Hola España

i am off to Barcelona for the next week so toodaloos everyone!

i've been reading about Franco's Spain for my National Cinema essay so i'll ease my guilt by telling myself the eating and shopping and sightseeing is all part of immersing myself into Spanish culture so that I can write the essay about popular memory... :)

Hapy Birthday Farah!

wish i could be at your party! :( but sadly i was NOT going to chop myself up and post myself back in bits...

by the way, there's a hilraious 'anonymous' post on my class blog which cracked me up... whoever actually remembered all those moments deserves a pat on the back!

OoooOOOoO i've been tagged!

YAY farah! my first tag-tag thing! haha...

Rules:
1. Bold the following words that are true about you.
2. GREEN! the things you wish were true.
3. add one thing true about you
4. and then tag onetwothreefourFIVE more people.

I miss somebody right now.
I don't watch TV these days.
I own lots of books.
I wear glasses or contact lens.
I love to play video games.
I've tried marijuana.(it's heaven on earth!)
I've been in a threesome.
I've been the psycho-ex in a past relationship.
I believe honesty is usually the best policy.
I curse sometimes.
I have changed a lot mentally over the last year.
I carry my knife/razor everywhere with me.
I'm TOTALLY smart
I've broken someone's bones.
I'm paranoid sometimes.
I would get plastic surgery if it were 100% safe, free of cost and scar-free.
I need money right now.
I love sushi.
I talk really,really fast/unclear.
I have long hair.
I have lost money in Las Vegas.
I have at least one sibling.
I have worn fake hair/fingernails/eyelashes in the past.
I couldn't survive without Caller I.D.
I like the way I look
I am usually pessimistic.
I have alot of mood swings.
I have a hidden talent.
I'm always hyper no matter how much sugar I have.
I have alot of friends.
I am currently single!
I have pecked someone of the same sex.
I enjoy talking on the phone.
I practically live in sweatpants or PJ pants.
I love to shop.
Enjoy window-shopping.
I would rather shop than eat.
I don't hate anyone.I dislike them.
I'm a pretty good dancer.
I'm completely embarrassed to be seen with my mother.
I have a cell phone.
I believe in God.
I watch MTV on a daily basis.
I have passed out drunk in the past 6 months.
I've rejected someone before.
I have no idea what I want to do for the rest of my life.
I want to have children in the future.
I have changed a diaper before.
I've called the cops on a friend before. hahahaha
I'm not allergic to anything.
I have a lot to learn.
I have been with someone at least 10 years older or younger.
I am shy around the opposite sex.
I have made a move on a friend's significant past or crush in the past.
I own the "South Park" movie.
I would die for my best friends.
I think that Pizza Hut has the best pizza.
I have used my sexuality to advance my career.
I love Michael Jackson, scandals and all.
Halloween is awesome because you get free candy.
I watch Spongebob Squarepants and I like it.
I have dated a close friend's ex.
I am happy at this moment!
I'm obsessed with guys.
Democrat.
I am punk rockish.
I am preppy.
I study for tests most of the time.
I tie my shoelaces differently from anyone I've ever met.
I can work on a car.
I love my job.
I am comfortable with who I am now.
I have more than just my ears pierced.
I walk barefoot wherever I can.
I have jumped off a bridge.
I love sea turtles.
I spend ridiculous money on makeup.
Plan on achieving a major goal/dream.
I'm proficient in a musical instrument.
I worked at MacDonald's restaurant.
I hate office jobs.
I love sci-fi movies.
I think water rules.
I went to college out of state.
I like sausages.
I love kisses.
I fall for the wrong people.
I adore bright colours.
I can't live without black eyeliner.
I don't know why the hell I just did this stupid thing.
I usually like covers more than originals.
I can pick up things with my toes.
I can't whistle.
I can move my tongues in waves, much like a snakes slithers.
I have ridden/owned a horse.
I still have every journal I've ever written in.
I can't stick to a diet.
I talk in my sleep.
I try to forget things by drowning them out with loads of distraction.
Climbing trees is a brilliant past-time.
I have jazz in my blood.
I wear a toe ring.
I have a tattoo.
I can't stand at LEAST one person I work with.
I am a caffeine junkie.
I cosplay or know what cosplaying is. I have been to over 15 conventions.
I will collect anything, and the more nonsensical, the better.
I'm an artist.
I only clean my room when necessary.
I like a person of the same sex.
I love being happy.
I am an adrenaline junkie.
I have ridden an elephant.
I love chocolates and crowns!
I go to school NOT for the sake of lessons.
I can't ride a bicycle.
I think i'm the only person crazy enough to do this at 6 in the morning without any sleep for the night.
I feel crazy.
I love tomatoes!!
I like peanut butter on bananas.
Been told "You're on fire!"
I'm a netballer.
I believe in Serendipity.
I think the word 'RASPBERRY' is sexaaay!
I love to look at people's teeth.
I don't wanna grow up.
I can cross my eyes n stick out my tongue n still look cute
Gaining weight is a wonderful thing.
I am a PRO...procrastinator.
I live to eat

first of all, some of the stuff on the list is REALLY weird... hmmm..

i tag Moon, my brother Adrian, Antonia, Ave and Xiaowen!

Dissertation Poll

i have 3 ideas for a dissertation next year and need some opinions on which i should pursue for my proposal due in 4 weeks

choice A *deng deng deng deng - vanna white pose*
Dance forms in Musicals - something like how dance forms in musicals evolved/changed with each era of musicals (like how Swing Time is different from Grease which is different from Dancer In The Dark...), perhaps some form of socio-historical change?

choice B
creation of glamour in films - hair, makeup, costume, lighting... glamour icons of the hollywood screen (think Rita Hayworth, Greta Garbo, Vivian Leigh...)

choice C
comparison of musicals on stage and on screen - film adaptations of West End/Broadway films (Chicago, The Producers) or vice versa, stage adaptations of films (Saturday Night Fever)

very rough ideas at the moment, but you can so obviously tell where my interests lie... :)

a day (24hrs) in London

am back from Paris and spent the night in London before my mom flew off on saturday morning.

friday afternoon started with us getting checked in to the Hilton at Euston before my mom and i visited HK Diner at Leicester Square for some soup noodles (Dumpling soup noodles for my mom and Soy Chicken soup rice noodles for me) before we wandered for 3 hours till dinner. it's been so cold in the UK (and even in Paris though slightly warmer there) and the chilly winds were getting to my mom who started to drape a scarf over her head like a gypsy. we were getting tired of walking around so we had a plan - we would walk into a shoe shop and pretend to look at shoes and take turns to have a seat on the comfy chairs. :)

thankfully we met my brother (who came from uni because he had some meetings/classes/whatever) 15 minutes before the scheduled time and trotted on to Belgo Centraal at Covent Garden. First of all, it was a friday night and thus really crowded but we (praise God!) managed to get a seat almost immediately, bypassing the 10 people ahead of us because we were looking for a table of 3 and everyone else was for 2. hehehe... i ordered a Portuguais Mussel Bowl which was mussels with smoked chorizo, garlic, paprika, olive oil, basil and tomatoes, with potatoes.
had a funny waiter who reminds me of the camp guy in Project Runway who was 4th (Austin)- and we had this banter thing going on because i asked another waitress in front of him to check why our drinks hadnt come yet and he came up saying, 'sweetheart, is there a problem?' and i said, 'i just asked where our drinks were' and he went, 'sweetheart i've only got two hands'. later on he came back after we had ordered a poached pear for dessert to say 'sweetheart, just want to warn you, our pears tend to fly off the plate so be careful because i dont want it getting all over your lap' (because the pear is soaked in syrup so it's slippery on the plate). how cute! the 2 desserts of the month are yummy - they have poached pear and a blackberry and almond tart, both served with vanilla ice cream. mmmmmmm...

let's just say that the scene in Heathrow on a saturday morning is insane. and we were getting VERY frustrated. while i was there though, i heard someone call my name in the crowd and turned around to see this guy called Mus whom i worked with at the arts centre last year (he's graduated) and it was cool having a random chat in the middle of the airport while both of us were waiting for family members to clear check-in.

when my mom finally got her bag checked-in and we went upstairs to the departure area, we were met with YET another queue to get in and strangely enough they were handing out clear plastic bags to all people carrying laptops because they needed to do security checks on all laptops. first of all, how do you carry a security check on a laptop? do you make everyone switch theirs on and fiddle with it? do you look for any parts that can possibly be used to make a bomb? (or activate a bomb - which in this case is, like, everything). whatever it is, Heathrow needs to do something about efficiency. having a queue of 100 people 3 hours before a flight and still only having 2 counters open for check-in isnt the wisest idea. because you will end up with more people 2 hours before and you wouldnt have cleared the people who came 1 hr before so it will all snowball and have loads of people rushing up to the gate just before the flight takes off. or else the flight gets delayed. sigh.

after leaving the airport, my brother and i decided to pop by South Kensington to have some crepes (it's the dine-in branch of the famous Creperie de Hamstead). it's a quaint cafe with white and green frontage that you will see when you turn right at the South Kensington tube entrance and left at the first junction (Exhibition Road). we had a crepe each (or rather, my brother had a crepe and i had a galette - the savoury version) and some hot drinks to warm us up.
my brother had the Belgian Milk Chocolate Hazelnut Crepewhile i had the Brittany Style Galette - which had grated carrots, bacon, chives, goat's cheese and cheddarwhile we were in the vacinity we visited the Victoria & Albert Museum.

my brother: the V&A has stuff collected during the glory days of the Empire
me: you mean stuff stolen? stuff that should not be in the UK but back with their rightful owners which are the former colonies?
my brother: yup

anyway we walked around the Fabrics and Materials exhibition which was Ooh La La! they had all these clothes on display - like a section for all the fashion capitals (London, Milan, New York, Paris, Tokyo) where they showcased all these designers by having an item of theirs that summed up their style. and they had these old dresses and suits to show the transition in design.and they had this special exhibition of JC de Castelbajac which was, erm, interesting. i loved the museum shop - it's kind of one of those designer concept shop where they sold jewellry, clothes, accessories, books, postcards, CDs and other little trinklets.:)

anyway my brother was 'convinced' into buying a 3-CD set of Art Deco music and i was listening to Fred Astaire singing some of my favourite dancey tunes... ahhh... they've even got him tapping in the appropriate places in the song! *swoon*

Putting On The Ritz
If you're blue and you don't know
where to go to why don't you go
where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Different types who wear a day
coat pants with stripes and cutaway
coat perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Dressed up like a million-dollar trooper
Tryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers
walk with sticks or um-ber-ellas
in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

Have you seen the well-to-do
Up and down Park Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare
With their noses in the air
High hats, and arrow collars
White spats, and lots of dollars
Spending every dime
For a wonderful time

If you're blue and you don't know
where to go to why don't you go
where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Different types who wear a day
coat pants with stripes and cutaway
coat perfect fits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Dressed up like a million-dollar trooper
Tryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
Come let's mix where Rockefellers
walk with sticks or um-ber-ellas
in their mitts
Puttin' on the Ritz

(tap dance break)

Dressed up like a million-dollar trooperTryin' hard to look like Gary Cooper (super duper)
If you're blue and you don't know
where to go to why don't you go
where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz
Puttin' on the Ritz

Move...
Move...

Gotta dance
Gotta dance...

If you're blue and you don't know
where to go to why don't you go
where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz...
Puttin' on the Ritz...
Puttin' on the Ritz...

moving rrrriiiiggghhht along...

Bonjour Paris!

in case i havent mentioned, i'm off to Paris for 3 days with my mom and brother and will be back with loads of pictures! food, clothes, sights... :)

what's currently stuck in my head is the scene in 'Funny Face' (1957) where Fred Astaire, Audrey Hepburn and Kay Thompson sing the number 'Bonjour Paris' and they go all over Paris and do show 3 aspects of the famous city...

"dum dum dum da-dum dum dum dum da-dum that's for me... BONJOUR PARIS!"

a sign that i have become old?

went to birmingham to shop today with my mom and somehow i have confirmed suspicions that i am getting old. not just in the physical sense but also in my tastes and actions. i have ceased to be excited about shopping because it bores me looking through clothes that look cute on the hanger but i know wont look great on me and i have stopped impulsive buying - i buy stuff i actually need/will use/have been on my mental list of must-gets for a while. i cant hop from one shop to another - i need an afternoon coffee break. i prefer shopping for food than for clothes and i like sitting in a cafe in the middle of a shopping trip to people watch and just chat. more recently, i have been looking out for businesswear and classic clothes. hmmmm...

even as a traveller i've become like one of those 30-yr-olds you see sitting in a cafe on some boulevard sipping coffee and just soaking in the atmosphere. i dont like uber budget travel and prefer to pay more to be more comfortable than to cram into a dingy hostel room and scrimp on food to save money. i like perusing museums and galleries, and sampling the cuisine of the country than doing self- catering and going to/for activity-based attractions.

YIKES.

new spectacles!

a while ago my spectacles sort of broke while i was in Oslo - not that they snapped or anything but the side bit came out of the 'socket' and though could be fixed back, meant that it wasnt very secure.so i sent an SOS message to my mom to get a new pair for me and bring it when she comes since my regular optician had my prescription. a few days later my parents sent an email to show me the photograph of my new spectacles and i was like WHOA THAT'S COOL! the pictures werent very clear so i've waited till my spectacles arrived to take nicer pictures.

TA DA! looks nice and classy and simple, right?
WRONG! this is the reverse side! hahaha... my mom has good taste! and i am convinced my parents think i'm funky!

WOW OH WOW!

praise God! whoohoo!

guess what amazing thing happened just now! when i was cleaning my room for my mom to come and stay over the next few days i discovered an envelope from the Royal Opera House under another envelope from Club Dance Holidays which i knew was a newsletter and had not bothered to open it yet - and in the envelope from the ROH was the acceptance letter for the Behind The Scenes course that i applied for in January! all along i thought i had been rejected because i was supposed to hear from them around the end of feb/early march but didnt and they hadnt banked in the cheque i sent in. but i actually got a letter from them! i think what happened was when my landlady came to fix my ceiling light while i was out on campus, she moved the my mail that gets shoved under my door by my housemates onto the table so that she could get in and i didnt realise there was another big envelope under the big Club Dance Holidays one.

I'M GOING TO WATCH A ROYAL BALLET CLASS IN ACTION! and work with people from the ROH! this is wonderful! :)

thank you Father for answering my prayers!

Edified

feel so much more uplifted after reading something so amazing! was sitting in front of my computer feeling pretty overwhelmed thinking of all the stuff i need to do over the holidays regarding work and decided to visit some blogs that i have not read in a while and decided to check out my brother's friend eugene's blog since he always has so many beautiful pictures of gorgeous models and clothes. and wow was i very encouraged by his testimony about job placements.

isnt God so amazing?

i'm feeling so much less stressed and worried about things now. :)

End of yet another term

i feel exhausted and it isnt really physical exhaustion. i think it has been a combination of the last 2 weeks' events - doing my last all-nighter for an assessed essay, going for all the rehearsals for the Tap Show, finishing the Tap Show and ending all the work we had done since Sept, being disappointed and feeling emotionally low on Wed, staying up till 4am doing up my CV and cover letter for one internship application, starting on a dissertation proposal, researching on a few more pending applications, trying to plan revision/work schedule for the holidays...

somehow it feels strange but i wish that easter break hadnt come so soon - it makes me feel like my degree is coming to an end sooner and i'd not be able to do certain things i love for as long as i can. yet in some ways i am looking forward to it because i kind of feel i am not suited for an academic life. i guess i am a person that always needs change, needs something new to stimulate me. which led me to think that i want to start taking up photography seriously and even joining streetvibe. or tech crew. haha...

on a brighter note, my mom is coming to visit. as i type, she has arrived in heathrow and will be coming to coventry tomorrow.

dedicated to my dear friend MOON

If Moon Was Cookie
Words by Luis Santeiro
Music by Stephen Lawrence
as sung by Cookie Monster (Frank Oz)

Spoken:
Oh, me love to look at sky at night, to see stars go twinkle-twinkle.
But, you know what me love to look at most - the moon.
It's so big and round. And you know what moon remind me of?
It remind me of big delicious cookie!
Imagine, imagine what me do if moon was cookie.
Imagine.

Sung:
If moon was cookie, me think me would be
The happiest monster you've ever seen
I'd put on a spacesuit and up through the night
I'd ride in a rocket and go take a bite

Me take bite from here, me take bite from there
And pretty soon me bite everywhere
Me eat with both hands, don't need fork or spoon
I'd chew it all up, until there's no moon

Spoken:
Who turned out the lights? Oh, me know what happened.
Me ate moon and now there's no moonlight.

Sung:
If moon was cookie it wouldn't be fine
'Cause if me ate it, then it wouldn't shine
Me come to the window and look up at night
But no little moonbeams would give me the light

So me not like to say it, but it clear to me
We're lucky that moon is not a cookie

a bout of nostalgia!

a recent spell of nostalgia has hit 02a53 thanks to nirwan for finally announcing to that he had uploaded photos from our junior college years.

looking back, i realise how much i loved my class because we were just so crazy and so much fun - i cant even begin to tell you how much insane stuff we did. we had bundles of laughs in class, be it in the lousy T-block laughing at vemalan as he obliviously walked down the corridor one floor below as Ueng went, "err... isnt that vemalan? why isnt he in my class?", to us making fun of Slim at any chance we could ("ANALYSIS *snap snap*), to us grumbling abt boring Math and GP lessons (and copying homework in the canteen), to going on mini-class outings after school to Siglap (Pizza Hut, Gelare - TUESDAY HALF-PRICE WAFFLES!) and East Coast Park MacDonalds. I remember us practically living in the canteen at our class table by the Snapple machines - always snacking while some of the girls complained that they needed to go on a diet. Later on we 'moved' the fun to the library with Steph and the guys playing catching in the library or blatantly eating crisps, chicken wings, fries while amazingly avoiding being caught by the librarian. and all the fun we had in between classes, walking past the class lockers or even a trip to the V-block toilets. :)

It's amazing how close all of us were and yet how 3 yrs after graduating, we are still so much a class. we really did have a wonderful time, didnt we?
one of the many spontaneous class photos in the canteen
all the silly poses we'd come up with (this was after school at joyce's place)
i seriously cant remember what i was eating! but hey, i was always eating in VJ - here's a run-down of my daily food intake:
breakfast - fishball noodles with either shredded chicken or pork mince
10am break - fish and chips
1pm break - wanton noodles with stewed egg
3pm snack - fried chicken
5pm snack - whatever's left in the canteen.
in fact, i think i ate more than that. variations here and there with chicken rice and mixed vegetable rice (chinese or malay), some indian rojak, red bean and sweetcorn dessert, loads of fruit juice, milo with pearls, malay pasta, chinese nasi lemak... mmmm.... and loads of sweets from the bookshop to keep me going in class... :)
i miss the VJ canteen! and the fishball noodle auntie who remembers me because i was always buying food from her!
we had class dinners every once in a while - this was a pre-enlistment party for the boys...
yummy a la carte buffet at The Rice Table :)
then off to haunt Orchard Road!
me and my beloved aveline! two small people with BIG PERSONALITIES! hehe...
a picture of the class GIRLS (this is what nirwan wrote as his caption - did you say that intentionally? hahah)
doing what we do best! loiter in the canteen at our class table! granted that we DID do homework in the canteen...
history with Slim - does everyone remember his maroon coloured shirt with the 2 zips at the SO-WRONG places? :S
Ueng our econs teacher who always used bubble tea as an example in his explanations of micro-econs

and then there were the times when we launched into our scheme with out-of-this-world sense of humour...
decorating our form teacher's car for teacher's day to make it look like a smiling toe (she always said "very funny my toes are laughing" with the straightest face at one of our stupid suggestions in class)
FEET ATTACK! :)

then the hilarious presents we gave Ms Choo and Mr Harris -
oh look how amused he is... i wonder what he is looking at...
TA DA! good job joyce!we had many random photo ideas, one being to take a picture of all of the class' nokia phones - mine was the third from the right with the funky glitter that i painted on with nail polish
and if you havent noticed, this is the sign outside the Head Of Depts' room (you can tell we had so much time to notice these things)
I MISS YOU GUYS!

Sesame Street favourites!

moon sent me this amazing link today!

C is for Cookie

Telephone Rock

La La La Song

Rendition!

whooohoooo!

it was ffffaaaaaabbbuullous! and phew it was a good thing they filmed the 8pm show for the DVD instead of the 5pm one because i made such a huge mistake in my jazz dance by missing out the last 4 counts at the end and walking to the formation when everyone else was still doing the steps. and for stuart's freestyle dance he started off with a different rhythm which threw everyone off and it went double the speed which was INSANE! i managed to do the 8pm one without any major mistake (missing a step in stuart's doesnt count because it was just so fast and crazy)

we amazingly sold out for the matinee and sold very very well for the 8pm (with only 50-odd seats unsold). at the time of the 5pm show, we had sold 400 tickets more than the prevous year! whoohoo!

cant wait to see the DVD! :)

i JUST got this off owen! whoohoo it looks amazing!
http://www.studiotw9.co.uk/rendition

Kou Rou Mei Cai (Translation: Fatty Pork with Sweet Preserved Vegetables)

had pork streaky steaks in the freezer for some time and decided it was finally time to make kou rou mei cai (because the pork was bought for that reason) since i havent had that for ages and i had all the ingredients.Here's how I prepared it:

1. chop up the cleaned pork into chunks
2. marinade in salt, sugar, soy sauce, honey and a dash of white pepper
3. soak the preserved vegetables in boiling hot water (to dissolve the sugar that is on it and to remove any dirt)
4. smash one bulb of garlic and chop a few springs of spring onion
5. drain the preserved vegetables and chop to thumb-width size
6. switch the slow-cooker on to HIGH (because my slow-cooker is really ssllllooooowwwww)
7. in a pan, fry ginger paste (i cheat - you can mince fresh ginger, which is better) and the garlic in some vegetable oil
8. brown the pork
9. add the preserved vegetables
10. add the spring onions (so that they dont disintegrate at the end of the cooking process though adding it in at the beginning with the ginger and garlic would flavour the oil that cooks the pork more - but it kind of doesnt matter because you are slow-cooking it)
11. transfer to the warm slow-cooker to continue the cooking process. add some boiling water.

essentially, the longer you cook it, the better it tastes. which is why i think it will make an even more fabulous lunch than it did for my dinner/supper last night.

the longer it cooks, the browner the dish gets - the picture above shows it 30mins into te slow-cooking process. after approximately 6 hours of cooking, it will look like this:
enjoy with steamed white rice or rice porridge. i recommend having cai po (preserved radish) omelette and stir fried vegetables (like beansprouts or any asian vegetable such as bai cai or cai xin) as accompaniment.

i love Who's Line Is It Anyway!

whenever i watch Greg Proops i always think of my Hollywood cinema lecturer and stand-in personal tutor! haha...

was doing a Who's Line marathon this evening and they have some of the funniest lines! my favourites today were by Chip Esten in a french accent doing the Dating Show saying, "Bachelor Number 1, I love love, and I love loving love...", Colin Mocherie at the open of the News reading the breaking news: "Rudolph the Reindeer died at age 54 in Spain having been hit by some seagulls and a plane. Eyewitnesses testified that the reindeer in Spain was hit mainly by the plane." and Ryan Stiles doing the weather as someone who dreams of being in a Busby Berkley musical! hahahahaha...

don't you just love British weather?

it's march which means we should all go as mad as hares because spring is upon us. but in England, you can never know about the weather. because yesterday it started to hail at 1pm when i was walking to class. and we've been getting a bit of hail over the last week or so so i wasnt THAT surprised.

but then about 2 hrs later, it started to snow. and now like a mini-shower of snow. it was proper proper heavy snow.
and look how heavy it was! because 5 minutes later...
and it made me realise why i love temperate countries! because when in winter you look forward to the warmth if summer and in summer you think of the beautiful winters ahead playing in snow. :)
and at the end of the 'storm', it was a bit strange to have such strong sunlight but isnt it just gorgeous?

on a totally unrelated note, josh finally made onion salad and mint youghurt sauce from scratch for us to have with papadums and curry. mmm... he'd shown me a recipe he found online after having the urge to try making his own mint sauce and today we decided to have curry for dinner - and so the recipe was whisked out and OOOooOOOO was it soooo easy to make and tasted exactly like the stuff you get in a curry house/restaurant. mmmm...

the onion salad is THE EASIEST THING TO MAKE FROM SCRATCH! ok so we had this conversation over dinner and i was saying, what about a ham sandwich? and he replied, well if you take everything from raw materials then making a sandwich takes a lot of effort because you have to bake the bread and smoke the pork for ham... good point!
so what you need to do is just chop up some white onions, cucumber, tomatoes and add some mint (we used dried mint). AND THAT IS IT!
for the mint yoghurt sauce, mix 4 teaspoons of caster sugar with some hot water and 1 teaspoon of tumeric (water amount depends on how watery you want your sauce to be) then add this to 1 cup of yoghurt.

get some papadums and a bottle of mango chutney (we havent tried making either YET) and you're good to go for a yummy starter.

it's week 9 and some interesting insight for the day

1) i have mastered the art of going to a seminar having not read a line in the play for the week and actually manage to contribute to the discussion. i may have been a bit slower in mastering this than some of my coursemates who have the innate ability to do so. on the other hand, i DID manage to make an active contribution in my hollywood cinema class two weeks ago where i did part of a presentation of a film i had not watched at all. hmmm...

2) 4 days to the show and the tap girls have been under stress that some of them have decided to go on a 'pre-show diet' so as to look fab on stage. so when one of the girls went to rococo to get a slice of cake and hot chocolate, she was met with looks of horror and disdain.

i would like to point out to these 'pre-show diet' people who cast a disapproving eye that on sunday at the full dress rehearsal, so many people were popping chocolates, sweets, jaffa cakes and cookies in between dances. i think everyone needs SOME sugar to keep the smiles going on stage.

but yes, as i look at myself in the mirror, i think i MIGHT cut down on my carb this week and only snack on fruit. :)

cooking tip for the day

substituting proper eggs noodles with instant noodles in a fried noodle dish is not the wisest choice.

even when you are totally out of other forms of noodles.