I was doing my daily news rounds and I saw the headline: "Benazir Bhutto killed in suicide attack." My heart skipped a beat and then I clicked the link. I don't know why I was so shocked. The headline kinda left nothing to chance. I was so used to reading the news about her, Musharraf and Pakistan on BBC, but now she's dead. I really don't know why I feel so sad. It's strange.
People I knew had such differing opinions of her. Some thought she was a great leader, others thought she was just like any other candidate, while some called her an infidel and another "American-puppet". I was wondering what would happen at the elections, but I guess chaos is all that will happen now.
One of my closest friends is in Pakistan. I hope he's alright.
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Got my HSC results this morning!! Non-NSW(Australia) people read: Got my A-levels/VCE/GCSE/etcetera results this morning!! They came out at 6 a.m. (obviously I stayed up). As you can see, I ARE WINNAR!! Click the picture for a totally untouched image of what I endured 12 years of education to see:
English! How I love thee! After blasting me away with 87 last year, now you bless me with a 95! NINETY-FIVE!?! OMFG. There must be something wrong with the world. Maths, my enduring companion, never-failing in providing me with uber marks all the time! *Hugs*.
Chemistry. YOU WHORE. After ALL the work I put into you, all that time, effort, passion and rambling, all you turn out is a measly 94?? GUESS WHAT?? NINETY-FOUR RHYMES WITH WHORE!! HAHAHAHAH.
People kept txting me and calling me today. It's one of those times when I become instantly popular and oh so cynical. Anyway, UAI's come out tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Yes! Bow down to me NOW! I am clearly superior to all of you unemployed PLEBIANS!! Muahahaha! Ahem. After years and years of terrible self-esteem destroying degrading job-hunting I have finally got a job. I'm typing this now from the computer at my desk. It's so COOL.
Basically my brother is a research assistant at UNSW and I'm his assistant. Well, unofficial assistant. Technically I'm not allowed to be in this building. I was in the tea-room making a cup of tea and the EVIL-ADMIN lady came up behind me and started interrogating me. It was SCARY. She asked me who I was, what I was doing in this building, etc. etc. and I made up so much bullshit up on the spot but she kinda suspected it and went and told my brother. LoLLers.
My brother heaps most of his dirty work on me; I gotta sort through a CRAP load of data. It's amazing. I didn't know a ".txt" file could be a few gigabytes in size. They contain just INSANE amounts of data about markets and lots of crap I don't know about but eventually will. Like bid-ask prices and stock indices and the SP100. My brother's boss (his lecturer actually) has a 2 terabyte hard-drive under his desk. Wows.
At least I'll get lots of monies. $20/hr! SO kewl.
YAY! Labor won Government for the first time since forever! *Cheers!* GO KEVIN RUDD!! It feel so weird! Prime Minister Rudd. LOL. No more John Howard, Peter Costello, Phillip Ruddock, Alexander Downer, no more of these people who've been my mental image of "government" and "politics" in Australia. Maybe it's cause I've only been living here under the Howard government. AH WELL! COOLIE DOODLES.
Now let's hope something exciting happens...
Scary pic! LOL.
Here's a little Pokemon political satire to spice up the patriot within us all:
...
Wild LIBERAL appeared! Go! RUDDKIP! RUDDKIP used AD CAMPAIGN! It's super effective! Wild LIBERAL fainted! RUDDKIP gained 80 seats. RUDDKIP is now level 100! What?!? RUDDKIP is evolving! Congratulations! Your RUDDKIP is now a PRIMINISTOMP! PRIMINISTOMP wants to learn GOVERNMENT, but PRIMINISTOMP already knows 4 moves! Delete an older move to make room for the new one? PRIMINISTOMP forgot ELECTION PROMISES! PRIMINISTOMP learned GOVERNMENT!
Ok. It's 2:30 in the morning, the couch behind me is looking really comfy, and I just made a billion posts, after not making any posts for years, so this is the final one. Ok? Promise!?
I went to the pools with my friends the other day, that is Omar/Ejje and Sayed/Kak (put into romantic pairings for your yaoi convenience). We went to Homebush Olympic Park pools. Kewl place I suppose. Haven't been there in ages.
Anyway, nothing much to look at, it was same old. EXCEPT THE FREAKIN BIKER DOOD. Omg. It was so perverse. There were this shower things in the pool that gave out a pretty strongly pressured water flow. This biker looking guy, white, fat (as in HUGE belly) and long hair but really receding hair-line, was under the water thing looking like he was freakin having fantasies under the water it was SO GROSS. He was flicking his hair and doing all these weird things (almost exactly like that Herbal Essences ad) and I just turned the other way.
ARGH. Dammit. I didn't realise the site where I hosted all my important template images (like my lemony favicon and background) is down. Ghey. I have to do find a new site now, and replace all the links in my template. *Sigh*. [Edit: Woohoo! Found an awesome site. FileDen!!]
Made my brother a cake on for his birthday. Take a happy peek:
Seriously pretty cake, if I do say so myself. Actually, I made my brother 2 cakes, as the self-appointed cake maker. The other one was a chocolate cheesecake (his favourite), but I didn't get any good pictures. Ah well. This one didn't really taste that good, as opposed to my uber delicious cheesecake. Just looked pretty! LOL.
Ever since HSC finished I've had so much bloody time, and what does someone amazing like me do when he has too much time on his hands? Read novels of course! Anyway, I've just finished Lirael, the second novel in the most amazing fantasy series of all time, Garth Nix's Old Kingdom not-so-Trilogy (not a trilogy anymore because he confirmed he's writing a prequel AND a sequel!! ZOMG *squeals*.)
Seriously, you should read it. It's one of the most imaginative fantasy series there is, being fantasy without having elves (thank GOD) or dragons or anything else so cliche I would sitck 2 fingers down my throat and puke half digested cake all over it (Or not. Depends on how well it was written. I still want to finish that Elizabeth Haydon series. Half-blood something?) The concept of necromancy, and the bells and free magic v.s. Charter magic is SO KEWL (I know, some of you don't agree it's that kewl *cough cough*).
Sabriel is TEH coolest character. And Mogget. And the Dog. And Lirael. And everyone except Sameth and Ellimere. Sabriel and Touchstone may be hot, but they made some fugly kids. I wonder if they would make movie out of it. Hmmm. Anyway, here's the cover of the Old Kingdom books as I read them:
Speaking of fantasy novels I read recently, how can I forget the TWILIGHT series! *Hears the screams of thousands of silly fan-girls*. Even admitting I read these books is a serious mark (like a huge ugly black bleeding hole) against my morals, character and sanity. YES. I CONFESS. I READ THREE THICK BOOKS ABOUT VAMPIRE/WEREWOLF ROMANCE. SHOOT ME.
I am so ashamed of myself. Well to be honest, they weren't half bad. Big Underworld rip-off, the whole vampires/werewolf rivalry till the end of time. Apparently Stephanie Meyer can go suck Anne Rice's saggy skin because she pales in comparison to her Great Vampiriness. According to various sources anyway. I tried reading Interview with a Vampire and gave up before I died of boredom. Ah well. Anyway, the Twilight Series had really nice book covers:
Next stop, DEATH GATE CYCLE. Why am I re-reading all these books??
HELP! I am totally, absolutely, utterly addicted to Starcraft. Yes, that old game you used to play when you were 15 back in 1998. It is a testament to the amazing game-making skills of Blizzard that huge numbers of people are still playing their games (their main franchises of Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo) a decade on, totally unchanged.
OMG today I played for hours and hours. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just me, and my mum would only be a bit nuts, but its me and both my brothers as well playing multiplayer free-for-all LAN games. LOL! Hogging all the computers for hours and driving everyone nuts is too easy when it's so much fun!! I think my mum is gonna kill us soon.
Here's a screenshot from a game when I totally gave up and my eldest brother took his sweet freakin' time killing me. Noob. *LOL*:
I always use Zerg. They're kinda gross if you're not used to it, all slimy and pulsating and infesting other things. It's funny how my favourite unit is called the Queen. L-O-L. Fun times! Now I can't wait for Starcraft 2 to come out...
Woohoo! ZZOMG! Finally did something I said I really wanted to do these holidays. I joined a cake making class! HAHA. It was so much fun! And it was really (kinda) charitable too because we were making the cakes for homeless people. I'm such a saint, I know!
Me and me sister showed up to this place and sat outside for a few minutes like total nOObs, wondering wtf is going on, and then our teacher showed up and took us in. His name is Ferdie, and he seriously wants you to know that he is German. Here's a pic:
There's Ferdie in the background. It was so funny how he kept saying "Because I'm German..." or "That's how Germans do it..." It was so random. And he had all these German cooking things with words written in Deutsch (that's the language right??). Now I know what flour is in German. It's MEHL!!! And cocoa is KAKAO!! And sugar is SUCRE. Or something. I think I got that last one wrong.
Here's my sister and another girl (Asma, I think her name was) making tasty goodies in a disaster-zone not so organised kitchen. Ferdie translated recipes from this ancient German cookbook and just let us at it, guiding us along. Most of the time it went well, I suppose. I made 2 things: a Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte (a.k.a. Black Forest gateau! Yes, I actually made one. wOOt!) and Bavarian Bretzels (I think they're just huge pretzels. *Shrug*).
Here's my unfinished Black Forest cake! Don't you love the layers??
Watch me boil bretzels in soda solution! I look slightly MURDEROUS~!
Here they are after boiling...
And this is the finished product! Brown, salty BRETZELS! The bretzels are a yeast-based kinda dough thing which you let rise and then twirl into this shape. You boil then in bicarb soda solution so they go brown. They were a bit salty (just how the German's like it. That sounds so perverted) so I didn't really like them. Khad and Ferdie liked them, so it's ok.
Khad made this Fruit Flan. How purty!!
Asma made these cookies. They were awesomely crumbly!
YAY! These are all the cakes/bread-things we made for the homeless people! Aren't we such angels? In order from top left corner, clockwise is: Fruit Flan, Bavarian Bretzels, some glazed raisin loaf, my Black Forest Gateau, some cute glazed buns (we called them German Krispy Krenes and Ferdie got happy. LoL!), a cinnamon cake (which Ferdie dropped on the floor by accident and looked SO guilty-feeling. I felt bad for him), some cherry thing, Deer Back (funny name I know) and the cookies.
There is no experience more depressing than job-hunting as a job experience-less teenager. People can be so mean! Sluts! I'll burn you all down one day. When I'm rich. And hot. Just like everyone else >_< ...
Anyway, I stayed up late fixing up my resume till it was all nice and purty and then the next day I got one of my friends to come and help me (cos he's jot a job and has done the whole thing already). I tried to print out 35 resumes but my printer is such a freakin' hormonal bitch (kinda like me XD) and only printed out 10 before the ink went all faded. Ah well.
Then I went to a local area and started. (!!!!). It was SO freaky. The first store I went into was this pharmacy. I asked to speak to the manager and all the jazz. Then it got a bit weird so I handed in my resume and went off.
And that's how I lost my job application virginity.
The rest of the day was just as depressing. SO horrible! And it was hard hiding that depression and putting on the fake enthusiastic thing so they don't think you're an emo and reject you (which wouldn't be that wrong in my case LOL). Then there was the curry chick who lied to me and deserved to be shot and anal probed with cactus. Just like those OTHER unspeakable people.
I really can't be bothered doing this. I'm SO tired. My thighs are aching, my head hurts and I have bruises running down my side. FUN!! Right?? Well, comparatively anyway. Compared to the other peeps. Jaysus. One guy had so many bleeding welts running up and down his back he looked diseased.
Nothing much to talk about if you think about it. Just boys running around shooting each other with little balls of paint feeling all great about it. And screaming JIHAD. Got to meet up with some people I haven't seen in ages. That was nice.
There was this photo-montage thing on the wall of the paintball place showing pictures of people's injuries. It was quite gross. But if you looked closer here and there you'd see pictures of some weird paintball orgy. SERIOUSLY. There was this guy holding a gun and a hooker and OK NVM.
I got pulled over by the cops when I was driving the van; I was going home after playing tennis with Hamzah (ham sandwich). Lucky my mum reminded me to put on the P-plates before I left. I usually don't because it's such a hassle. They didn't even check my license! Lucky I had it though or I would've got busted bad.
[Alcohol level: 0.00]
Lucky I wasn't drunk. I probably would've flirted with the cop.
To Whom It May Concern (a.k.a. silly co-op people),
MAY YOUR ANAL SPHINCTERS BE TORN BY THE FORCE OF A CACTUS PENETRATION. I HOPE YOUR RECTAL PASSAGES ARE SHREDDED TO RIBBONS SO THAT FAECES WILL LEAK INTO BLADDER AND YOU PISS SHIT. MAY YOU BE STRANGLED BY YOUR OWN INTESTINES, YOUR HEADS IMPLODE, YOUR EYEBALLS EXPLODE, AND YOUR TONGUES RIPPED OUT AND SHOVED INTO YOUR ASSHOLES.
Since my HSC is over (something I will eventually talk about) I've been on a pretty wacky movie watching spree. Well, it's mostly kinda weird movies my sister rents from the local Civic Video (I know! Who the hell rents movies these days!? We're in the age of piracy!! Tsk tsk.) Anyway, following on from my little Reading Room post...
Freedom Writers:
I LOVE this movie. I actually watched it at the cinemas already. It's not a very teen-boy friendly title. Anything to do with "writing" is like a repellent for lebo boys (not to say I'm LEBO or anything. Omfg). Ah well, they actually watched it. I watched it again! It's a super cool story about a teacher who inspires her dumb ghetto kids to write their lives in these journals, where they get published as the "Freedom Writers" from the shanty towns, kinda a pun on the Freedom Riders on that interracial XXX bus thing that got attacked. Ah! I digress.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind:
This movie wins HANDS DOWN the prize for the most random thing ever created by a human being. Seriously. Including toaster strudel. I don't even know what toaster strudel is BUT WHO CARES! This movie rocked and won an Academy Award. It is the strangest movie about awkward people, relationships, love, creepy hobbit-boys, wiping away memories, dancing naked, lying on the ice, drugs, blue hair and abortions. But its awesome. I haven't seen Jim Carrey in ages!! Nice to see he still makes good movies.
Marie Antoinette:
Last, and probably least out of this selection, is this strange pointless movie. Truly another Sophia Coppola type thing. If you've seen "Lost in Translation" you'll know what I mean. 2 hours of complete pointless randomness. I mean, it's a good movie I suppose. But you do get tired of Kirsten Dunst. The whole movie is just a silly celebration of how much "fun" she had. And how bad her husband is at sex. Apparently. It was so weird. It reaches the point where you get real pleasure out of knowing she gets beheaded.
When I was in that phase of applying for jobs everywhere (which is over now since I got rejected by everyone) I briefly considered working as a waiter. That would be fun. I like to cook, and I thought maybe this would be my platform to spring into the industry. Or so I thought. Or maybe I just like the idea of being a waiter. Hmm...
Anyway, I went to Thai Hutt yesterday and then I saw the waiters CLEANING TABLES. *Shock*. Yes, I was horrified to realise that I would have to clean tables. Hahaha. Yes, I dumb. I think that's just an excuse I tell myself. I clean heaps at home anyway. The waiters were so eurgh. Like all sweaty and not composed. It was gross. I didn't wanna work there. Or maybe I'm just a lazy ass.
Anyhoo, I had fried ice-cream! Yes, to all you silly white people, deep-fried. I'm sure you'll all have tried it by now (if not Google is your friend). Here's a pic:
I know, it's a bit late, wtf, but I've been a bit lazy lately and I really didn't want to do this post. Maybe its one of those sentimental things. Anyway, I finished my LAST high-school exam of my LIFE yesterday, 3u maths. It is so weird never having to do a maths paper again! wOOt! Anyway, here's my calender, marking off the lastest day of my high-school life:
Yes, I really am that anal. Don't ask. Well I wrote up the timetable in like May or something. This year was quick and slow. Strange. I am really finished. ALL MY EXAMS! I swear! I'm not lying. LOOK! Here's more proof:
HAHAHA. I know LOL! CAKE isn't much of evidence but WHATEVER TREVOR. This is my official HSC-is-over-cake, tiramisu with overwhelming amounts of creaminess. I think I might just be over cream.
It is so strange though, this feeling of never having to go back to school ever again. It's especially weird for me since I've been going there for 12 years straight. It's SO STRANGE! No more guilt over wasting hours on Digg or chatting away into the early hours of the morning, or going out with your friends and not having to study......
Never again will I walk through those weird halls at MFIS wondering what people think about me and getting weird looks from people and annoying comments from the juniors (that make me wonder what they really think, but should I really care?) to walk in to the class worrying who will be in there because I can't deal with everyone in the class very well (on the inside anyway) and fake it if I see people I don't want to see (which are not the people you would think; I hated seeing people I most wanted to see. Life's complicated...) and sitting down at a table wondering what this day will be like. Never again will I be able to annoy teachers just for the heck of it (and get away with it most of the time XD) or have paper ball wars (not that I took part in most of them) or rubber band slinging paper thingy wars (which I totally took part in; adding sticky tape to the paper made them lethal) or listen intently to seriously pointless gossip (which I REALLY enjoyed and a lot of them time was the centre of LOLL). Never again will I stand be part of the barbaric canteen line (seriously horrible) or skip class (to feel cool even though it was so damn easy) or try to get teachers fired (it was only once! I'm not evil) or be part of something amazing like muck-up day (link) or just be so damn care-free.
Never again will I have so much fun. I hope I'm wrong!!
I've read 2 books recently. I know, I really shouldn't have in the middle of my HSC but, ah well! It was too tempting. It was a nice feeling lying down on my comfy bed and reading. Haven't done it in ages!
Dead Sexy - Kathy Lette:
This is the funniest novel I've read in a while. Warning: 18+ material. It contains so much smut its unbelievable. I think the only reason I picked it up was 'cos of the sleazy title. But turns out it was actually a bit more substantial that soft-porn. Really good read! It goes from creepo reality TV to to a tropical honeymoon that starts out badly and deteriorates into a hurricane, volcanic eruption and terrorists. LMAO. That description just made it sound like the biggest load of rubbish, but it's such a fun read. Do try it ;P
About A Boy - Nick Hornby:
Yeh, they did make a movie about this one. The only reason I read this one was because the cover was cool. I know, I'm so fickle about choosing books to read! Anyway this one is about the weird relationship between a immature 36 year old man and this creepy 12 year old kid (nothing sexual between them d/w). It's so hilarious! The story is really good but the main part I loved was the weird character of the kid, Marcus. And Dead Duck Day. A MUST READ!
My eldest sister (Raidah) does this Muslim-chaplaincy thing at Westmead Hospital. She talks to the sick children and makes them feel better. It's a really noble cause I suppose. I'd like to do it someday. I'm good with children; I can make them smile. I know what they are feeling very easily. I'm like that with everyone actually; I seem to notice things other people don't notice. I like to think I'm kind-hearted and would be able to make people happy, but I dunno.
Anyway, my sister works with Mission of Hope, and she receives donations of presents, which she wraps and gives to the sick children. One of the presents was this HUGE stuffed animal, a rat from the animated film Ratatouille. It was the hugest, cutest thing ever! It had really soft fur too. I used to play with it when I studied. Haha, I know, it's not my present, but anyway.
My sister gave "my" rat away today. I felt sad. But then she showed me the kid who got it and I really didn't care anymore because the kid is SO DAMN CUTE! He's been in hospital since he was born or something (so slack) so making him happy with Mr Rat is just a small gesture of kindness. I hope he likes!
I went to an open-house today. Full of Malays. I only went for the food. Socialising with Malays is just not my thing. Especially with most Malay boys my age. They're such drop-kicks and should be shot before they can reproduce. Oops. That's a bit harsh.
I hoped Rai would be there but she didn't come. That would have made it a bit more fun. Actually, maybe not. Too much gender segregation. I was stuck with my brothers talking to their friends about how much they hate "fags". I know. How manly of them. Somebody kill me please.
I couldn't take the atmosphere anymore so I went home. My mum was stuck there so she asked me to come pick her up. Lucky I have my license. I used the van. Guess what? Half-way there, when I was on the highway, the van went nuts (he's an old fella) and started screeching like crazy. I was scared. I drove really slow (like 30 in a 70 zone), got honked at, swore back at the idiots, and got there in one piece.
I like it! It's got a nice catchy beat, and actually has some meaning. Some of the lines are quite interesting. Makes you feel weird about reading Perez Hilton (who I happen to dislike quite a bit). Have a listen.
Remember my last cake binge? Well, I just had another one. Jeez. Weightloss is not gonna happen anytime soon. Summer is coming up and I'm gonna scare everyone on the beach with me FAT BELLY! HAHA. It is so worth it. Cake is LORD!
Everyone, stop buying cakes from wherever you buy your cakes, and come to Sergio's Cake Shop (link) in Greenacre. Seriously this place sells the best cakes in the universe. Well, out of the cake's I've tried (which is QUITE A LOT let me tell you) this place tops them all. Everything is nice there. Seriously! This is the crap I bought recently:
Fruit sponge-cake layered with custard. Man! SO GOOD~!
And a KILO of these fellas, called "yo-yos". YUM!!!
I had my final HSC chemistry exam last Wednesday. Yes. Tragedy. It went really well, 'cept I mixed up propanol and butanol. Totally lame. Ah well. Anyway, to rub some more salt into my sadistic wound, that (on LEFT) is what the enthalpy-thingy graph is for an exothermic reaction. Damn pricks. That's just plain evil.
Hope I get 98+.
First in the state would be nice. XD.
NOOOOO! No more chem!! *Cries*.
Here are my chemistry-related posts, for old-time's sake:
Yesterday I sat the last English exam of my life! Goodbye, oh worthy adversary! The long hours I spent analysing banal texts, the tediousities of creating beautifully flowing paragraphs and the wristache and cramps your endurance-sports of exams gave me will be sorely missed.
In a strange way, that's half true.
Let's just say I hope it went ok, and that rhymed so I feel fine, and on the 19th of December, all Hell will be torn asunder and my life will either be, most glorious or deathly free and I give up trying to rhyme, it's much to hard you see!
Anyway. During the exam I had:
Tonsillitis
Major headache
Diarrhoea
Stomach cramps
Yet I struggled away for 2 hours to finish my damn essays, my body cursing me for putting it through such anguish. "FREE ME FROM THIS TORTURE!" I cried to myself, "Release my contents!" my bowels begged. Hopefully it all pays off. *Fingers crossed*.
Slowly, slowly, a few more days until BONFIRE NIGHT!
Goodbye Huckleberry Finn! Goodbye Ovid and Wordsworth! Goodbye Charles Foster Kane! Goodbye Antony, Cleopatra and Octavius Caesar!
P.S. I think I made up like 10 words in this post...
I know, I'm meant to be in HSC hiatus mode, but too many ideas popping in my head to report for future generations (i.e. blog about). So I thought I'd blog about Eid. I know, a bit late, but wtf who cares! Eid (or eid-ul-fitr if you wanna get fancy) is like Christmas for Muslims. Well not really, but it's our biggest religious celebration that marks the end of Ramadan and means we can eat all we want again!
Remember my Ramadan weightloss plan? Well let's just say starvation type diets (a.k.a fasting) just don't work for me, and I'm now fatter then when I started. Woohoo. Yay. Cheer.
I went to the mosque (Lakemba Mosque) in the morning wearing nice formal clothes, all handily scabbed off my brother. Sometimes it pays off being the fifth child (out of 6, mind you). It wasn't the most exciting Eid, I was too tired because everyone stayed up helping with the food.
I cooked chicken rendang!
First time ever too! Rendang is a very Malay dish; its like a coconut-ish curry. It's so rich and thick its like a liquid stroke; one taste and your arteries are GONE. But, oh, what a death. Let's see if I can remember the recipe off the top of my head...
Chicken Rendang!
INGREDIENTS:
Vegetable oil Some chicken (one, two?) Onions, garlic, ginger (the TRINITY of Asian cooking) Lemon grass Galangal Tamarind paste Chilli paste Tumeric powder Cumin, fennel and coriander seed powder
Dessicated cocunut Coconut milk Kafir-lime leaves
Salt, chicken stock, MSG, all that extra jazz.
MY SPECIAL METHOD:
Firstly, cut up the chicken into curry-style pieces (if you want you can coat the pieces in tumeric powder and salt and let them marinate for a while. I don't. LOL). Next we need to make the rendang paste, which contains the tasty flavours. In a blender (food processor, liquidator, whatever) put a few...
Ok. At this moment I am trying to type up this recipe but people are SERIOUSLY annoying me on MSN. Jeez! I like you people but I don't want to talk to you ALL THE FREAKIN TIME! And no that does not make me emo. It makes me a self-centred bastard. *Shrug*.
...peeled onions, some garlic and some ginger (I tend to use the canned versions; 'tis heaps more convenient). Chuck in a sliced stalk of lemongrass (peel off the outer layer first princess), some galangal (weirdest thing ever), a spoon of tamarind paste, chilli paste (according to how spicy you want it to be), a heaped teaspoon of the tumeric powder as well as a level teaspoon of the ground spices.
Turn the blender on and voila! Tasty paste. Add only a little bit of water if necessary to keep the blades moving. This is still a raw paste, no tasting allowed silly fools.
Now that we have the paste, we need kerisik. This is an essential ingredient of rendang. Using a dry-blender, blend a cup of dessicated coconut until it disintegrates into a oily paste (LOL! Isn't that cool? Dessicated coconut, the bloody driest thing on Earth, turns into an oily paste if you blender it). Then take this paste, and using a little oil, fry it in a frying pan until it turns brown (not TOO brown; like the colour of dry leaves). Woohoo! We have kerisik!
Using a big pot, add oil, and fry the rendang paste. Fry, fry, fry until you can't be bothered, and then add the kerisik. Stir till you get cramps and then chuck in coconut milk (like a can? Or more?) and the kafir-lime leaves. Add salt, chicken stock, voodoo spices and taste. Yum? WIN! Not yum? F*** OFF! Or add more salt.
Add the chicken, and let it cook until tender. And there you have it.
It's official. I should be given the Nobel Prize for Foodies this year. Guess what I did!? I made a PIZZA that tastes like a BIG MAC. YES! I made a pizza taste like a burger. I am SO amazing. Praise me! PRAISE MEE!!
Ok, it was my turn to make iftar, and I was really not in the mood for rice and/or other Asian foods (yes, I know I are Asian PHAIL). All we had was mince meat, so I randomly started asking people what to make with mince meat. Nahyan suggested pizza. "Hmmm..." I said. I've never tried making much Western savoury food. I didn't know how to make it anyway LOL.
When a 21st century teenager needs to know something, who does he ask? GOOGLE of course! I searched, "How to make pizza dough," because that is basically all you need to know; the toppings are pretty much experimentation.
I came across eHow.com which showed how to make a pretty good dough. I didn't have many typical pizza ingredients in my fridge so I just dumped anything and VOILA! Tasty!
Big-Mac Pizza!
INGREDIENTS:
500 g plain flour 1 and 1/4 cup warm water Packet of dry yeast (usually 15 g I think) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Chilli sauce Dijonnaise mustard (yes, you read right. MUST HAVE!)
Some raw mince meat Some left over kima-aloo mince meat Mushrooms Cucumbers Onions Spring onions Red chillis
Cheese slices (NOT mozarella)
MY SPECIAL METHOD:
First, dissolve the yeast into the warm water in a large bowl and leave it until you see some bubbles. Mix the flour into this and knead it into a dough (HAHA! That makes it sound so easy. If your kneading by hand, knead until you get arthritis and your dough is all smooth and shiny. Or use a machine with a dough-hook.) Oh yeh, I forgot to tell you, add the oil and salt. I think that was meant to be done a bit earlier, but anyhoo...
Cover the dough in oil (like kinda rub oil over it? LOL) and put it in a bowl (oil the bowl too. We like our oil.) Cover the bowl with cling-wrap and leave the bowl in a warm place (like next to the stove after mummy made iftaari) until it at least doubles in size (SERIOUSLY! It gets really fat, its so cool). This takes like 45 minutes. This is what I ended up with:
As you can see, not a very smooth surface. I used my HANDS ok!! My wrists hurt after that. I wonder how all those grandmas do it without getting huge biceps. Anyway, this would be a good point to preheat your oven to the highest setting it has. REALLY! That gives a nice crisp crust. Most ovens only go up to 220 degrees celsius. It's good enough.
Roll out your dough into a pizza-base, as thick or thin as you want, remembering that the dough does rise a little bit during cooking. Then the fun stuff starts! I covered it with a layer of chilli sauce (like the hardcore Asian type) and then a layer of dijonnaise mustard. Dice up the onions, chillis, spring onionsm cucumbers and mushrooms and chuck them over it. Then cover it with the meats. You should end up with this prettiness:
YUM! I want to eat it again! Usually most normal people would then cover the pizza with mozarella cheese. Unfortunately, one, I'm not usually considered a normal person (for good reasons of course) and two, we didn't have any mozarella. I was gonna use feta, but then I remembered that feta doesn't really melt. LOL. I chucked on some cheese slices, in a nice pattern of course, and popped the bugger into the oven:
I left it in there for a while, about 20 minutes. The cheese kinda oozed everywhere and didn't stick to the pizza very well. Ah well. It tasted really nice. Did I mention it tasted like a Big Mac? I think it was the combination of cheese, onions and mustard. Oooo! It was SO good!
Mum told everyone to go pray and then eat, but I snuck in a few bites. What!? I MADE IT OKAY!! Great success! Maybe white-people food ain't so bad after all. After I was done, the evil kitchen wall monster reminded me of what to do next:
Today was another one of those days when HSC just got to me and I flipped and did something crazy. Do you have those days? Let's hope it doesn't happen to too many people, the world is crazy enough. Anyway, the stress levels got so high that the spirit of Jackson Pollock raped me and forced me to paint.
"Paint, fool! PAINT!!" his spirit cried to me. And paint I did:
Wow. Now isn't this just a masterpiece? Here's a close-up:
Anyhoo, here's real JP painting for you to compare.
I still think mine's better. Hehe (NOT). His paintings are nice. Very colourful and weird. Although I wouldn't pay $140 million dollars for one of them, like some crazy nut did. Ok, the real story is I found some photocopy machine toner in the shed, and we don't have a photocopy machine so I decided that it was free-for-all, so I opened it and started playing around with it. I burned it, threw it around, sniffed it (joke) and put it in a cup and mixed it with oil. Voila! Instant black paint. It got boring sitting there in a cup so I threw it on the fence.
My sister had really bad sushi cravings, so she went to Sushi Train and bought like 10 packets of sushi. There were so many weird types! I know, I'm Asian, I'm supposed to eat weird things. I'm not THAT asian though. I prefer being known as Malay. One of my Chinese friends asked me if my mum cooks weird food. I asked him, "Like what?" and he said "Blood cubes."
*Gag*. Might be racist, but I find eating blood really offensive.
Anyway, back to the sushi. In the package was soy sauce, Japo mayonnaise, wasabi (!!!) and of course the different types of sushi. The one I mainly eat is prawn tempura sushi. That is really nice. It's prawn fried in some batter and wrapped in rice and nori. The only other time I've had something different was when I accidentally ordered normal prawn sushi (which was SO GROSS; the prawn was all cold and it stank). Oh, and there was that one time I was in the city with my English teacher and Azmena for some lecture, and I thought I'd try the raw salmon and cucumber; I put too much wasabi and gagged on it and they all had a good laugh.
Skanks.
Any-hoo, this time, I tried a few different things. Raw salmon and rice was a bit strange. It didn't really have any taste, it was just kinda squishy and gross. Lobster sushi was nice, a bit strange, but nice. I had more prawn tempura. YUM. Then there was EEL. I actually ate it. It was eel and egg. Such a weird combo, it was SO weird tasting.
Sydney is being infested by MOTHS. As in those furry flying things. Not the pretty moths, but the nasty brown ones. They're called bogong moths (wiki) and they are really obsessed with light. They're a common sight in summer time, and they're always flying around. But this time it's INSANE. They are EVERYWHERE. I swear, I was walking in the city and a moth flew into my face, dropped to my arm, CHUCKED A SHIT on me, and flew off.
OMFG. Has a moth (or any insect for that matter) ever shit on you?? NO!! I didn't think so!! It was so gross. Green slimy poo. Lucky I had tissues to wipe it off. The crap fell on my bag as well. Nasty:
YUCK.
Apparently they migrate at this time of the year annually, but this time since it's been a bit windy lately they've been blown off-course into urban Sydney. Poor moths. They're dying everywhere.
A really weird thing happened on the train today. There was this moth flying on the window trying to get out (it couldn't see the glass or something). Then this fat emo chick (nothing against fat emo chicks; I was just being brutally descriptive!! SORRY!!) in front of me cupped the moth in her hand and opened the window and let it out. It was SO strange! She wouldn't look at anyone after she did that. It was incredibly weird.
My eldest sister bought a pavlova for everyone from The Cheesecake Shop in Bankstown. I had a little bit after iftar (like a tiny nibble) but I couldn't have any more because Saturday's cheat-day (the day I can eat anything I want!) I went to the fridge to cut some and to save it in a container because I knew it would definitely finish by Saturday.
I put it on the benchtop, and prodded the cream, then OMFG the F***ING box started slipping and then it slipped off completely. I managed to catch it, but ALAS the damn box is so retarded it flipped open and everything fell on the floor.
NOTE to TheCheeseCakeShop people: CAN YOU PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF THE FREAKIN' LORD, MARY, JESUS AND MOHAMMED MAKE STRONGER BOXES TO HOLD YOUR CAKES? IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED THE SIDES AREN'T CONNECTED AND TEND TO OPEN, SPILLING THE CONTENTS ALL OVER THE FLOOR. YES, IT'S HAPPENED BEFORE, WITH TWO BLACKFOREST GATEAUS AND NOW THIS PAVLOVA. THANK YOU.
I picked up what I could from the kitchen floor and dumped it back in the box, fuming like crazy, and I threw some hairy cream in as well for good measure, and dumped the box back in the fridge. I was SOO PISSED!
Then I went a bit crazy. I took out the box, took out the pavlova and threw it on the fence in my backyard in the darkness, and threw the box over the fence. My cats were staring at me, thinking: "Hmm. What a curious fellow."
My sister went to the fridge and noticed the box was missing (OH CRAP!) but the funny thing is she wasn't surprised at all HAHA. All she said was: "Wahh! It's finished already!?" and gave me a dirty. I think it's definitely official now.
Firstly, I woke up in the night 3 times, had 3 separate dreams and remembered ALL of them!! You have no idea how seriously weird that is. I never remember my dreams; NEVER! They were kinda weird dreams too. They were, not in any particular order (plus I can't even remember):
I was doing my English HSC paper (Paper One) in a hall and in the middle of the exam I was having a chat with my English teacher, then I looked at the time and saw that there was only half and hour left and I had 2 sections to go and I realised I had no hope and freaked out insanely. It was SO SCARY. Don't LAUGH!! Total nerd dream. LEWL. I woke up horribly traumatised, and VERY motivated to study.
I was in some random south-east Asian country like the Phillipines and I was at an ATM machine (or an arcade?) and the guy in front of me had shoulder length black hair, and he turned around and IT WAS ROI!! OMFG. As in Roi from hoiitsroi (a.k.a. Wasabi Productions) on YouTube! LMAO. I wanted to take a picture with him (they are SO KEWL), and he was all happy, but my little sister freaked out cos she thought he was Am/Dom (cause of his long hair HAHA. My family's been buggin' me bout her since graduation. *Sigh*.) Anyway, as I tried to get rid of my little sister he left and I was left depressed.
And lastly, I think this was a kinda continuation of the last one, same kinda gloomy/monsoon kinda weather as Phillippines except that I was with my classmates and we were running through people's backyards wearing only boardshorts and then we found a pool and jumped in. Then *someone* (read: person I am way to obsessed with) was being mean to me and I stayed under the water, but it was cold so I wasn't emo.
How completely demented are these dreams? Well, not really that demented (compared to my nightmare of Ronald McDonald chasing me on wooden logs over a lavapit) but it's weird enough for me!
It is SO flamin' hot right now. And windy too. Hot wind is nasty. The air is so damn hot. Argh! I'm fasting too. I feel soo hungry. And thirsty. But I can only eat whole grains and proteins every 2 hours, and only eat cake nice food on Saturdays, cos' BITCHES, abs are made in the KITCHEN, not the gym!!
Today, the rubbish hoarded in our family for over a decade was finally thrown away. I think if my dad finds out he'll freak. LOL. Well that's too bad isn't it? Lucky he's not even in this country. The hoarding genes definitely come from my dad; let's just hope I didn't inherit too much of it.
Anyway, my mum called up the council to use one of our 2 free bulk-rubbish collection days. Then she went and decided to throw EVERYTHING out. I think it's one of those turn-over-a-new-leaf slash I-want-to-get-rid-of-my-past hidden under the cover of happy Spring Cleaning! Ah well, I don't mind. I hate clutter. Have a peek:
Tons and tons of boxes (I know, wtf, why so many boxes!?) I think after we unpacked after moving here, we didn't really get round to throwing them away. Chairs, suitcases, empty drawers, junk symbolising millenia of repression (oops!). Can you see Imposter in the background? Hehe.
There was more junk out the front. A LOT more. Poor rubbish people. Look! Cupboards, more boxes, a toy-car, chairs (heaps of chairs, another major weird), TWO washing machines (WTF), a car bonnet (HAHA) and an oven. Yes, an oven. We really like to hoard our big appliances.
Another view of the rubbish. I wasn't really that embarrased about it. Some of my siblings were. Ah well, it's just another part of the weirdness of my life. Add a full rubbish bin or two!
I found this painting hidden amongst the junk. It's such a beautiful painting! I didn't want it to get thrown in to the junk. So I stole it and hid it HEHE. Damn it, my hoarder genes are coming out again...
