kolo mee for me?

I'm craving...

KOLO MEE

Pictures stolen from Kenny Sia since his pictures of kolo mee are the BEST!

I always forgot to take pictures of food in Kuching because once the food arrives, I attack and devour them so quickly that by the time I remember to take a picture, the food's all gone!

We Kuching peeps LOVE our kolo mee, with the exception of a few, like my best friend Melissa (How can you not love kolo mee, Melmel?). The oilier it is, the better the kolo mee tastes! The "bak chor" (minced meat) is sooo delicious with the noodles, and the noodles are VERY different from other kinds of noodles, k. Crap, the more I think about it, the more I crave it!!!

Pleeeeaaaassseee, can someone courier kolo mee over to Chicago??
*sob*

Is there kolo mee in KL?

very random indeed

Beautiful sunset over Lake Michigan and snow-covered Lake Shore Drive
~view from mr. boyfriend's room~


Stormy sea and cloudy skies at Damai Beach Resort, Kuching

I really, rea-lly, REALLY need to clear up my mess in my room and in the living room...because:
1. Xian is arriving on Thursday! (WOOT!)
2. Prospective subletters are visiting!
3. My parents are coming!
4. I'm graduating!!!

-> 2 months to graduation <-
...and I don't know what to feel...

I'm glad that I'm finally going to be DONE WITH SCHOOL but school comes with a lot of other fun stuff, like FRIENDS and CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES and a different kind of FREEDOM than the freedom once you start working. Leaving school also means LEAVING THE U.S. so I'm sad about that as well.

*sulk*
*kick the wall*
OUCH!

Am I ready for the next stage of life??

Harvard, rub la, go rub in our face!

J.K. Rowling To Speak at Commencement

Harvard Crimson | CLAIRE M. GUEHENNO and LAURENCE H. M. HOLLAND | January 17, 2008 12:12 PM

Harry Potter never returned to Hogwarts for his seventh and final year, so J. K. Rowling never got to write a graduation speech for her magical protagonist.

The author of the mega-bestseller "Harry Potter" series will get a chance to make up for that in June, when she delivers the keynote address at Harvard's Commencement exercises, the University announced Thursday morning.

"Perhaps no one in our time has done more than J. K. Rowling to inspire young people to experience the excitement and the sheer joy of reading," said University President Drew G. Faust in the statement.

The "Harry Potter" books have sold more than 375 million copies since the first volume, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," was released in 1997, according to a University statement. The seven installments have been translated into 65 languages and are available in more than 200 countries.

The University will also grant Rowling— a native of Great Britain whose net worth has been estimated at over $1 billion—an honorary degree at the June 5 ceremony.

Harvard is no stranger to Harry Potter mania.

Last July, on the eve of the release of the seventh and final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," dozens of restaurants and stores in Harvard Square stayed open late and posted Harry Potter-themed specials, Tercentenary Theater hosted a three-hour concert that featured the musical stylings of Harry and the Potters, and hundreds of Harry Potter fans, many in wizard costumes, lined up outside the Coop to purchase a copy at the stroke of midnight.

First, I find out that Harvard is getting one of the coolest Commencement Speakers ever (and many students and staff complained that J.K. Rowling was not good enough for them LOL...*banging head on the wall*). Then, I find out that Harvard is getting one of the most important Class Day Speakers ever TOO--Ben Bernanke.

=='
(sweat drop)

Damnit, Harvard! We all know that you're really prestigious and cool and really hard to get admitted for (7.06%) but there's really no need to rub it in our face!

Bernanke Joins J.K. Rowling As Harvard Class Day Speaker

Harvard Crimson | ADITI BALAKRISHNA | April 10, 2008 01:45 PM

Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben S. Bernanke '75 will take to the steps of Memorial Church in June as this year's Class Day speaker, the University announced yesterday.

Bernanke, considered the nation's most influential economic policy maker, follows in the footsteps of President Bill Clinton, who spoke at Class Day last year.

"When we found out J.K. Rowling was going to be speaking [at Commencement], we wanted to find someone that would kind of balance our graduation ceremonies," said Class Marshall Alexander J. Tennant '08. "He's a Harvard alum, and he is also in a position to make major decisions for the US and the economy, and we thought he would provide that perfect balance of thought."

Bernanke joins a list of Class Day speakers that includes such notables as Mother Teresa, playwright Arthur Miller, former Massachusetts Governor Michael S. Dukakis, and Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr.

family-friends-fans

Sooooooooo hateful!

Here's my bit about Malaysian Dreamgirl:

I'm utterly convinced that the people voting for Malaysian Dreamgirl are completely BLIND. Sooooo blind. Blind with a capital B. These people, called 3fs, are either people who are categorized as "family" (i.e. Cindy's daddy who promised her that he'll MAKE SURE that she stays in the competition) or as "friends" (i.e. Alison who got voted off because she didn't have much friends who were in Malaysia) or as "fans" (i.e. Ringo's blog fans whose numbers are unaccountably many more than the other 2fs COMBINED for the other contestants).

MEANINGLESS la, I say. This competition has completely lost its appeal (and its credibility along as well). It's purely a POPULARITY contest or WHO-HAS-MORE-3Fs or WHOSE-3Fs-CAN-SPEND-MORE-ON-SMS.

Complete bullocks! What happened to awarding people according to their talent/performance?

First Eyna, and now Fiqa?

I feel so disappointed with the Malaysian audience.

This was the only good photo in the Wella Inspiration photo shoot:


FIQA

And guess what are the motives of the contestants?

To win the car.

Yes, the car.

Wait...I need a little reminding here...isn't this a modeling contest?

Ringo said it. Nadia said it. Even Jay and Hanis admitted that everyone wants the car.

Yeah la, I mean, everyone wants the car, obviously. But is that it?

Super damn pissed off (fan myself).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I'm visiting friends at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor for the weekend.
Go, Wolverines!

OMG where is...

O-M-G (oh-aim-gee)!!!

On ntv7 The Breakfast Show 10 April 2008:

From left to right: Cindy, Adeline, Nadia, Hanis, Jay, Ringo

Do you notice something wrong??

Yes, O-M-G!

Where...

...is...

...Fiqa???

Does that mean...

...Fiqa got eliminated???

note:
Watch the episode online and you'll hear that Cindy kinda had an Aussie accent. Yes, people said that she studied at University of Tasmania but it's like a "pua tang zhui" (literally, "half bucket full") accent.

Living it up!

Gossip Girl is so deliciously entertaining. The drama revolves around the young socialites on New York's Upper East Side, i.e. "rich brats".

From left to right: Blair Waldorf, Dan Humphrey, Serena van der Woodsen, Nate Archibald, Chuck Bass, Jenny Humphrey.

In the show, Serena van der Woodsen and Chuck Bass lives in the New York Palace Hotel. Some of the scenes were filmed there (when I was there, the courtyard was decorated with a christmas tree for the show)! The New York Palace Hotel is one of the luxury midtown Manhattan hotels in New York city and it just seems amazingly magical to stay there.

The New York Palace Hotel
455 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022





So when I found out that for one of my job interviews, I will be flown to New York city and will be staying at the New York Palace Hotel, O-M-G! I was completely ecstatic!!!

I was SO excited =)!


Left: picture from the New York Palace Hotel website
Right: picture taken in my room on the 5th floor

To prove that I was really really there, here's me:




A night's stay at the New York Palace Hotel does not come cheap. For my room, it was more than USD500 (~RM1600) for one night.


The view of New York City from the hotel according to its website.

Sigh~ I'll never be able to afford staying at a luxury hotel like that on my own! Or more likely, would I spend that kind of money? I can do A LOT of shopping with USD500!!! Like, seriously, A LOT.


The view of New York City from my room of the hotel on the 5th floor.

Too bad I could not enjoy my stay at the New York Palace entirely since I had my job interview to worry about. But all in all, I'm so glad that I got a chance to stay in one of the luxury hotels in New York. The same one featured in Gossip Girl. Ha!

Will the real ratatouille please stand up?

Remember the Disney/Pixar movie Ratatouille (pronounced ra-ta-tu-ii)?

Ratatouille, or ratatouille niçoise, is a traditional French stewed vegetable dish from Nice (Southern France).

Aaah...Paris! Rémy gazing at Eiffel Tower, just like I did!

According to Wikipedia: the original ratatouille niçoise has zucchini, tomatoes, green and red peppers, onion, and garlic. Today, eggplant is added to the mixture.


Rémy served ratatouille, causing Ego to relive his childhood memories.

So when I found out I was going to Europe for spring break, I mentally noted that I HAVE to try ratatouille. I mean, Ego totally had an enlightening and orgasmic experience eating the ratatouille that Rémy prepared. It must be REALLY good, right?

This is what I thought ratatouille would look like when served in real life.

But I never saw ratatouille served at any of the restaurants I went to in Paris. Even in Nice, where the dish originated from, I never saw it on the menus. Until...

...we took a day trip to the Monte Carlo, Monaco, which was just an hour's bus ride away from Nice. I FINALLY saw it on the menu and I HAD to order it.

This is what I got:

Ratatouille niçoise, served at one of the restaurants in Monte Carlo, at €19.

The size of the dish was probably...smaller than maggi mee?

But it WAS delicious, given that I'm not a huge fan of tomato-based food. It was not that I didn't like the dish, but more that I was disappointed.

I mean, seriously, compare this two: