$6 an hr

hey all!
im here at "the mall", opposite pwtc. in a tiny lil cyber cafe... which happens to be charging me $6 an hr. WTFFFFFFFFFFF

it supposed to be $4 an hour. but when i checked my pc in precisely an hr, they had already charged me $6. which means because it was on-the-dot an hour, they charged me for the nxt 1/2 hr already. WTF

im damn pissed off. so i decided to stay till it was an hr and 20 mins to use up the $6 kau kau and to avoid the other $2 that they would charge me if i stayed for another 30mins instead. err... get it? nvm, u do the math yourself =p

*fumes*

so so extremely cut-throat!
i know its in the centre of the city, near PWTC and all... but seriously man... u should take a look at this place. extremely tiny, located in the basement and has only about 15 comps at most! (here, i shall ignore that they use an AVF mouse and logitech webcam)

at least i managed to check all the stuff i wanted to. argh!
$6 an hour! WTFWTFWTF

book 11 or 12?

hey all!
im in kl now and have no access to the internet, thus the lack of updates.

i submitted my visa application last thursday and was told to check my email on tuesday. which is technically today. though it being 2.30am, i seriously doubt anyone would be at work now =p

i just bathed, so i feel all energetic and awake, so i shall use the time constructively to blog instead :D

lets talk about something stupid that happened to me recently.
if u were close enough to me during high school, u would probably already know how much i love the "wheel of time" series by robert jordan. the thing is, the book is really thick and gets draggy at times. plus the plot twists and turns like crazy. it has one MAIN character and about half a dozen semi-main characters, not to mention the other dozen supporting characters. and the book intricately details each characters story.

but i guess thats partly why i love the series soo much. it has soo many layers to it, it gets confusing at times, but grips you so tightly to its pages that your eyes lap up every word even as u wish you could just burn the book. wtf (i realize that this is not a very flattering discription, but if u get what i mean, then u will get what i mean =p)

anyways, the stupid thing is that i spent about a year waiting for the final installment of the series to be released, and when i saw book 11 of the series at MPH, i suddenly couldnt remember whether that was the book i was waiting for all this while, or if the final book was book 12 and that i already had book 11 at home. confusing right?

so i tried to flip through the pages to get my bearings. nothing seemed familiar (???!!!)
so stupid right??? i love the series soo much, yet i cant even freaking remember if i read that book before -_-"

oh wait, apparently the last book wont be out till fall nxt year. oh wells, if any of u are following the series too, you might like to have a look at this site.

and i wanna read the whole series again from the beginning. but i discovered that i only had a few of my books at home. i think i lent the rest to some people... i just cant remember who... it must have been eons ago. so to whoever (edine?) who has any of my books, oi! i want them back!!!

pacman anybody?

i baked mini beef pies today!
unlike for the lemon meringue, i didnt take pics of the process coz i forgot. hehe~

anyways, they turned out ok i guess. not as great as stella's mum's pies, but can eat la.

im bringing these pies for a party im attending later this week. i just hope they like it! *keeps fingers crossed*

my visa stuff is nearly all done. all i have to do left is to collect my offer letter and get some stuff stuff certified. then send it all in on thurs. hopefully there will be no problems with my visa! *fingers and toes crossed*

btw, remember the game pacman? i used to love playing it eons ago! even though i sucked at it =p
but i rediscovered it again recently :D
if u wanna play it too, just scroll to the bottom of my blog to play!

visa application

*$@*@&%^(#@*!$%O#*#@

enough said.

media on olympic athletes

is it just me, or do u guys also find that the media is very harsh on the olympic athletes?

a few days ago, there was an article on a badminton player who as a result of her slipping, she lost a medal. and in that article, there was the line "she has only herself to blame". and the rest of the article went on to emphasize how much it was her fault that she lost.
OUCH!
and in a national paper too! goodness! the girl is probably beating herself up over it already and to read that article will be like rubbing salt into the wound.

whats with all the anger and slamming of athletes anyway? they have obviously tried their very best and probably feel more crap over a loss than any spectator ever could feel. to us its just a sport on tv that may or may not bring our country glory, but to them, its their life.

its so easy to sit around coffee tables insulting them and blaming them for not winning anything for our country, but what have YOU ever done for your country anyway?
at least they have put themselves out there, whether or not it was for personal glory.

olympic gymnastics

the main reason i look forward to the olympics every four years is undoubtedly because of the gymnastics.

this year's gymnastics is alright i suppose.
and yes, china is pretty darned good... but my favourite gymnast is from russia. and she didnt compete this year.

not surprising actually, considering that she's 29 this year.
she competed in the last olympics at athens in 2004.

who is she?
she's none other than the drama queen svetlana khorkina.
(who btw, once posed nude for the russian version of playboy ;) )

she's soo brilliant that she's the only gymnast thats had a signature move named after her in all the events. and admittedly she may be a b*tch at times, but she's just soo damned good!

and despite her height being a major disadvantage (she's 5'5) the uneven bars is her favourite event.

2004 uneven bars in Athens olympics

but what i really love about her, is her floor routines.
most other gymnasts just do stunts and pose. they barely follow the music at all.
but she, she actually dances. and thats what i find really riveting.


team finals, 2004 athens

i love the way she dances at 1.07, when she begins smiling. from then on, she just looks soo happy and relaxed, u just wanna root for her all the way :D

here's a look at her when she was even younger, in 1999:

she turns her weakness (her height) into a strength, by looking more elegant than any other short gymnasts can.

lets look at another video taken in 2003:

i just love the ending! :D

and my favouritest video of all!!!

noone else does it quite like her ;)

and i do agree with one of the comments that gymnastics is not as exciting now that she's gone :(

wait, there's one last video!
its not svetlana, its a guy. and i tell u, this is insane!

randomness and amy's kitchen

i havent been blogging regularly lately, and today i got semangat to blog, so this shall be a long post today!

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there was a blackout in kuching last saturday.

i'd just put the ingredients into the bread machine a scant few minutes before the electricity got cut.

so the yeast made everything rise and rise and rise...

when the electricity came back on (a million hours later), i switched on the machine again and made it resume baking the bread.

this is the end product:

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the bread collapsed!


but it looks pretty darned cool right?


nah, side view.
hahaha!

ok ok, kids, its that time again!
its time for amy's kitchen! (wtf, i feel so lame. LOL)

tagline: better than ron's! (simply choi su aka asking for trouble -_-")

anyways, today, we shall make lime meringue (can ask stef to pronounce, she's very pro)!

preheat the oven at 160 degrees celcius

ingredients:

see, im so nice, i measured it out and put it out nicely ala cooking show.

for the crust, u will need:

100g butter


50g caster sugar and 225g crushed graham crackers

i crushed the biscuits by putting them into plastic bags then mashing them. i dunno how other ppl do it, but this way is quite efficient (IMO).
oh ya, must make the plastic bags double layer incase u get to excited smashing the biscuits and the plastic bursts.
note: using plastic bags instead of a bowl and spoon to smash the biscuits will increase your carbon footprint. albeit by a wee bit. but every bit counts. wtf

as for the filling, u will need:

the juice of 2 fresh limes, mixed with water to make up 300ml


3 tablespoons cornstarch/cornflour


15-25g butter and 175-225g caster sugar


2 eggs separated

here's how i separated the yolks from the whites (i learnt it from watching random cooking shows on tv!)
u carefully crack open the egg and hold the half which has the egg yolk upright so that the yolk and white in that half dont spill, and u empty the other half of the egg. then u transfer the yolk into the now-empty half shell and pour the remaining egg white into the bowl. then u just tilt the egg yolk into another bowl. tada! so easy right! (i always wanted to try it ever since i saw it done!)

and most importantly, u will need...


me! your host for today! =p

so wad u do is cream the butter and sugar, then mix in the crumbs.


then line an 8 inch fluted flan dish

but i dont have a fluted flan dish, so i just used an 8 inch cake pan. aiyah... the only difference is in the presentation wad! =p


then u mix the cornflour, lime juice and 100g sugar in a pan. stir over a gentle heat until its thick.

(i made a mistake at that point, i poured in all 225g of sugar. wtf)

remove from heat and add the beaten yolks.
must remember to remove from heat 1st! if not the egg yolk will become poached like the way eggs look in soups or steamboats. the aim here is to mix the eggs in to become part of the rest of the mixture.

taste and add abit of sugar if u like.
(i obvously didnt have to do this part anymore -_-" but i added another lime to try to mitigate the sweetness... didnt work -_-)

cook very gently for several minutes


pour the mixture into the crust


beat the egg whites untill stiff, then add half of the remaining sugar. then add the rest.
so white and fluffy looking! like melted ice-cream. haha~

spoon it over the lime mixture.
i dont think u should pour it in coz its supposed to be on top of the mixture. u dont wanna penetrate the surface and have everything all mixed up.

actually ar... all these tips or wadever u may call it, were made up by myself and i dunno whether its really supposed to be like that. its just what i think. so dun blame me if its all crap =p


then u stick it into the preheated oven for 20mins.


ta da! so pretty right??

so in making this, i learnt:
1. to read the directions carefully la! i put in too much sugar and my supposed sour lime mixture ended up too sweet -_-"
2. stick it into the fridge before serving! that way, the lime mixture will be more solid and not ooze all over the place! but the funny thing is that the directions say "serve hot". so how ler? but if its hot, the lime mixture will be too liquid! *confused*

so my 1st try at making a lime meringue sucked :(
but fear not!
i have learned from my mistakes and i shall make a much nicer meringue nxt time!
(i just hope my tasters will not be soo put off that they dun wanna try my other attempts *big wide eyes* )

here's your host amy, signing off! xoxo

***************

later that night, after baking the lime meringue, i had to attend my granddad's birthday dinner. so i got all dressed up.
and since i havent been camwhoring alot recently, i shall remind ya'all how i look like :D

the pics very nice right??
eh, i didnt photoshop them ok!
the lighting was so nice :D

and i tried to do something with my hair, to get my fringe outta my eyes. but it cant really be seen in the pics. oh wells, i hope it looked nice :)


nah, last picture.
with my pjs and comforter hanging off the side of my bunk. wtf

i moved away from the dressing table to take this pic, thats y the lighting sucks and the picture isnt as nice as the others :(

i wanted to camwhore more, but my parents were rushing me. and i didnt bring my cam coz... i dunno. my cam and i are taking some time off from each other. wtf

and i considered giving the lime meringue to my granddad as a birthday pressie, but in the end i didnt coz i hadnt tried it yet and had no idea it would turn out. now im very relieved i didnt give it to him, it would have been wayyyy to sweet! err... i meant that literally =p

oh ya, rmbr the passport sized pics i mentioned a few days ago?
my mum collected them for me today.
they turned out better than i expected.
not great, but not hideous either la.


ya la, laugh all u want.

cookies and milk

oreos dunked in milk may be nice, but famous amos dunked in milk is orgasmic!

i especially like to pop my famous amos cookies into the oven for awhile (just long enough to make them nice and toasty) and then take 'em out and dunk them in cold milk. ahh~~

i just finished approximately 100g of 'em with a glass of milk. *obscenely satisfied*

office blues

just now, after lunch, chump, dad and myself went home for awhile to rest and get chump's violin, before sending him to his violin lesson.

i told my dad i needed to take passport sized pictures, then i went upstairs to "prettify" myself. then suddenly my dad said that he was going to his office. i naturally bantah-ed coz i already told him i needed to take passport sized pics and besides i just prettified myself. im not going to let all that effort go to waste! (actually not much effort. i didnt even bother to put foundation. i only curled my lashes, filled in my eyebrows and wore some lipgloss)

so he sent my bro to IMH and brought me to take the pics i needed. then horror of horrors, he brought me to his office! T.T
i hate going to his office or any of his office functions. its always so awkward and i always forget wad to call ppl (coz u know la, chinese honorifics damn kao complicated one. like wad do u call the sister of the wife of your father's brother??) and its a family business, so always got some relatives around.
*sigh* now i regret insisting that we took the pics today -_-"

summore when i saw the pics just now, they were so fugly! haiyah! y when i simply camwhore the pics usually turn out pretty good. but when it really matters, the pics look like crap T.T
(oh ya, its because i cant tilt my head down and turn my face to a more flattering angle. wtf)

plus, my dad took me to some kuno looking photo studio and the photographer was a man in his advanced years (cannot say "old" later he get insulted. wtf), so i bet no photoshopping will be done to my face :(
im not even sure the guy has ever heard of "photoshop" -_-"

i complain so much, but i still havent come to my point yet. (shaun says im"cheong hei". so mean right! *sobs*) the point is that i have nothing to do here, so im hiding in my dads room, using his laptop while he does goodness-knows-what-officey-stuff outside.
aiyah... y are the workers all so hardworking one? saturday go home and rest la! (ok la, i know im being unreasonable. if they dont work, how to earn $$ right?)

hmm... so since i got nothing to do now, i shall blog about the guy i met a couple of months ago and saw on tv recently.

lets call him x (ya la, i know, so creative right?).

a couple of friends and i went to a party/clubbing. x was there with a friend y (another strike of creative brilliance). the hostess introduced me to x and y, so we chatted abit and i introduced them to my friends.

this part gets abit hard to explain and is mostly based on my own feelings, so it might be biased.

my friend (female) and i agreed that x seemed to take no interest in girls and that he was more interested in dancing with his friend y. gays? we sure thought so!
then we asked another fren of mine what he thought. he said no way they were gays! but my female fren and i were unconvinced.

so i asked him myself. not like so rudely asked la, but i insinuated it and he said he was straight. actually i dunno y im harping so much on his sexual preference. i have nothing against gays. they never harmed me or anyone i know and its their own choice so wadever.
anyways, i found out from him that he was malaysian and he was partly sarawakian and partly something-ang moh-which-i-cant-remember. he had lived a long time overseas and was back now to try to break into the scene in kl. like be a model or something.

oh ya, did i mention that he is extremely good looking? like the he's-talking-to-me-and-im-silently-screaming-in-my-head kind of handsome. tall and well built too.

so after chatting awhile after the party/clubbing, all of us went to a mamak nearby. while my friend and i ate, x and y chatted to my male friend. i found the conversation very disturbing because of the way they spoke of women (im extremely feminist at times). objectifying them as sex objects and etc. so my friend and i chose to talk amongst ourselves and pretend to not hear their conversation.

after mamak, we split and went our separate ways. i never saw him again until recently when i switched channels on tv and nearly had a heart attack.

there he was! a host of a tv programme (and quite a famous one too!)! he'd obviously made it and in such a short time too. from "aspiring hopeful" to "fresh new face on tv"!

u know its true when they say that a person may not remember what u did, but they will remember how u made them feel. (or something like that la, i cant remember the exact pepatah)
so how did he make me feel the short time that i knew him? i felt small. insignificant. over-looked. insulted. and i wasnt the only one, my female friend felt it too.

nevertheless, we still tried our best to be friendly and courteous.

i know la, we're not the stick-thin drop-dead-gorgeous models that you are used to talking to in your line of work, but takkan u talk to beautiful ppl only!

in his defense he might not have been behaving like that on purpose, maybe im just sensitive (which i admittedly tend to be at times). and there were parts of the conversation in which i sincerely enjoyed talking with him.

so when i saw him on tv, i felt very mixed.

on one hand i was "WOW! congrats man!"
on the other, i was "look, its the handsome jerk on tv"

and if i had one more hand, it would be going "why are all the hot guys gay?!"

8/8/08

how could i not blog on this auspicious date? =p

my dad just came back from china a few hours ago. he bought a huge-ass disney alarm clock for my bro and a olympic mascot handphone tag for me (cherie who? what elder sister?? =p).

chump's new alarm clock is soo cool! its an original disney item, not one of the ciplak ones, so it looks really good! mickey stands in the middle of the face of the clock and the hour and minute hands are mickey's white gloved hands! and my favourite part of the clock is the top where it has the classic bell halves on top and in between them is the hammer-like thing that hits the bells to make them ring :D

the only downside is that chump is sleeping in my room tonight and he has to wake up early at about 8 to go to his violin lessons. which means that i will be awakened by his spanking new alarm clock at the crack of dawn (any time before 10am ia the crack of dawn ok! what do u know) T.T

remember the last handphone tag my daddy got me? it was a rather big, furry pink pig face -_-"
(quite embarrassing actually, but what to do, my daddy so nice and thoughtful to buy it for me ofcoz i have to pretend to be thrilled right?) i took it off about a month or so ago because it was getting dirtier and dirtier. and now he has gotten me a new handphone tag!

but this time, i genuinely like this one! its made of metal and depicts the head of the red olympic mascot. then connected by a fine chain at the bottom, is a single red ruby :D
(ofcoz not a REAL ruby la! u think money drop from the sky ar?!)

owh ya, i nearly forgot! i wanted to rave about how amazing i found the beginning part of the opening ceremony of the olympic games!

i especially loved the part where they did acrobatics over parchment paper, but they were really painting it with the movement of their bodies! omg, so0 so0 cool!!!
i was so amazed! :D

and the part where they lifted the glowing olympic rings was pretty neat too!

and and the synchronization of movement for the moving boxes (nehhh the ones which suddenly sprouted blossoms at the end) and dances was army-like in its precision! no, the army probably isnt even that organized! (nothing to get u more synchronized than the thought of the whole world watching!)

and i wanna say how weird i felt at seeing someone i met before becoming a host on tv, but i'll save that for another day coz today is an auspicious day and i shall only speak of happy stuff :D

toodleloo!

creepy thoughts

bernie told a couple of us something last night. it led to an image that i couldnt get out of my mind. evil bernie!
at 1st he asked if we noticed anything amiss at the kuching festival (coz a group of us went a few nights ago). then when we said no, he told us this story.

anyhows, since i cant get it outta my mind, i shall share it with all of u.

WARNING: STOP READING NOW IF YOU ARE AFRAID OF GHOSTS AND SUCH-LIKE.

so im guessing all if not most of you know that its hungry ghost festival now right?
and kuching festival (its basically a festival held for about 3 weeks every year, where restaurants and individual cooks will set up stalls in a designated area. so kuching-nites will be able to order their favourite foods from different stalls and enjoy them together.) is also being held now.

story:
a girl and some friends went to the kuching fest and bought their food. then they got a table and sat down to eat. suddenly the girl screamed and fainted. when she was brought out of the area and revived, she said, "didnt u see? there were dead people all over the place, eating from people's food!"

the dead people all looked like ordinary people, thats why she didnt notice anything at 1st. only when she was wondering why they were eating at odd angles- as if snitching food from someone or eating from someone else's bowl without the person noticing, that she realised what she was really seeing.

and the scary thing was that the dead people were everywhere! at every table! all over the place!

so yea, that was the image that was haunting me all night :S

i was thinking of bringing shaun to the fest when he comes to visit me. but now im having second thoughts...

pc fair

today, my sis, dad and i went to the pc fair.

we got a keyboard (house), mouse (me), hard drive (mum), laptop fan (dad) and laptop (dad).

im loving the keyboard. its a lovely white with soft soft laptop-like keys :D
click here to read about it if ure extremely kepoh. haha~
but the one in the pic on that site is black. mine is white. which makes it soo much nicer =p

and this is my new mouse!


nice nice?

it was originally $29, but the guy said he would sell it to me for $25. (and i hadnt even asked him for a discount yet! hehe~)
then i asked him for a discount and he told me he couldnt reduce the price anymore coz he was only making a $1 profit off me. lol!

i got the powder pink one, although the blue seems more striking. but i still chose the pink one in the end =p

i would prefer the pink to be a brighter shade though.

and the feel of the mouse is so so nice! coz its got a sort of powdery velvety-ish texture. *happy happy*

umm... not that i've tried out the mouse much yet though.

the scroll button of my previous mouse died on me eons ago, but i nvr got around to buying myself a new one. no particular reason why. it was more like a mix of stinginess and forgetfulness.

~hehe~

i have a very pretty single friend who is currently looking for a partner.

both male and female may apply ;)

so im guessing u all want to see what she looks like.

being the lovely girl she is, she provided a picture.

here it is:
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ta da!

ROFLMAO!

so this is what photoshop is for! wtf

*sigh* i must the most wu liaw gf ever.
HAHAHA!!!

we took the above picture when i was coaxing him to do his "sohai smile".


he says he looks sohai when he smiles.

i dont think he looks sohai at all!
very handsome actually... *shy*


but he like to do this face in pics.

i think its his secret plan to make me look like a grinning fool in all the pics la. because i always smile in pics then he will put on that no-teeth-slight-curling-of-lips smile of his
-_-

but anyhow, i heart u very much bie!
and dont be angry about the above picture k? *big wide eyes*


HAPPY 3RD MONTH ANNIVERSARY!!!