Studying efforts

I've been slow in reading stuff. There must be a way to make it all better. I've been sleeping during the day, you-tubing, surfing, listening to the radio and not really studying. Exams are coming soon and i need to step my game up. I don't watch a lot of tv anymore but still manage to distract myself from studying. :( And i've been feeling stressed about it all. Yea. I'm just ranting on about not studying. Happy studying to everyone else!

Raya esok..

Karipap Pusing

Yup. The moon has been sighted and so Eid is confirmed tomorrow here in the land of Brissie/Aussie. I made karipap pusing (spiral currypuffs) just know. It was a jumble of different shapes and sizes and the edges, well it was my first time, didn't look as great as the ones in the 'gerai's' back home. Oh well.

So the plan for tomorrow is Raya gathering at Mai's place and then maybe, later go to Hao's place cause they're having an open house at 4 pm.

I will post up some pics of the karipaps when they're cooked.

Selamat Hari Raya to all and Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

Verdict: The currypuffs turned out to be slightly crispy though not as crispy as the ones mom used to buy from her friend. Plus, the spirals weren't really as pronounced as should be i guess i screwed up the dough. But they were still pretty edible. Hrhr.

What's been happening?

On the ferry

On the way to the beach

North Stradbroke island

Me n Chun yen

Ok. Let's backtrack and reflect on what's been happening in my life?

1. I attended an exam briefing this morning. Yes, my exams are coming up soon. And yes, I am scared. Let's hope for the best.
   
2. I've been making dinner these past two days; tonight was beef antam2 and hot and sour soup (from the packet) and last night was fish laksa.
3. The night before the laksa i had dinner at 1001 nights with good buddies; Kar and Aimi. Chai yo! on the exams, girls.
4. On sunday, was supposed to meet Yul who was in transit from PNG but she took the wrong way or somewhat and couldn't come out. So we just waved to her and passed on her gifts through a fren. Also on that sunday, me and cyen went to North Straddy on a whim. Its a beautiful place with green clear beaches.
5. The day before didn't manage to do much studying, ended up surfing the web most of the day and then off to Coles with Shan to get laksa ingredients.
6. Friday had pbl and patho as usual and met a tutor (who was cute in a way, others might not agree) who had many friends with injuries to the genitals. And even he is astounded at how many friends he has with these *cough* problems.

The rest of that week was pretty much unremarkable. I will post up some pics from North Straddy as soon as i can get them from Chun yen.

Selamat Hari Raya to all. :)

My third attempt at tiramisu - Chocolate tiramisu

I found this recipe from a food blog. I thought it was interesting and tried it out. It turned out well. But, even though i love chocolate, i think i still like my tiramisu old school style.

The ingredients include:

200g dark chocolate (70%) - melt
3 medium eggs
250g mascarpone cheese
150g Italian sponge fingers (i used the whole 200g packet though and hence needed more coffee)
100 ml strong coffee
1 tbsp cocoa

-Beat yolks and add mascarpone. Mix through and add melted choc.
-Whip egg whites and add to the cheese mixture
-Dip sponge fingers into the coffee and turning it a couple of times and then arrange on dish
-Layer with the cheese mix. Add another layer of coffee-dunked sponge fingers and the rest of cheese mix.
-Dust with some sifted cocoa
-Refrigerate for 3-4 hours. Enjoy!

Folding in the beaten egg-whites

Arranging coffee-dunked sponge fingers

Second layer of sponge fingers

Final Product

You can change the chocolate to suit your liking. The tiramisu turned out really chocolatey and decadent. Only the Italian sponge fingers work for tiramisu, don't even bother buying other ones. Only a bit more of the tiramisu is left in the fridge.

On another note, i made banana cake for Fat's birthday today. But i screwed up the icing, it was too thick, i didn't put in enough lemon juice. And i've already eaten two slices of the cake. I feel like i've been eating too much, just shoving food up my trap. Laters.

My room and Choc chip cookies

Here's my bedMy study desk

I made some choc chip cookies the other day. And this is the recipe if anyone wants to have a go at it. The recipe is from a foodblog i visit and its a fool-proof Women's Weekly recipe.

Ingredients:
125 g butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 3/4 cup self-raising flour
125 g choc chip
65 g nuts

Method:
-Preheat oven to 160* C
-Cream first three ingredients together.
-Add the egg and beat some more, mix in the flour
-Fold in choc chips and nuts until they all come together
-Make tsp sized balls, arrange on lined baking trays, leaving room for the cookies to spread out
-Bake for 10-12 mins. Enjoy!

Choc Chip Cookies

P.S: For the latest recipe, i actually used chopped up Cadbury diary choc, omitted the nuts and reduced a bit of the caster sugar to make it less sweet.

Netball tourney

The girls had the netball tournament just now. Competing against other Bruneian teams. Hana's team consisted of herself, xan, badi, bibi, aimi, yil, azim (captain), khairul, danni n asri. The team named themself 'Shinobi' and as you can obviously note its a mixed (boys & girls) tourney. Shinobi won second place.

I declined to join in supporting them as i knew i would be just sitting down, probably munching Nora's sandwiches and feeling like i did not belong. Heh. Whatever, right. So i stayed at home, slept, played Wii twice and games on my laptop and youtubing. I was thinking of making notes for this and last weeks' stuff. Yeah. That went out of the window. It is the weekend though and even if i feel like crap i know i shouldn't feel down.

It was a bit hard getting to sleep last night. I kept tossing and turning. And at one time, even woke and sat up to the merry sounds of 'Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham'. And i, not intending for it to go on for the full and lengthy three hours that hindustani movies extend to called upon my housemate for help. Next week is a week of holiday. The laziness is setting in already. And i know evading any work will just accumulate it all. :(

Yay Jacob got in!

I was going to attend lectures today. I even set my alarm at 6 am, snoozed it a couple of times and finally got up half an hour later. After msg-ing a couple of lecture buddies and not getting a substantiated response, time went by and still feeling sleepy, even after taking a shower and eaten breakfast, I went back to bed. Dozed off and didn't stir until our unit was buzzed three hours later. The carpet guy was here. So i grudgingly and slowly got up from bed and ate some store bought brownies which i must say are pretty good. Chatted to my housemates and then printed off my notes. I still have my LO to start and finish by today.

Last night, Aussie idol. The second group of guys were up. They were pretty bland. If i had to choose two people to proceed to next round, i could only have picked one out of the lot, Ben. This young 16 yo boy who had the ability to hit the low and high notes very well.

Jacob's the Man..

I just watched Australian Idol semi-finals just now. The guys were up tonight. I am especially loving Jacob's voice. I think he has the best voice in the first group and cute too. He totally nailed Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars. The only put-down is he gets freaked out easy and is not so sure of himself. Vote for Jacob! =) Hopefully he'll make it to the next round.

The other guys:
Matt - Pretty good voice
Junior - RnB voice, nice but he ruined Pink's Dear Mr President song
Carl - Trumpeter, hmm, didn't do it for me
Daniel - Cutie pie but i think i was distracted by his cuteness to actually listen to him
Husny - What a weird performance, that bumping and winking, he does bring something out of the ordinary to idol and Mark did find him and i quote,"Strangely attractive", unquote

On another note, had fun last night at Sitar celebrating Chun yen's birthday. I shared a meal with Badi. We had the chicken madras (hot), garlic naan and the garden salad. The madras was especially good. This is disgusting but because it was that spicy, it made my nose run and my tummy felt the heat.

On an even another note, i feel like i have been eating a lot these days. I made tiramisu a few days ago and i have been eating most of it. And i haven't played netball, which was my only exercise before, for a very long time now. I have become a bum reveling in the little joys of tiramisu and the comfort of my warm bed. Have no fear, i will be up and running by tuesday morn.

Peanut butter cookies

Yesterday, i made peanut butter cookies. This recipe is compliments of Janelle Bloom, one of the chefs at 'Ready Steady Cook'. It turned out really well. Yum. And it was pretty easy to do. I also had my first try at making cannelloni for which i stuffed them with some tuna veg mix. The tomato sauce was really sour and i didn't test it before putting it all together so i couldn't change anything. I made the bechamel/white sauce which was quite good if i may say so myself but it was a bit grey because of all the black pepper i put in to flavour it. It didn't turn out as well. I'll have to give it another go next time. Possibly with a different filling.

Recipe for the peanut butter cookie is:

1 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
100g chopped milk choc/choc chips

- Mix em all up and roll up teaspoon balls onto a lined baking tray.
- Press em down with a fork if you wish so. I made ~40 cookies and i've eaten 10
yesterday.
- Bake in a preheated oven of 160* for ~15 mins or until lightly browned.

Gd back in Brunei

Gd has gone back to Brunei. It felt like a holiday when he was here as we were always going somewhere and taking lots of pictures wherever we go. Now, back to school, back to reality. I didn't take any pics of the choc cake i made which definitely tasted better the next day and yes, i've been stealing mai's pics for my fotopages cause i don't photograph anything anymore.

Its been raining all day today. The cold weather makes me lazy to go anywhere. And i've been reading blogs, watching monk and youtubing all day. I've also eaten a lot of my Kettle chips today. Feeling kinda of queasy right now. I need to do some work.

Happy Advanced Birthday to sis Nad (23rd) and Chun yen (22nd)!!

Today

Gd is here in Brissie so we've been taking him out to places. He's only here for a week and will be leaving on the wednesday flight. Today's plan, which i declined to join, was to go to Harbour Town for shopping and then to Surfer's Paradise for more pic taking. I'm kinda over taking pics now. Gd is ever the celebrity taking pics wherever we go. Yesterday a bunch of them went to Ekka/Exhibition day which is an annual event and something i have yet to go to. And tommorow they'll be going to DFO, direct factory outlets, for which i'm not sure if i'm going for two reasons. One, i don't want to shop cause i'm broke and two, i have an ebm tute for which i am contemplating to go to. We shall see how it goes.

Nora's bro has gone back to Brunei on today's flight. Hope nora will be okay without her bro/flatmate/shopping buddy. We all met him last night during the riverside dinner at coffeeclub. Yummy scrumptious calamari though they did skimp on the side salad.

Zaim's birthday is coming up and so we're planning to have a pizza dinner at my place. Fats will be making some pasta. I'll be making the chocolate cake. And we'll both make the cheesecake. Hopefully everything will go well.

And also Happy Birthday to Babah today!! :)

Nora's BBQ birthday

Yesterday, had a barbeque at Roma St Parklands. Lots of chicken wings barbequed, mee hoon goreng cooked up by nini chun yen, spaghetti goreng by babu Hana, cheesecake by moyang Mai and me and dato fats made brownies. Yesh. We are a family here, a screwed up one but nonetheless one family. We sang 'Selamat Hari Jadi' to auntie Nora whose birthday was actually 4 days ago. Her presents included a huge taupe bag, a piggy bank in the shape of a black bag, very cool, and a bunch of lilies. We also were a part of the many Asians, many chinese people, having bbqs there. And during one of our toilet trips, we stumbled on a Spectacle garden which was prettily designed and had different coloured flowers, red, pink, purple. No roses but there were daisies, kale, gerberas and others which i had no idea what they're named. And by the way, we barbequed next to a hibiscus garden, pretty huge hibiscus of various colours; yellow, orange, pink, red, white, orange with yellow edge and etc. Chun yen, kar, hana, nora, san and I played a game called tongi if i'm not mistaken whereby we played badminton but for a ball we srunched up some paper towels and for a racket we used our thongs. It was fun and interesting to play. They also played pencil, the card game where you had to remember other people choice, of car for example, and say it when you and another person had the same card. Not good for people with heart problems. Adverse effects include palpitations, chest pain, arrhythmias, anxiety disorders and possibly psychogenic seizures. For pics view link on the side. Peace and Love.

Moving house

Our new place is just across the road. And we've decided not to hire a ute/van. So we will just be carrying our stuff to and fro. Hrhr. Lots of stuff to carry. And i still haven't finish packing. I've been sick as well. Now, just left over with a sore throat which apparently everyone has. Its the season i guess.

Welcome back dinner tonight for mai. Yum. At Ahmet's, this turkish restaurant at Southbank. I wonder what should i order tonight. We'll see. That's it for now.

Harry Potter Mania

The latest and last Harry Potter is out at 9 am this morning here in Brisbane. Long queues at Borders as children and adults alike wait patiently for the book. I just watched Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix last night. It was a great movie. Awesome, fabulous movie. Obviously the director can't fit the thick book into a movie and so many bits got compressed and some bits thrown out altogether. But it all turned out well, i think.

On another note, tutorial has been cancelled today and we are having the session tomorrow. I still haven't packed any of my stuff for the moving out next saturday. I definitely think i need boxes even though the new place is just across the road. Will definitely finish packing by friday.

My sister, Itri, is back in Brunei and still sleeping at 9 am there. Maybe still jet-lagged and all. She's going to do her project there. Chai yo. Ooh. Raven is on tv right now. Gtg.

Spaghetti Carbonara

I felt inspired to make spaghetti carbonara after watching Anthony Telford, smart man, on the 9 am show cook up traditional and westernised versions. The traditional version was made in a bowl cooking the eggs gently with hot spaghetti only. The westernised version had a bit of cream and was cooked in the pan but off the stove. I made my own version without the bacon of course.

Ingredients:
1/2 a pack of 500g dried spaghetti
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 red chili, sliced thin
olive oil
tsp of mixed herb
2 eggs beaten up
salt & pepper
parmesan cheese

How to:
- Cook the pasta til al dente.
- Heat up the olive oil and fry off the chopped garlic, chili, mixed herb til golden
- Add cooked pasta to pan and remove pan from stove
- Add the beaten eggs, mix well. Add some pasta water if a bit dry.
- Season with salt & pepper and sprinkle some parmesan cheese over the top.

Yummy yet simple. My first ever try at making spaghetti carbonara. You could add some beef if you so wish, frying it off with the garlic.

Be Happy

I've been given a challenge (failed exam) and i'll rise to the occasion. I'll just have to be positive, work hard and do everything in order to pass this year. Amin. Thinks happy thoughts and you'll feel happy. Have courage. Chai yo.

Exam results

I failed my exams. Failure can be defined in a number of ways. It is the act that fails/an event that does not achieve its intended purpose/a lack of success/a person with a record of failing/an unexpected omission/bankruptcy/the inability to function normally. I've felt depressed because of this. I feel everyone is better than me. And as always, have done better even though i've studied harder or it feels like i've studied harder. Maybe i'm missing a vital ingredient that makes others score.

Depression is defined by at least 5 out of 9 symptoms and has to include anhedonia (lack of pleasure) and depressed mood. The 9 are Sleep changes, Anhedonia, Depressed mood, Appetite changes, Fatigue, Agitation or retardation, Concentration problems, Excessive guilt, Suicidal ideation (SADAFACES). I have been eating a lot and sleeping a lot. More than what is normal for me. And i've been depressed, yea kinda blaming myself for my sucky results, and during our depression case week. I think everyone in our group was depressed during that time as we were influenced subconsciously by the case.

I have to move house soon. The owners want to renovate this lovely apartment and so we are in the process of trying to find a new place. Me and fats went house-hunting yesterday. We saw one apartment close by but the price was a bit steep, maybe we can negotiate on that. The others don't seem keen though. Hrhr.. Back to house-hunting all over again. Packing, moving, unpacking. Organising phone, broadband, electricity and gas bills.The list goes on.

BBQ

The barbeque on saturday was great fun. Lots of barbequed chicken wings, excellent mee goreng (supplied by chun yen) and yummy shepherd's pie (by elle) to eat. We took a lot of photos, played cards and reminisced about our childhood and memories during ubd days. The next day, we took the maxitaxi with them to the airport. Sat around drinking hot chocolates and coffees, took some more pics. E and m hugged everyone when it was time to go board the plane. And e cried. We are going to miss you guys very much. We waved to them from the waving/watching area and did a little mexican wave.

Then it was off to the city where we had lunch at indian odyssey where everything was salty. And back to st. lucia for tutorial with bibi at uni. And after that coles to buy a few 'necessary' stuff like dark chocolate. Haha.

I'm piss-broke right now. I have enough for eating out at cheap places but not at expensive restaurants where i can't even eat the meat for lack of halalness. So i'm opting out of the pbl dinners this week where one is at Mongolian Dynasty and the other at Ouzeri's. I don't think i'll be missed much anyways as i'm pretty quiet. Plus the fact that i need to buy black printer ink and get a card for my little brother's birthday which is coming up soon.

Be Happy. xxoo, Huda.

Nothing

Nothing interesting has been going on in my life. Back to school, bla, bla.. We are going to watch transformers later at the Myer Centre. I had my pbl mane. It was the usual. Listening to other people presenting LOs and presenting your own. I was kinda shaky just then, i'm not sure why, its not like its my first time talking in pbl. I've also been eating a lot of junk. I finished a whole big bag of chips all by myself in less than two days. Not good. Yeah, when i'm bored, i eat. I really should try and stop that habit.

I am also loving Robin Thicke's new song 'Lost without you'. Its a really sexy, romantic song. Nora and i saw him singing on Oprah and we were blown away by his adorable cuteness and his justin/george michael-like voice. But he is so not gay and happily married to his beautiful wife who is the lovely gal in his video.

Tommorow, elle and minah are having their farewell barbeque and we are sending them off on sunday. And mai is coming here arriving here on tuesday. You lose some, you gain some. Be happy! Peace to all.

Gold Coast

We went to the GC yesterday and the journey took longer than usual as the tracks were having some maintenance work done and so we hopped off at Yerongpilly, took the bus and hopped back on at Kuraby. Thankfully there were buses available for the transit. And it was a comfortable second half of journey in the train as i sat in a 2-seater which also had a 2-seater facing it so i could stretch out my legs. We all arrived in GC ~2 hours later, had a late lunch and then it was off to the beach.

Everyone took a lot of pictures. Walked along the beach, wet our feet in the water letting them sink in, enjoyed the many seagulls flocking about, the cool sand, warm water and salty breeze. Plus there were many people around enjoying themselves and parents letting their babies crawl on the pale sand.

Even though it was cold, most of us had ice-creams from Gelatissimo. There were so many chocolate flavours, Death by chocolate, the selection was named. I had the Mocha Nut Crunch. Yum. The Belgian choc was also exquisite.

Sleepover

After coming back from my clinical coaching session for which we waited for the ~20 mins and discovered, thankfully some doctors stopped by to tell us, that our tutor was actually on leave for three weeks. It had taken a half-hour by bus and another 10 min walk just to get to the place. I then dropped by coles to get ice break and some mini-muffins and then to kar & cyen's house to hang out. The hangout went on longer than intended plus i was lazy to go back home and so slept over at their place. Its nice to have someone to watch tv and sleep with. Hehe. Thanks kar & cyen. :)

Tomorrow's plan is to travel to Gold Coast and probably have a picnic at the beach. Its been a long time since i've seen the beach. Can't wait for tomorrow! I'm not sure what the plan exactly is. We're all broke from all the shopping in the past week and so I'm trying to stop spending more money if i want to have enough to last til the end of the month.

The cold weather is sure making me eat a lot.

Goats etc..

On the way back from Chinatown we stopped by Toowong for a while to drop off some books at the library and borrow some more (i went to the library whereas hana and elle window-shopped at K-Mart). Near the library, there was a small caged area filled with hay and animals. Cute small and medium-sized goats (brown, black, black & white) and sheeps (white), hens (black and brown), white ducks and even a baby brown pig. Entrance was free and it was only a dollar to buy some feed. And so, many kids just sat down with the animals. One boy even got his shirt chewed on by a brown goat. The amazing thing about the animals was their feathers/hair fluffed up due to the cold weather. And elle said there was no stink either and i was saying maybe its because they hadn't pooped a lot. Hrhr.

I then went off to indroo to meet up with others and then we all went back to the city to do some more window-shopping and to accompany the people who were going back soon and were actually shopping.

Today we're going to Garden City's Westfield mall to accompany them buy a lot of popcorn for their family back home since the one at indroo was closed. Laters.. :-)

Ice-skating

We went ice-skating on saturday. It was fun trying to balance on slippery ice using a blade which is stuck at the end of a boot. Some people fell a lot (i'm not going to name names here). Some people got it easy and skated like they've been doing it all their lives. Some people, like me, scared of falling down, took the easiest route of just hanging on to the edge for life. I did fall once, early. The thing with my skating was that i made small steps but i did manage to go to the center and skate with the flow of people. This was my second time skating after all. We skated as singles, doubles and triples. Others as a train. Awesome fun. It was freezing inside that we felt warm coming out of the place.

We had a sleepover on saturday night and the next morning hung around, watched tv and later took the bus to Indooroo to watch 'Blades of Glory' which was uber-funny. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to laugh their head off! Today, we shopped around at Stone's Corner where i bought track pants and a cool pair of bronze slippers.

I will post some more pictures at my fotopages or blog later.

Yesterday

We went to Chermside's Westfield mall yesterday for a bit of shopping. It's a massive mall and shops filled almost every corner of the building. The shops had everything you could possibly want and need and ranged from cheap, discounted places to designer wear and boutiques. Plus grocery places such as woolies AND coles. And the usual Myer, Target and K-Mart. In addition to all that, SALES everywhere!! My friends and I had walked for almost six hours without noticing. I indulged myself with an uber-hip jacket, a smart blouse for cc and some jewellery for people back home. I was also tempted to get some books from Angus & Robertson but refrained myself because i could easily borrow from the library ('but its not the same, i know..'). Maybe i'll just get one book next time i visit a bookstore. I also tasted the fabulous Greek Yoghurt there. Yummy double choc crunch yoghurt.

Today, they're going to the direct factory outlets near the Brisbane International Airport but i declined from joining as i was lazy and wanted to just chill out at home. So i've been watching tv all day, surfing the net and eating choc cake. I feel like i've got so much going on next semester. Hopefully will cope well with everything.

Congrats to Ka'Itri for passing all her exams!! :-)

Holiday!

So i'm currently in the middle of my week-long holiday before everything starts all over again next week. Hopefully i'll get some nice people in my next pbl group. I thought my last group was fantastic. I'm staying at kar and cyen's place for a bit. Hehe. At least i'm not alone during the week. Its been great so far here. And i'm kinda dreading moving back into my place cause my housemate's parents are here so its kinda awkward with them around. Oh well.

Sat: I had fun looking at stuff at ikea and eating the awesome-ly cheap food there for lunch. Plus i did buy this contraption you hang and store stuff in. Heh.
Sun: I went to the city, bought some junk food and had a movie marathon; while you were sleeping, nacho libre, deuce bigalow
Mon: Had lunch with nora and the girls. Nando's of course and did some window shopping as well.
Tues/Today: I spent the whole day at home, watching tv and eating my junk. Hrhr.

I really like just being there and doing nothing. But i know, i'll be bored soon.

Ciao, amigos! Have a great holiday! xxoo..

Exam over!

Exam was one word, hard..

Randomness part 2

-Yay..My internet is working again. I can finally watch the latest af5 concert from youtube.

-I actually thought ebi was good but his two songs were under-par, no wonder he didn't win.

-I need to study. I need to discipline myself to study.Exams are coming up soooooon!!

-My allowance should be out today. I am going to have sushi for lunch later with hana and maybe fats.

-I am free today, yay..

-I slept early last night and didn't get much study done, hrhr and woke up later than i intended. I'm pretty sure i slept almost 11 hours total.

-And now am still wasting time, watching youtube n surfing. Laters..

Randomness

-Exams are coming up soon.

-I still haven't finished my LO for this week. I am considering sending out past notes instead as the pharmacology stuff for GI is loadsss...

-I've been feeling tired/exhausted for the past few days..eventhough i only went for a couple of lectures

-My skin feels warm to touch, has been for the past two weeks

-My allergic rhinitis is acting up these days sometimes lasting til the afternoon and it gets earlier for me to get a cold at night

-I have been sleeping loads, last night 12 hours, not normal for me

-I, most likely, have an acute viral infection

-I haven't seen a doctor, again debating with myself whether i should see one when my symptoms are so mild

-Its getting colder here at night

-Tonight, there's a netball game for which hana, shan, ellie, tina, & others are playing. Still wondering if i should go.

-I haven't finished copying shan's notes for wednesday's lectures. That makes two tasks i should complete by today.

-I also slept for 2 hours in the arvo, i actually thought i was gonna sleep the afternoon away. Again not normal. I usually take a 30mins-1 hour nap.

-I have been eating a lot. I think its a response to my not-feeling so well. To take the pain away. I don't know when to stop.

-Oh and my internet is slow. It sucks. I have to wait a long time to watch a video on youtube.

-Good Luck to ka'Itri and Nad on their exams!! And yes, i have commented on your posts, ka'itri.

Good food, Good times

I was debating with myself yesterday whether or not to go for dinner with my pblmates since i had been unwell for the past two days. On first day, i was suffering from an acute viral infection with symptoms of a blocked nose and heaviness in my head. And yesterday had a runny nose and headache. Plus the fact that i had slept the afternoon away cause i didn't feel so well and so didn't get much studying done.

After i took a shower, i decided to just go for it. So i took the bus to the city and walked across the bridge, past the cultural centre, enjoyed the chilly breeze there and walked to the place, Punjabi Palace. As i came near the restaurant, smells of yummy indian food were wafting towards me. We all had the banquet which was entree plus mains. It was pretty good food and we all had fun trying out different curries. I didn't talk much, as usual, and so i just listened to them regaling us with stories of other med students and the funny tv show, Chaser. Overall, no regrets and had a great time. Good food, good times.

Egg hit

Last night, instead of following the original plan of watching the Spiderman 3 movie which premiered yesterday because it was fully booked for all 3 following sessions, we had dinner at Ahmets and drinks at Batavia. I had the Spicy Lamb Pide which i shared with Fats and Zaim had the Kuzu Pirzola (lamb cutlets). The meal was fantastic, a bit pricey but worth every cent. We then went across the road to Batavia where they had uber-cool watergarden teas; teabag was a ball which blossomed into a flower when immersed in hot water. I should've ordered that instead of the cafe-au-lait, maybe next time. Batavia is a unique furniture/tea cafe. The menus were pretty interesting. For my drink, i was given two jugs, one of coffee water and the other of milk and 1 spoon of sugar. Drinkers were supposed to mix the two together to make the cafe-au-lait to your own taste. I felt that there way too much milk given. We also shared the flourless chocolate cake which was yum.

When we walked back from Guyatt park, an egg was thrown straight to zaim's abdomen. He was in pain as we walked the rest of the way back. Some of the egg splattered onto my shirt, a bit on my left jeans, foot and slipper. Zaim's jacket was totally egg-ruined. It was probably shot by someone across the road, some drunken youth...

Headache

I had a headache in the morning when we all went to IKEA on saturday but it went away after a while. I was asymptomatic yesterday except for last night when my neck felt warm.

And today, my neck is no longer warm but i have a headache. So i couldn't study even though that was the plan for today since i don't have school today. I've been watching tv all morning. 'Fresh' has a longer segment, Yay! and it starts midday. Yummy cooking, although my head hurts so i just laid down in front of the tv. I have also been eating a lot of junk today. Biscuits and keropoks. I think its all part of trying to get rid of the pain but it probably has exacerbated it.

So, you're probably thinking, just take some panadol or aspirin right?! But i don't want to be dependent of drugs. I was previously. Chomping down panadol at the slightest headache/cold. I'll take some later if it doesn't get better. Tried sleeping earlier but didn't work. Hopefully will get better soon.

P.S: I took a couple of panadols just now after enduring the pain the whole day..

Banana and Choc Chip Muffins

Another monday morning. I've just showered and am now hungry coz i haven't eaten breakfast. Hopefully i won't have anything going today although my pblmate did say that we're supposed to have a make-up clinical coaching session with my previous cc tutor. But she hasn't contact me yet so i guess its not happening. I watched 'Ugly Betty' last night. I think that show is so over-rated. The cast too young, Daniel is too young to be running a company on his own, Betty thinks she's always right and the humour insulting (in everyway and everytime to Betty). I remember seeing the Mexican version of 'Betty' and it was fabulous and funny. But regardless of what i've just said, people should and would still wait in front of the television at 7.30 on sundays. Everyone else finds the show hilarious! Ok. enough said about that.

Yesterday, i made banana and choc chip muffins which was good but not as amazing as my pblmate's Coconut and Apricot muffins.

The recipe for the Banana and Choc Chip muffin is:

2 1/2 cups (375g) self-raising flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, optional
3/4 cup (170g) sugar
1/2 cup (95g) choc chip, the more the better
1 cup milk
3/4 cup vergetable oil
1 egg
2 small bananas, mashed, add more for a better banana taste

Combine dry ingredients together.
Combine wet ingredient together.
Fold in dry and wet ingredients and place in party muffin cups.
Cook for 20 mins at 200*C.

Carrot, Pineapple, Coconut and Walnut Cake

Ah, the Ladies Lounge. A quiet corner of an otherwise rowdy public house. A comfortable, tasteful room for ladies of refinement, and perhaps their gentlemen friends. In the Ladies Lounge, they can relax and enjoy a cup of Earl Grey tea and a generous slice of Carrot, Pineapple, Coconut and Walnut Cake, perhaps even eating a second slice.

Pineapple, Carrot, Coconut and Walnut Cake, courtesy of the Favourite Recipes of Rotary Ladies of District 965 recipe book, circa 1986.

2 cups self-raising flour
pinch salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups grated carrot
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3/4 cup dessicated coconut
1/2 cup well-drained crushed pineapple (from a tin- we prefer Golden Circle brand)

preheat oven to moderate - 180-200C or 375-400 F and grease a cake tin of about 8-10 inches

Sift flour, salt, bicarb and cinnnamon into a larg bowl. Stir in the sugar (I used caster, ymmv).
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the eggs, oil and vanilla essence.
Beat well with a wooden spoon.
Stir in carrots, walnuts, coconut and pineapple

Pour into greased cake tin and bake 45-50 minutes until cooked and a skewer in centre comes out clean (or almost clean, I like the middle just a tiny bit underdone). Leave in the tin 10 minutes after taking it from the oven.

You can ice this cake, and the Rotary Ladies recommend a vanilla cream cheese frosting, but with the cinnamon-y smell drifting all through the Ladies Lounge I never have the patience.

Eat the cake, sip your tea, rub your tummy.

Courtesy of http://ladieslounge.blogspot.com/2006/09/carrot-pineapple-coconut-and-walnut.html

Looks to be a simple recipe. Try it out. I haven't yet.

Back to school

Another monday afternoon. My week-long easter break has ended. It was uneventful, unproductive and all in all just a bloody good rest. I had a pathology tutorial in the morning which i neglected to attend because it was early and i just wanted to relax and take it slow as it is the first day of school. So i just went for my video recording session on 'breaking bad news'. I was nervous as hell but it was okay though i didn't manage to finish what i wanted to say as my time was up. Arrived back home, watched Oprah, Ready Steady Cook where my favourite chef; Alistair McCloud was there cooking up fabulous dishes such as spice-rubbed steak and french toast. Yum. And also watched ET where the latest goss seem to be the break-up of Prince William and Kate. They're young anyways. Its too soon to get engaged as they were rumoured to be. And if you've seen the gossip magazines, Will's usually drunk and on some girl's lap.

Tommorow is pbl day where we have to present our learning objectives for the week before easter break plus trudge through new triggers for this week. Hopefully it won't be too long. On wednesday, lectures and then Woohoo, autopsy observation thingy which for one thing, we don't know how to get to and second, was a disturbing event for some people. I'll just leave when it gets too gruesome and distressing and when i feel all nauseated. My clinical coaching is also on wednesday so i'll have to skip CC for the autopsy observation. Laters.

P.S: Happy Birthday to Adib! Wishing you all the best in your studies. Chai Yo!!

P.P.S: I am loving Avril's new single, Girlfriend and Mika's Lollipop right now. Have a listen.

Baking things

Its monday again. The second day of a new month. There were a lot of things i should have done/finished by the weekend that i didn't do. I've been instead watching dramas and videos online. Youtube is so addictive. I've just seen the 'sneezing panda' video which was cute and funny, funny to see the mama panda startled by her baby sneezing. Also see the 'pathetic baby panda'. So what's up with me? Easter hols is coming up next week. And i don't know what i'll be doing then. Hopefully something fun. But right after, i'm having the CCS video recording thing on 'Breaking bad news' which is hard and i don't really know how to do. Come on, we only had one CCS session for that and we're going to be assessed on it plus expected to be good at it. Its easier for those whose first language is English. I find it hard to communicate smoothly in the language. Writing is different. And to break bad news, i'll probably just blurt out stupid stuff.

I was on a brownie baking roll for a while trying out recipes. I've tried two and they both turned out great. One is Jamie's Brilliant Bloomin' Brownies which can be found on his website www.jamieoliver.com and the other is from 'Fresh', a cooking show here, which i'm sad to say no longer has my favourite and inspiring chef, Geoff Jansz there. But still the recipes are awesome and easy to do provided you have the ingredients. I'm currently baking muffins. I recently bought a 12 silicone muffin pan and a 6 silicone bear muffin pan which i imagine are the latest things on the market. The bear one is so kawaii. The only thing is that its hard to clean. I'll probably use some baking paper next time.. Til then.

Monday morning

I woke up today at 9 am thinking of all the studying i should be doing today, the last day of my three day long weekend. Its now 5.57 pm and i've done zilch, nada. Nope, haven't summarised my last week's lecture notes nor have i printed my pblmates LOs as i haven't refilled my empty black ink catridge.

Back to the morning, so i had my breakfast and was in the midst of washing up when i complained to my housemate of the increasing number of small bugs present on the kitchen ceiling and so she called the manager but was told to call the agency instead. Ringgg, Ringg..No one answered and so left a voicemessage. We then went on to trim our dead house plants to tidy up our balcony. Four bags full of dead leaves and stalks later plus two bags of expired goods that we threw into the bin which was fortunately not full. We picked some lime, hers to cleanse the face, mine for my sorethroat, which hopefully i've recovered from. I had a fever since friday but kept my temperature down by loading on panadols (2 every 4 hours) self-medicating myself and gargling some salt water for the throat. I'm still having some headachy feeling, which is unfortunately common in atopic people such as I sufferring from allergic rhinitis apart from other symptoms like the obligatory icky, runny nose every morning. Haha.. I remember one lecturer asking us if we knew what the no. 11 was? Did you guess that it was two streams of mucus running down from the nose? Too smart! And it's usually can be seen in kids cause they can't be bothered to wipe it away.

Peace, y'all..