all begins with L

I have decided.

Design is still my thing. As much as film and writing are sisters of the creative blood, alot is in the head. I am a physical person.

And the conversation went…

“I appreciate it but I don’t think I have the patience for it. I need to bend something, screw it, knock it, break it, fix it. I need to hold it in my hands.”

“You mean, you like to touch.”

Very much, yes.

1. We did not make it to Play instead ending up spending the night at a tuck shop. One of the few hideouts with really good vibes. Tuckshop is a newborn but I’m hoping that it’ll turn into a smashing club soon enough because the music is really spot on.

2. Having a counterpart turning back on an agreement thirty minutes after supposedly closing the deal is my sneak preview of Darwin’s application in the business world. Lessons learnt: 1) switch off phone during lunchtime 2) the nicest people are the real assholes.

3. Been having innuendos on architectural pursuits for postgrad. Because ‘product designer’ is not glamorous enough a title.
One can claim to be an ‘architect-turn-chef’, or ‘architect-turn-writer’ (or ‘architect-turn-club-owner’) but not so funky vice versa. Damn.

4. Drug abuse is relative.

5. I have to salute my parents for putting up with this thing called work. I don’t think I can ever do that for a living, ever. I don’t want to wake up to work.

6. If there’s one uniting factor in my religion. it is that (Quoted from Dina Zaman) “… when it comes to all matters pertaining to the swine family, it’s beyond haram. You can drink, do drugs, sleep around, kill, go to bomohs, keep a goblin in your toilet but you cannot have anything to do with all things swine… there are some things we don’t do.”

7. While you will be spending your days in adrenaline rush, I will spend the next two months attending weddings and sorting out life.

Ladies and Brothers,

Come out and Play to a send-off party for our dearest Cat before she makes her departure back to the motherland.

Date: Friday, 29 June
Time: 10pm
Venue: Play
Dresscode: Furry

All invited. I mean ALL.
Come out, come out wherever you are.

“Traveling really did save me. I was just happier. It was a feeling that I was doing the right things with my life.”
–Angelina Jolie

… and thus explains my obsession and the idolism.

Likewise.

Because I have been thinking and talking about food recently, because I have been spending time with the cat excessively before the cat’s departure to the motherland, because I’d rather save up and splurge on a gastronomic meal than say a branded bag, I will share with you my list of best of dot dot dot (where food is concern, and that which I can afford) thus far,

The Best of Dot-Dot-Food List: (In accordance to a “three” course meal, or so it seems)

Dip-Sauce: Capsicum Sauce from Chiang Dao Nest (Chiang Mai)
Dip-Sauce II: Mayonnaise from Epicurious
Bread Spread: Truffle Butter from Cilantro (Kuala Lumpur)
Appetizer: Wasabi Crab Mayo from Mag’s Kitchen
Soup: Mushroom soup from Toast

Pasta: Squink-ink pasta from Ristorante De Valentino (I have wet dreams about this one)
Pizza: tough fight between Seafood-pizza from Kuppa at The Playground (Bangkok), and Pesto-pizza from Da Paolo Gastronomica
Crab: Butter crab from Melben Crab Coffeeshop
Meat: Mutton Chop from Hassan Stall at Tekka Food Centre
Chicken: Grandma’s tumeric chicken wings
Potato: Roshana’s potato salad (an ex classmate) and Zander’s mash potato from Basil Alcove
Sandwich: Roast beef-wasabi sandwich from Toast (thus the obsession with wasabi)
Sandwich II: Prata (blackpepper) hotdog roll from Go-Go
Fish: Zander’s Cod with Beetroot Foam from Basil Alcove (best fish, ever, ever.)
Fish II: Grilled catfish at Krabi Town (which cost 35bath)
Satay: Fatman Satay from stall number 14 at Lau Pa Sat.
Yellow Noodle: Mee Soto from Kampong Glam Coffeeshop
Prawn: Prawns at Ban Mae Yu Cafe (Bangkok)

Ice Cream: Horlicks ice-cream from Island Creamery, ‘Cookie Dynamo’ by Haagen Daz (unfortunately it’s no longer in production), Lavender ice-cream from Tom’s Palette
Chocolate: Royce (BitterChoc) (Godiva who?)
Macaroons: Sesame seaweed macaroons (I think it’s Hilton Catering)
Hot Chocolate: Hot chocolate from Chocolate Factory (i hate to admit it but yes)
Pudding: Warm date pudding with lavender ice cream from Marmalade Pantry
Cake: Strawberry shortcake from B Bakery (am in love)

… I could go on and on but it’s 3am and my nose is running. Hungry?

Lazy Sat-night syndrome hit me this week and I am delighted to have spent the entire day just bumming at home. I hope you guys are having as much fun as I am, not that I am doing anything, but that precisely the point!

Falling asleep in the afternoon followed by Clockwork Orange for a home-film-feast.

Join me. Purrr.

Courtesy of The Cat that made me a foodie.

We started with divine truffle butter (and I mean divine) spread on slices of toast and sum it up with that grand dessert platter. As June puts it, ‘the service is understated’.
I don’t think I can date anyone who doesn’t fancy dessert (as much as I do).

Cilantro is possibly the only thing I’d go back for in KL. Thank you, You!

I am now in love with truffle butter. In love.

Maxim rolled out its hot 100 list and there was a huge outcry. Lindsay Lohan’s no.1 ?! (What the fish?!)
Ali Larter (the milf in Heroes) is probably the only one of worthy mentioned.

And thanks to AfterEllen (from the Ellen Show), the ladies got to wipe out a new list of we meant by hot.
Am very pleased with the top five nominations. Lena Heady is at no. 4 followed by Sarah Shahi.

I agree.

I was walking along orchard road last week and I saw a guy holding a sign that reads ‘FREE HUGS’. Naturally I gave him the weird look. Then I saw this on youtube and I wish I gave him a hug that day.

Hugs to all.

Thank you all for the bigday wishes!

Q, and Bf. You’re have my vote for the most-stylish-couple award. Please don’t ever break up. Love the dresses!

Sharier, thanks for being the first to respond to my msg. Hahah. And I am convinced that you’re a pimp in your past life. It’s oozing out.

Nad, you make me miss skls. Damn it.

And You. Grin. Purrr. Purrr purrr. Meow. Puurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

To the E.I.s, may we see each other in full strength soon.

On a side note:
It’s always good to go birthday shopping with mom and her shopping khakis. I’ll always end up getting more than I can wish for. Hehe.
And today, me will be cutting cake with me big fat Orang-Jawa family; aunties, uncles, cousins and grandma and grandpa and the new addition to the grandchildren gang. He’s two and he’ll be the most excited one in the family. I love kids (aged 5 and below)!

Come midnight today, yours truly will be ushering her 22nd years of living!

Thank you God!

And dear friends, I don’t have much planned out this year. Perhaps dinner or two with the lovely few.
Catch up soon!

Fine I am addicted to this. And today’s is just what I needed to hear (or rather read):

Horoscope for June 7, 2007
Gemini (May 21 - Jun 21)

Okay, so you might not exactly be in love with your career right now, but there is a very bright light shining in your professional future. You are paying into an account of goodwill that will start to show handsome returns very soon, so just keep plugging away. You will get what you deserve. It’s important for you to keep thinking about your goals, and not to get too emotional about your current situation. There’s no reason to feel hopeless — in fact, you have every reason to feel hopeful!

This is in response to that third year SMU student who “feels that notion of offering scholarships to displaced UNSW students undermines the essence of scholastic meritocracy. Is it possible that a UNSW Asia student is suddenly qualified to be a ’scholar’ simply because his local campus was shut down?”

A scholarship (esp in Singapore) has always been deemed as a badge of honor because of the myriad of prerequisites (both academically and beyond) that lies before it. I have no qualms of it being perceived as such, in fact a scholarship is indeed a deserving reward to the recipient. But the disporpotionate amount of glory that our (our) students place on it almost always exude an air of arrogance, shall I say elitism? (and thus opens the national pandora’s box).

A few years ago, I was one of those students who would never give a second thought to the whole concept of scholarship. For it is seemingly that unchartered territory reserved only for the gifted or for those who can afford personal tutors. Until of course, I stepped out of the country often enough to realize that a scholarship is merely one of the sources of financial aid for students who would like to pursue higher level of academic qualifications.

When education becomes a right, and not a mere privilege, a scholarship becomes a rightful ownership rather than a platinum plate of crowning glory. UNSW is merely exercising that right to continue to provide that opportunity for their students. I see it as a promise delivered to students who have placed their trust in the institution. I certainly do not think that it is overcompensating just because the word ’scholarship’ is used instead of a ‘financial grant’. For that, I feel that UNSW has made a mark in the league of respectable institutions despite the lack of students to jump high enough for a marketing stunt.

Someone posed a question to me not too long ago “If there’s $50 000 sitting out there in the field, would anyone tell you about it?” And then she said, of course not. That changed my perception of what scholarship is all about. It is not about a depiction of how meritocratic your system of education is, it is not merely for that one person who could solve a math equation 30 seconds faster than the rest of the cohort, it is not about how many gold medals you won for your school team.

It is, however, about how a dream can very well be a possibility when one changes his mentality about the difference between a privilege and a right.

And I am glad that I have made that transition. I hope you will too.