Sunday, April 22, 2012

HOLY SHIT!!! WORK!!!


Assessed essay writer's block feels like being slowly strangled around the neck by an invisible boa constrictor. Sort of like you want to scream, but you can't. I hate snakes btw.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

We Need To Talk About Kevin

I'm one of those silly gooses that never seems to watch anything when it first comes out in the cinema, despite the fact that everyone urges you to watch it. Well this time I did watch a movie in a cinema, just 1 year late.

We Need To Talk About Kevin was incredible, and incredibly bleak. I am now filled with a strange feeling that only a good movie could have transmitted, the feeling of being there in person. I also think now that having children is an utterly terrifying thing, as if it wasn't already before, now there's the fear of giving birth/nurturing a sociopath instead.

I dislike the new blogger look

Instead of studying, like I ought to be doing, I signed up for a 5k race on 9 June. http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/melodiewong if you feel like donating to Cancer Research. I like how they allowed me to set a low fundraising target of £20, ahaha.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Here Comes the Sun


For some strange reason although it's sunny on and off her in London (I loved sitting in the sunny pew at church today!), it's still chilly. It makes me dream of the lovely weather in Majorca, especially since I FINALLY sent an email to Magali with my photos of her, after weeks of procrastination.

Am currently sitting in Starbucks with Cielo, attempting to work on my dissertation and getting oh-so-distracted. I hate it when I have trouble expressing myself, and I do it best with the written word too (I think). Can't imagine having to give an oral report on it. Thank goodness we don't have to.

I keep seeing people that I know from LSE in Starbucks. Saw Hwa, then Liz, then Iain. I guess it's all LSE students getting hits of caffeine as they do the whole exam studying shindig. Also ran into Aneesh on my way to church today and ended up talking to him at the junction outside Woburn Place, while the lights kept changing colour and people walked around us.

Anyway here's another Majorca picture: of lemons! I like yellow coloured things, for yellow's the colour of happiness (to me at least).

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Daily Mail


I've had this sitting around on my desktop for a while. I still find it amusing. Journalism indeed.

Friday, April 13, 2012

9 Days

It is precisely 9 Days left till my Dissertation and Assessed Essay is due. I am calm yet stressed out at the same time. If it wasn't for my medicine I'd probably just be stressed out though. Not sure which is worse.

As I walked back from the library today (at 11pm I am proud to add!) I couldn't believe that I had watched Eugene Onegin just a week ago. It seems like ages had passed. And I suppose in a way it did. There was the Easter weekend that I wrote about previously, with all those jolly events jam-packed in. Then there was the week from Tuesday to today, which I suppose was largely studying. Yet even so it was quite different. Namely that I was going through a whirlwind of ups and downs cause of A Certain Incognisant Person who did silly things to me, leaving me all sad and dejected at the end. It really wasn't all his fault too I suppose, largely cause I do miss the feeling of having someone intimate to spoil and hang about with, doing nothing in particular. And I suppose I did do that when he was around. BUT THEN AGAIN, there were other things for which I was blameless too. Blargh.

I'm feel quite tired cause of the long time I spent in the library today. Also cause I got about 4 hours of sleep the previous night (more like morning cause I slept at 5am). I was sad and ended up reading horror manga that Chang Hong recommended. Then I got scared and had to finish it, and then had to read someone else cause I felt too goosebumpy. All rather silly.

I'm really, really scared for the future.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Easter Weekend in Review

Friday - 6th April

I'd booked a ticket (£25) for Eugene Onegin, the ballet, ages ago after I watched the Nutcracker during Christmas. I'd enjoyed the Nutcracker so much, that I thought I might try another ballet - one that also appealed to my literary side. The Eifman ballet from St Petersburg was coming for a few nights, so I thought I'd give it a try. In the four or so months in between, I read Eugene Onegin, and enjoyed in (hello Pushkin!). But of course right before dashing out the door, I read the wiki page again to refresh my memory, ahaha.

Also before going to the ballet, I dropped by Seewoo and bought veg and two packs of tofu. So there I was, feeling all posh and shit, carrying Chinese groceries in my tote bag. I laughed inwardly at the thought multiple times. Meanwhile, after taking my seat, I discovered I was surrounded on all sides by Russians. I had a really good seat. Totally worth the £25.

I loved the ballet. Well, I hated Eugene Onegin's costume, but I loved the ballet. I cannot quantify why exactly. It was turns graceful, and at the same time rough. The fight scenes between Eugene and Vladimir were wonderfully choreographed, and I loved the opening and ending scenes when all the dancers came out and performed the ball at St Petersburg. The score too was interesting, a mix of classical music and rock music to illustrate the rural scenes.




My favourite of all however, was the General. HE. WAS. SEXY. Ahaha. Also the 3rd male lead. I loved his character, and I loved his dancing.




Afterwards I through briefly about trying to see the other Eifman ballet, Anna Karenina, but it had been earlier in the week. Still, buoyed by the ballet, I ended up walking back from the London Coliseum back home. The weather was a nice temperature, and lots of people were out enjoying the night. When I came back, I was utterly exhausted.

Sat - 7 April

On Sat I watched a play with Cielo, Moonlight on a Rainbow Shawl. It was at the Cottesloe theatre, which turned out to be a black box theatre. Cielo was late, and before the play started I ended up talking to a random old lady about plays in general. She spoke about all the shakespeare productions she watched, and bits here and there. Said she had a collection of plays at home, and a first edition copy of Moonlight on a Rainbow Shawl for 50p that she bought in the '60s or '70s. Later in the theatre, I saw her sitting in the first row, oho. The play itself was enjoyable, and definitely worth the £12 (Entry Pass!) I paid. The acting was good, the play solidly written and the set well done. Of course then again, I only got interested in it when I heard about how highly rated it was from The Week.

Afterwards Cielo and I walked about Southbank for a bit, before taking a bus to Russell Square. We went to Waitrose to buy groceries (she bought a jar of jam which is still sitting on my desk). Back at home, as I was doing last minute cleaning up, Gen came and I sent Cielo to pick him up. Then she managed to lock herself out of the house (with my keys), and when she finally got in she got herself stuck on the glue from the mouse trap. HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.

We hung out a bit at my flat first. I cut up a dodgy looking mango and the three of us (ZW, Gen and I) shared the slivers. Cielo refused to eat any bit of it. Then around 8:15-ish we met Mong and walked down to Convent Garden to eat at somewhere called Mishkin's (?), to meet Cheryl, which sells kosher food. I had a nice chicken, tarragon and leek knish there, and a good gimlet. After that we ended up at a Tapas bar near Cambridge Circus/Seven Dials. Then when the bar closed we ended up in Soho, looking for another place. Soho, was rocking. Also saw a topless guy with bunny ears and a bob tail brief dancing on tables inside a bar. Oho. We ended up at a real dive-y sort of place called Lupo, where we were the youngest people. It was entertaining. I kept stacking stools at the side cause I kept crashing into them.

After the music started to get all techno-ey, we left. Gen, Cielo and I walked back to Russell Square, and Cielo missed her bus by a bit, and after flipping a coin and getting a text from Cielo, Gen and I headed back to stay with her. Ended up having interesting encounters with the people at the bus stop, a group of Italians with two singing guys (who sang pretty damn well) and another groups of boys who came from the O2. I'm not sure if the latter group were performing there? But they were nicely underdressed and shivering in the cold. They complained that they stuff we were talking about was too morbid. Cielo's bus came, and we sent her off. Gen and I ended up sleeping around 5am cause of everything. Nyeh.

Sun - 8 April

Needless to say, I missed going to church. I woke up exactly at 11am, and then went back to sleep shortly after. When I finally did wake up around 1pm I think, Gen was already up. I got ready and wanted to take a walk about the area with him, but then it started to rain and we ended up ducking into Cafe 49, just metres away from my house. Then, I saw Skoob books was open and we went in. I walked out with John O'Farrell's Things Can Only Get Better and Gen walked out with Dominic Lieven's Russia Against Napoleon (which I recommended!), and joking that he ought to summarise the book for me. I ended up doing a bit of work, then marinating the chicken with Gen/preparing the food for dinner.

Around 7:30pm, ZW, Gen and I walked over to Flat 8 with all the food ready. We had the grand sounding Emperor Spices Chicken, sambal prawn and veg, plus tofu with minced pork. And a fruit tart Cielo bought earlier in the week that was clogging up freezer space. Dinner was a success. The chicken was nicely done (thank you A1 spices, aha) and everything was good. Except the fruit tart which was really bad. We picked out the fruits.

After getting back, I did a bit more work, and watched the old X-Men cartoons with Gen until we felt tired. I was still not quite able to sleep though, and ended up finishing Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman. It was enjoyable enough a read.

Mon - 9 April

Had a lazy morning with Gen. I cooked up the remaining prata and heated up the curry, made some oatmeal for myself. Then we ended up rushing out of the house cause I needed to meet Eugene at Chinatown. I bade goodbye to Gen at Holborn Station, and ended up reaching the dim sum place (next to Seewoo is all I remember) something like a minute before Eugene. We had a rushed lunch, cause I booked a ticket for the 2:30pm screening of Le Havre at the Barbican. Le Havre was enjoyable enough, but not quite something I'd watch again. After I got back, I ended up napping. I think ZW and I ate dinner around 9:30pm or something, oho.

-----

Today is Jean's birthday. We're going to go to TGI Friday's in the evening to celebrate. Never been to TGI Friday's before, so hmm.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Garlic Chili and Bacon Pasta

Haven't written down a favoured recipe in a while, so here goes:

Garlic Chili and Bacon Pasta
2 (or more!) cloves garlic, finely chopped
lots and lots of olive oil
cherry tomatoes, sliced into halves
bacon (or ham)
crushed chili flakes
pasta, but I use normal spaghetti

1. Start by frying up the garlic and the oil
2. Add the bacon (I like mine crispy)
3. Add the tomatoes
4. Add the ham (cause you want to simply heat it up more than anything else)
5. Turn off the heat and add the chili flakes
6. Mix with cooked pasta in a bowl

Mmm.

Thursday, April 05, 2012

FB

Looking at FB, and seeing good looking (okok, the correct word is hot) guys in my friends' lives makes me feel a strange sort of emptiness... like WHO ARE THESE GORGEOUS MEN AND WHY DON'T I KNOW THEM/HAVE ONE?

It's all very weird. The more I think about it, the more ok I am with being alone. As in everyday life, and even (now) traveling. I enjoyed my solo trip to Majorca so much I booked another, to see South Spain for a week after my exams (so excited! I've had a crush on Andalucia since last year). Hell I booked a whole swathe of things to do alone here in London, since it's always so troublesome trying to get people to coordinate. Then there's the thought of sharing a bed, and how sleep quality drops like mad as a result. Sharing a bed with Ianthe for three days in our Scotland trip reminded me of that. And all sorts of pains with having to compromise with people when all I want to do is get my own damn way. You'd think this'd all mean that I ought to not want a man in my life, and in a way I kind of don't. I don't want to share my awesome time with anyone, hell the time I have is barely enough even for me. Yet in a way, I WANT A MAN. Want to fall in love and be swept off my feet.

Talk about being totally irrational. It's like a remnant of my more primal side, like when my ancestors were hanging about in trees. Like this female need to settle down with a male, nevermind that it makes no damn practical sense at all. BAH. I wish I was a robot, and able to think only rational thoughts.