked chicken soup! haha i'm so proud of myself XDXD
wait. i put salt right?
in the end, armed with a pathetic looking knife, i began to tackle the chicken. haiz... you know usually hawkers or your mum uses the huge 菜刀 to chop up the chicken. but i only have the medium sized one for veggies and fruits! T.T and i dunno where to begin! so i went for the obvious parts i.e. all the bits sticking out. took quite awhile cutting down the wings and drumsticks! and bones are so hard! but found out if i chop at the joints it's easier XD
right... after i finally got the 4 bits off, i like "ok, NOW what?" how are you supposed to know where to hack first?! and neither chicken nor knife were coorperating very well. in the end i had the break the bones by hand and then slice up the meat into reasonable looking pieces, which i promptly dumped into the pot.
ohohoh i hear the heavenly sound of my pressure cooker going off! which means the soup is done! ahh!!! self cooked chicken soup! haha i'm so proud of myself XDXD
wait. i put salt right?
11:08:00 PM
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Yesterday I was eating fried cuttlefish from ajisen when I suddenly caught a woman who was sitting opposite staring at me weirdly.
So... I stared back at her indignantly. And that's when I realised I was chewing on the cuttlefish with its many tentacles spewing out of my mouth o.O
Note to self: NEVER leave the house without abundant supply of paper bags
11:39:00 PM
