Munchies

I almost set off the fire alarm trying to cook last night's dinner... I hate having the electric stove. I can never control the heat properly. It takes forever to heat up, then suddenly burns everything. =.= Anyway, this is last night's dinner which caused my smokey house panic.

After eating it I realised that it's almost exactly the same as 'tau yew bak' but with chicken instead of pork...

NEXT!

I've been looking for recipes that use apples without cinnamon. 2 reasons: I don't have cinnamon at home; I don't like cinnamon much. I know cinnamon goes well with apples... and a little bit is actually quite nice. But whatever.

So I found this recipe through foodgawker one day and it had apples without cinnamon!! So I couldn't wait to give it a try. It originally said to use "Craisins" which I believe are dried cranberries... But I don't have that so I substituted craisins with raisins, and added some lemon juice cuz I figured craisins are sourish (I think i have some of those in my cereal mix).

Presenting: Crepes with Apple and Raisin Compote

Here's my apple!I actually managed to peel it in one piece... but then it broke when i picked it up to move it :( The trick to being able to peel it in one piece I think, is just to have a sharp peeler and an apple with no bruises (cuz it's the bruises on the apple that makes it difficult for the peeler to slide through easily... and thats what causes the peel to break! well, unless you're really bad at peeling in a straight line)

This is while cooking the crepes... I took this picture cuz that's one BIG bubble!! :)

Sorry, I get excited over little things. But that bubble was so cute. The others were just little... Plus I didn't expect any bubbly things in the first place!

So then you roll up the crepes, and pour some apple and raisin compote over it and finish off with some icing sugar just to look pretty for the camera :P

Towards the end of it, I had an idea... why not put the apple stuff inside the crepe rather than over the top??

I kinda like this better. Then you get the flavour of the compote throughout the crepe rather than- Crepe. Apple and raisin. Chew chew chew... then it mixes. Now it's mixed before you start chewing to mix!

NEXT!!

I splurged on some cherries a couple of days ago... Cherries are so expensive. the cheapest I've seen for nice big cherries was $15 per kg. Apples cost about $2.50 per kilo (at the market. I've even gotten apples for $1/kg) The normal price for cherries are $20/kg!! WHY WHY WHY!??? They're supposed to be a local fruit which is IN SEASON! agh.

Anyway... cherries look so pretty.

It's funny

As soon as the exams ended, all inspiration and ideas to blog just... disappeared.

I kind of liked the idea of having something to blog about everytime I'm on (and off) the computer. If only these ideas come when I'm FREE rather than when I'm in the midst of exams.

Anyway...

After an afternoon of house cleaning (and trust me, there was a lot to clean although my house is a tiny little pidgeon hole...) I'm sitting at my computer with a mug of Vanilla Latte and some Arnott's wheatmeal biscuits. yumyum. :)
Unfortunately my house still looks very messy. See, I cleaned the bathroom, and the floor and did all the dusting, cleaned the stove (even took out a screwdriver to open the vent area to clean!) but I haven't gotten rid of all the papers lying around the house. Those silly advertisement letters, letters from the bank, paid bills, scrap paper, scribbled notes, notes and more notes... So the house still looks like a junkyard. O right, and my clothes are finally in a nice neat pile... but unfolded ><
I will sort that out by tomorrow... YL is coming to stay for the night.

After my last paper on wednesday, I've met up with my first adelaide friend (i met her at the airport upon arrival!) for lunch to catch up before she leaves... I've had dinner with C and her bf and her housemates (sounds like i'm barging in her dinner doesn't it? lol. her family is mine!! :P)... then played a game called Time's up! which was a load of fun! Did lots of shopping, sorted out a number of important things like my Flight home, and went SHOPPING. So far I've only bought myself one dress though. just one dress... :( It's about time I go on a serious diet cuz I can't seem to find something that looks nice on me with my spare tyres...

I also finally went to work again after more than a week... and my manager put me on FRONT COUNTER. It's so nervewrecking. I've only been on frontcounter once before for a few minutes and i think i had like 2 customers... i can't remember what to do when, and I can't remember where all the buttons are and I would ask customers if it's eating in or take out and they'd answer me, but then I'd forget.... =.=" So anyway, I got help from the other crew, but I was still really lost, and when it got slightly busier I got asked to go back to the burger room... where I felt right at home. lol... It was fun though. I hope Ill get to do it again. I mean.. i gotta learn it sometime right? I'm gonna be a pharmacist (I think...) so I need to speak to people.

Ok so enough on that. Tonight is the night! we're finally clubbing again. :D

I'm going out to feed my cousins now (the ducks and swans... :P) I better give C a call...

Have a good weekend.

p/s: Sorry for the long and boring post. I'll try to come up with something more exciting next time...

Oh Boy...

Feels GOOD to be done for the year....

:)

Pictures galore

Remember I mentioned purple trees? Well there's one right outside my apartment!
This first picture is edited... everyhing else looks grey :P (i just wish i had pictures of the tree without the blue sky background... purple and blue are so similar the pictures just turn out CRAP)

When there's purple trees, after some time you'll get a purple ground...

Here's an idea i found from foodgawker.com. If you like ham, toast, and your eggs half done- it's the best thing ever. with some cracked pepper and salt...

It's meant to be breakfast food, but I had it for dinner. Isn't it pretty? :)

(ok it's slightly burnt at the edges cuz my oven temperature wasn't right im guessing... but no biggie... i just don't eat the carbonated bit :P)

I bought this pear because it was oh SO CUTE.

I made fried rice today. And what better way to garnish, but with some egg nicely fried and cut...

Dinner after the Microbiology exam: Bento! (and fried squid)

I bought a packet of little marshmellows recently... decided to have some fun with it.

This has to be one my favourite picture of all time... It just looks so.... SMUUSHY. =D If only i can make all my food pictures look this good...
C gave me these when she returned my container the other day... can anyone tell me what fruit this is???

They're quite sweet but it doesnt have any distinctive taste....

Thoughts.

Ok. I admit, sometimes I can be a bit of a drama queen. Especially when I'm blogging about something :P

Oh well.

I got something done today. Which feels quite good really... since yesterday was a complete waste of time. There's still heaps of stuff I can't seem to get my head around though. Everything seems to revolve around MATH. I guess that's why they make us learn calculus right in the beginning of uni. It's got to do with everything. It amazed me how well I did in that course considering how bad my math is at the moment. I can't remember a thing from calculus, I can't do simple algebra, I can't rearrange equations correctly, and I can't type in numbers into my calculator correctly. Ok maybe that last point isn't so much about Math but it's still a problem I have. And a big one too. It's proved to be problematic numerous times in exam conditions where I realise my entire string of answers are wrong because I typed in the wrong numbers right at the beginning. EVEN AFTER CHECKING. I mean, what is the probability of typing in the same wrong numbers twice(or more) in a row right? And yet I do it all the time...
And i only realise it's wrong a couple of minutes before time is up and I never have the time to change all my answers. Agh. Thinking about it just frustrates me.
And the more I think about my past exams, the more I'm convinced I could fail. So maybe I shouldn't think about it.

But I was doing lots of thinking yesterday. Not the relevant type involving pharmaceutics. Just... thinking in general. Everytime we're having exams I think about the same thing: I MISS SCHOOL (and everything associated with it).
I miss hanging out with friends during free period, lunch break, morning break...
I miss the schoolbell... which is strange since i don't remember what my schoolbell sounded like... but I think most of all it's the routine that we have at school that I miss. You dread the bell, then you anticipate the next bell, and everytime the bell goes you know exactly where you're heading. It's all about the bell...
Now there's no bell. You just Go and do whatever you need to do. OK I'm going slightly off track here talking about the silly BELL. >< Obviously procrastinating and wasting more valuable time...
Another thing I really miss are my friends. I never really thought about it but last night I realised just how much I miss hanging out with them. It's so different now. The things we do and the things we talk about. I felt like sending a message to the people I miss, especially S and A but then I realised I didn't even have the phone number I needed! and I thought maybe if i sent them a message randomly it'll be too... random. So I didn't.

And then I finally went to sleep.

Medication

I discovered the importance of having spare medication today.

Last night I felt a headache coming on. When it started to get worse, I figured I should go to bed. So I did. You see, I've done this before and I never seem to learn from the past.
Sleeping does not get rid of a headache. I think I've mentioned it a couple of times before on my blog...
So I woke up at 7:30 this morning with a throbbing head. I guess that's what woke me up in the first place. I don't usually wake up at 7am for no reason. So immediately I got out of bed and proceded to take a couple of Panadols and head back to sleep. That was the plan at least. Little did I know, when I went to the place I usually keep my pills- they weren't there. I looked through everything I had: flu medicine, vitamin C, EPO, Calcium supplements etc. but NO PANADOL. I went to look through my brother's stock of medications: more flu medicines, antibiotics, nSAID painkillers- BUT I NEEDED PANADOL. None.
I looked through my wallet, my pencil cases, my bags... and no Panadol. I was starting to freak out, and my head was still throbbing. So I went back to the medicine shelf and looked again (by this time all my other meds were strewn all over the kitchen floor). I found a torchlight and I shone it to the back of the shelf (it was one of those very small, but but deep cubby holes.. if you know what I mean) and I FOUND PANADOL! 4 more tablets in a cut off blister packaging. *phew*
So I took my panadols and went back to sleep. Woke up feeling a lot better. Panadol WORKS.

This is completely ridiculous. But I had this running through my head from the time I found the tablets:
"I need to take this with a whole glass of water... Maybe even more, so it'll dissolve faster (increased dissolution)". So I drank a glass and a half of water. Then lying in bed- "I think I should lie on my back for a while to make sure the tablets would have time to dissolve before entering the SI (I had an empty stomach. It shouldn't take long) then later on turn on my right side. to make sure the tablets move into my SI and doesn't stay in my stomach.. would it be affected by the stomach acid? what's the structure of paracetamol? im sure i've seen it before.... How long does it take to dissolve anyway? I want the headache to GO AWAY. I can't sleep with it lingering... So HOW does panadol work??"

All that and I had a stupid headache and all I wanted to do was to Sleep. Obviously it took me a while, but i finally managed to clear my head and drift off...
I'm going mad. And I blame it on all the studying.
Which is what I should be doing now....
I think by the end of the 4 years I'd be completely insane. Like a mad woman.

Like a Child

I feel like a little kid, and the mum at the same time.

Me: Laurane, STUDY.
Me: yes yes... *looks at the page for a minute, then starts to wonder around... starts playing with Zilzie, starts drawing pictures...*
Me: Seriously. Concentrate!
Me: okok... I know I have to. I will. *looks at the page for another minute... then starts singing*
Me: OI really. 14 hours to go. take away 8 hours of sleep time, and 2 hours for eating and travelling leaves 4 hours.
Me: Hm. true. really should concentrate. *Reads one slide. Then goes online and blogs*

Nescafe Vanilla Latte

Mmmm....
It's so good I feel like crying.

GTH

There is an excess of inconsiderate bastards in this world.

People are here to study. If not WHY ARE YOU HERE AT THIS TIME OF THE NIGHT!??

Not everyone likes your music OK?!

There's a slight possibility that you're doing that cuz I'm reading aloud, but if you haven't yet noticed i've only started reading aloud BECAUSE your music is damn loud.

Pig.




2 mins later...

OMFG!!!!!!!!!
it's like THE BATTLE OF THE MUSIC!
No wonder they're going out. That guy and that girl. Both with stupid BLASTING music.

If I fail micro I'll blame it on them.


another 3 mins later....

Great. now their FRIEND is SINGING. i mean, SERIOUSLY lah. this is a computer pool. not your friggin study room at home. SHUT UP.

I'm going home

Still alive

I hate that feeling. I was sitting in the exam hall and it kept on happening. Strange tingly nerves run up over your body and move straight to your face and your head. Everything just goes really hot and your brain freezes. You see the words but you're not reading. You might know what it's asking for and you might actually know the answer but at that moment, you can't do anything. You just stare at that paper and go SHIT I'm stuck. Again.

It's a vicious cycle.
You don't know what you're doing, so you freak out and you get a brain freeze. Because you get a brain freeze, you can't think. So you don't know what you're doing. Question after question you read but you move on leaving a blank space. next question. dunno, blank. next question. blank. question. blank. Before you know it you've reached the end of the exam paper and you've left half of it BLANK. Time to go back and think and DO them. But because you've left so many blanks, you panic and your brain loses the ability to think....

It's worse than exam nightmares.

It's Real.

_________________________________
I still feel like a world class idiot.
Yes, not just simply any idiot, but a Super World Class one. I'm pro.

I've got my reasons. Notice- plural.

Pointless

Ever logged on to MSN, appearing offline just to see who's online, then log off again?

Embarassing things

Sometimes you do things you later regret and ask yourself- what was I thinking??

Well technically I was thinking- It's for safety!

I finished work at 5am last night. Usually on a Saturday night you probably don't want to be walking around town by yourself- If it was say.. 3am or something when there's a ton of drunk people around. It never occured to me that by 5am the place would be pretty quiet. And by 5:30am the sun is almost up... Moreover, on a Sunday morning at 5am the stalls for Rundle Street sunday Market would be going up and there would be normal respectable people out on the street.

Anyway... yesterday one of my work friends asked if I wanted a ride cuz he was driving and at that time it just seemed like a good idea (thinking about the drunk ppl on the road...). He was going to drop off a couple of other people anyway, so I followed, but after I got in the car I just thought it probably wasn't the best idea. I live so close by its really quite ridiculous to take the car :S

What made it worse was that when we got to rundle street, I realised that road is closed (for the sunday market) so he had to make weird U turns at illegal places (well there's a symbol that indicates NO U-TURN but everyone U-turns there anyway...).

Anyway I got out of the car and thanked him and as I headed home I started laughing to myself cuz I thought that's (one of) the most ridiculous thing I've ever done. They must have been thinking- are you serious... she lives HERE and she needs a ride?!?

:S

Ah... I'll get over it.

_______________________
Yesterday's shift (especially in the beginning) was hellish. It was super busy (wonder where the hell all these people are coming from!! its was like 8-10pm...) and there were 2 people in burger room. TWO people. What kind of planning is that?? after midnight there were 6. =.= anyway. I've now got sore arms... and C- get ready to be injured Xs I've lost count of the number of bumps and scratches I got last night...

Recent Bakes

Caramel Slice
Oh so sinful...

Appearance: 4/10 (well... the top looked good. The bottom crust however, was a disaster. So if you were only looking on top, i'd say 8/10. But overall... it's a horrible 4/10. you can't have caramel slice without the bottom layer... It looks nicer than reality in the picture)


Texture: choc was good, caramel was good (a little bit crumbly the next day though), bottom failed. um... 3/10.


Taste: 5/10 (since the caramel layer was yummy... but like i said, the crust was a total failure. grading the crust alone i'd give it a -2/10. yep. its in the negatives)



Butter Cake
More sinful treats...

Un-iced

Iced

Appearance: 7/10...? I'm not sure what it's supposed to look like without icing on it. i mean, is it meant to be cracked? cuz mine certainly cracked. But it looks yummier with cracks in it :P Iced... it just looks boring. i needed some decoration on it but heck, its going into my stomach anyway. and i didnt have anything to put on top... Oh and the marbling? Slight bit of a failure there as well. But I tried...

Texture: 6/10. A bit too crumbly... got a bit dry.

Taste: 8/10. Dry or not... It was quite yummy :)

Steamed Banana Cake

OK so it's not Baked. But it still has to go in this post.

Appearance: 7/10. It looks like what it's supposed to look like... I guess. Except for the big holes near the top. I don't think it's supposed to be like that.

Texture: 8/10. It was soft and moist.

Taste: 0/10. Horror story. It could be that my pot I used to steam actually smells of other food, or my flour somehow absorbed the smell of spices in the pantry... But i swear, the cake had a spice flavour to it. All i put in there was banana, sugar, flour, oil, egg and water. so WHY does it smell of spice??? im so confused. Obviously banana cake should not have spice flavoring in it. doesnt work. It was pretty disgusting :S

Oh well, I tried the healthier option to steam... but after that nasty experience, I think i'll stick with baking. I like cakes looking nice and brown anyway.

____________________________________

I'M GOING TO WATCH ALICIA KEYS ON THE 18TH OF DECEMBER!!! I'm SO Excited!!!

When you start seeing RED on the temperature chart...

You know Summer is almost here.

Ugh. What a HOT day!!

Purple Trees

If you're in Adelaide and you happen to have the time... (take time off from studying!) take a walk (or take 99C) along wakefield road- where the fire station is. The trees are covered in the prettiest PURPLE flowers! :D

I wish I could have taken a picture but I was on the bus and I didn't have my camera with me :(



_____________________________
Edited at 9:05pm:

I've been at campus only 4 hours. I feel like I've been here for ages and I haven't gotten anything done. Well at least i got one part right. I read through stuff but I can't seem to make my brain remember anything. Too much effort. =.=
I think i'm going home.

The rainforests are depleting and trees are still being chopped down.

Why??

This is for ONE semester, ONE student.

Imagine the amount of paper which is used in total!!

Now you see why.

Hmmph... the bi-annual journey begins tomorrow.

Funny people

In the act of procrastination...
I was (once again) browsing food blogs and came across this lady who started off her entry with something more personal...

"Tonight, I was walking into the house, saw my reflection, screamed like a banshee and walked directly into the sliding glass. I thought my reflection was someone standing INSIDE my house. And I walked TOWARD it. Screaming. Now, I know what it feels like to be a horror movie bimbo.
My head hurts."

I laughed my head off... (yes, at home and alone, I laughed aloud like a crazy hyena)

What made it better was the comments left on her blog:

"Bwahahahahahha!
I watched my sister do that once. I laughed so hard I pee’d myself. Poor girl. Her head hurt too."
(Gee... how kind is she!?)

"Good luck with your scary reflection. I’m thinking next time you should run away when you thing there’s an intruder. But, that’s just me."
(Haha. I agree!)

ok. So maybe you didn't find it as funny as i did. Maybe i was just bored. Or just as evil as the first person who commented. =P
But if it did, i hope that de-stressed all you stressed people a little bit :)

Christmas Pageant 2008

I woke up at 9:30am this morning, like a true-blue Adelaidean and dragged my lazy arse down to the middle North Terrace where hundreds of thousands of Adelaideans have gathered all along the route from South Terrace through the city since early morning.

I was actually watching TV at home trying to find out exactly what time it starts since last year i got up at 11am, saw a bit on TV, then decided to walk to the actual venue and when I arrived, it ended. Brilliant. So this year as soon as the TV started broadcasting it, I knew the parade had arrived to North Terrace and I went down just on time to see the start of the procession :)

(Note: The procession started at South Terrace. North Terrace was where it Ends. These poor people have been walking/dancing/playing what not for over 3kms already since it wasn't a straight route through the city)




And then there were some dancers to introduce the Adelaide '08 Christmas Pageant
And the floats begun...

Funny purple monster

and his cute monster friends

Toby Toy Truck

Owl thing... :S

Snow white and the seven dwarves

puss in boots!

Aliens from outer space...

Sleeping man...

christmas cricket? candy!
CUPCAKES!!!

Captain hook. Arr!!
Kossy Koala

Little girls on a christmas tree

Presents

MORE presents in the sock!

Fairy castle

These were just a few. I can't possible post all of them up!

But wait there's more! There were bagpipers and concert bands...

Fairy dancersFunny little squared men
Drawings on the street (Lots of people showed up and waited since the early hours of the morning... it's become a new tradition for the children to draw on the streets with chalk while waiting for the procession to start - according to the report on TV)

Clowns!

Big, small, real, fake...

This clown was making fun of that police guy who was standing in front of us the entire time. The clowns kept on playing with him. I can't tell whether the police loved his job or not... he looked so embarassed yet so amused at the same time. haha!
And most of all... there were lots of KIDS!
they were so cute to watch. they get so excited about the floats and the clowns and the fairies :)

I stalked a little kid... too cute! :) (i hope no one who reads this knows this kid!)

All these people were waiting waiting waiting... for the end- when Father Christmas finally arrived!! This is the time when my camera decided to DIE. Luckily my phone has more than one function...

Here's what i got to see of him... (that circled bit...)

And then it ended.

And just to prove that I WAS THERE (since last year I was a lazy bum and got lots of pictures off C instead of taking them myself)...

Tadaa!! Yes, yours truly camwhored in the middle of the massive crowd. PLUS i had to take TWO shots because the first one I only managed to get my face nothing else in the background. >< (what a BAD picture of myself! My hair is so messed up. my glasses are wonky, my lips are dry, and my face looks so colourless. =.=)

Anyway, after that I walked over to HJ (cuz i left my apron in the staff room last night... I wanted to check if it was there) But i also wanted to see what the crew at HJ got up to for pageant day because they have been preparing for it! (can't imagine the crowd that went there to eat after the pageant ended... I kind of wished i was working though. would have been fun :) ) anyway, enough going off track!

Here's T in a super cute gingerbread man costume. I'm sure the kids loved her :D

And the rest of the front counter crew were also so cute... look!!

hahaha.

Oh well. Christmas is definitely on it's way!!

(this was meant to be a pretty picture with "Seasons Greetings from the City of Adelaide" actually being readible... Unfortunately, it was a gloomy, rainy day.... so to read it you'll probably have to click on the picture to enlarge. Apart from that it would have been a pretty picture right??? ><)