pack up and push off gently

*work in progress

11th Aug
– touching down at Heathrow, 530am
– popping out at Russell Square, walking into Waitrose and buying a sugared bun
– (feeling terribly out of place)
– entering the flat, doing pushups, being determined to get fitter
– running around and not breaking sweat
– renjie arrives 🙂
– being worried when evening comes and my parents and brother haven’t arrived
– walking out from sheer frustration and spotting them floating down Grey’s Inn Road in the fog
– pullups along Marchmont Street scaffolding
– josh buys V Festival tickets to Weston Park Road
– Birdy covers Terrible Love in a dimly lit tent
– i fall in love with Waitrose’s Ginger handsoap
– ruth gets a tour of my apartment
– my family carry hangers and plastic bags, we march down the street to Euston
– i have Garlic Chicken Thighs and Dolmio for the first time
– i want to get a Chinese bible
– i interact awkwardly with Tesco’s minced meat – it does not warm to me
– renjie makes fantastic fish soup
– joanne and kenneth arrive, most of kenneth’s hair does not
– roald dahl is not all that
– argos saves the day
– london fashion week comes to marchmont street
– mags cooks porridge because she is kind that way
– mags cooks asian food and it is fabulous
– i still eat a whole lot of hare & tortoise anyway
– Euston church becomes my second home 🙂
– varian makes delicious burgers
– i start using butter to cook, i fall ill
– russian red finally do ‘She’s Not Coming Home Tonight’ with synth
– i fly to florence and dislike rabbit
– i move into luxe central
– i get my real-estate agent card
– i start eating mandarin oranges daily
– whipped cream = toothpaste/rice/yogurt
– i fly to paris and dislike escargot (and my host’s bathroom decor)
– it is a rainy night at the shacklewell arms
– british museum hide & seek
– i break a fever with Bear’s Den
– i take a trip down Mulholland Drive
– dip & flip is conquered, and though the journey back was daunting, i took it in my stride
– beerlin
– i discover a man mating with a strawberry at the Tate Modern
– a sincere woman sells white chocolate tiramisu at a Brick Lane pop-up
– chatime finds a new competitor in condensed milk-honey-cocoa powder-almost alcohol-green organic milk tea
– a woman cries out to LHL for help
– i discover buttermilk chicken (and rediscover it immediately after)
– mother flipper is conquered
– LP 就是 LIM PEI
– my laptop makes like a wave and crashes
– 8 hours is 3 hours
– i enjoy a calming carnival ride
– i have an affordable meal at Bocca
– i have comfortable accommodation in Amsterdam
– a lady blesses us with pastries
– i photograph trees
22nd Dec

lull in the lulz

I’m not sure who still reads this but deepest apologies for those who were expecting posts over the NINY period but received none. There was just a deluge of activity once giu arrived that would have taken so much to process out into a post format. I’ll think over whether or not to post our intended SONY pics (Singaporeans of New York) but in the meantime- it’s 6.43 am, about an hour and a half or so since giu and navunculus left, and new york’s already colder without them. safe travels lads and we’ll see each other soon.

regiunion

so after a 7 hour flight with weird happenings i was all ready to get out and finally be with my homies

rushed to clear customs

waited eagerly at the baggage collection point

but all that happened was that the security dog found my boxes of cakes (twice – the second time i got startled and tugged at its leash and got scolded)

it was hot and i was getting frustrated because i knew jo&&gid were waiting

was counting in sevens to pass the time

then the luggage slid down and i yanked it off and sped off

gid snapchatted my arrival BUT NOT TO ME

JOANNE WAS ALIVE

when we emerged from the subway RAVENOUS RUF APPEARED

it was really like magic

i am glad that i am finally with my LCS group + half* again (-:

*normally one would say ‘plus one’, but

Merry Almost Christmas folks

wish more of you were here

giu signing off at 6:44 am, NYC Day 2

Amsterdam

giu in amsterdam

josmurftay

(for some strange reason, despite yeaboiiii being the ‘exchange blog’, my travel quotes/snippets have always found their way here first, and as such the Amsterdam series will be no different)

0. we board the plane and settle down. every seat on the plane is filled save for the aisle seat next to us :–)

spare seat for my swag

1. niny is at hand, and so the plan for amsterdam was restraint – carefully planned meals, with only the choicest eats lined up and spaced out evenly. then the temperature slid below zero, we passed a brightly-lit cart with sugar crusted apple circles (appelbeignet) and sugar dusted oliebollen (raisin donuts). i had one of each, and six oliebollen to go (with neat twists of icing sugar packed in), then my hunger and i sat down to enjoy a hefty platter of mixed ribs* after.

crap picture, decent ribs

*cafe…

View original post 1,207 more words

“gloriously flying in the face of reason on the back of a bald eagle” is just the kind of hyperbolic expression of admiration that i would love to have penned.

also props on inducing drooling at 10am in the morning (because i woke at 10am today) gid

since i do not have much to add now i will simply reblog my amsterdayum post

keep your eyes peeled m8s

hat trick

ok I know I said I was going to bed but I just finished watching the last episode of the Colbert Report and it truly feels like an end of an era

I first chanced across Colbert while watching tv in America- either in a hotel room or in one of my brother’s dorms on a visit and I vividly remember him doing the Wørd sequence and thinking ‘wow American tv is gr8′

I watched him, intermittently across my secondary school years, and discovered that you could watch all of his episodes online in JC. This was about the time I had to go up and make announcements to the school for the students’ council, and whenever I did it, no lie, I would watch the colbert report the night before, and I would go up with that in mind – no matter how ridiculous your script or how sarcastic you feel, sally forth with a stentorian voice and a glint in your eye. I remember watching the Democalypses, Obama’s election and re-election, Colbert Super Pac, Colbert in the Persian Gulf – endless, endless brilliance and even when the jokes overreached and missed (and you could tell, even with an enthusiastic live audience) he just sailed on through with that twinkle in his eye. I was more informed about the world and America through the Colbert Report than anything else.

And now it’s come to an end – a magnificent, cameo-laden end. The Daily Show will still be on, John Oliver has got his own program but Colbert will always be in a league of his own, gloriously flying in the face of reason on the back of a bald eagle. I look forward to watching him take over the Tonight Show, and to usher in a new generation past Letterman but it won’t be the same. Happy memories.

Thanks, Stephen.

where we learn some words in spanish

(typing this with bated breath and dainty digits/trepidated thumbs because kee (edited) en is sleeping in bed next to me)

ok wait let me backtrack.

so the last we left off I had arrived in new york after a series of truly unfortunate events and ended up sleeping in a fashion student’s dorm floor for all of two hours – suffice to say the next few days passed by fairly quickly as I recuperated from my woeful state as a result of poor exam preparation and transit fatigue.

I have no delectable pictures like giu but all that is relevant is that I had some really excellent tacos – a pastor taco is not, as you would imagine, a taco that prays for your eternal soul but rather from the root word of ‘pastor’ – shepherd, which in the circuitous perambulations of language meant lamb tacos, juicy shreds off a rotating vertical spit akin to a kebab but far more vast – half a body length and cone shaped, upside down; a surtido which means ‘mixed’ and comprises of bits of meat from all over the animal (I’m guessing a piggy) including these succulent chunks of fat that were reminiscent of the finest siew yok or lechon – memories of cebu as well as paya lebar road came rushing into my mouth as I chewed diligently with bursts of spice and tang  (of the non-ruf variety) having seasoned the taco with a dash of mystery sauces in both red and green

let me backtrack a little further

I had been asking around where I could have excellent mexican food, and was recommended to go to this wonderful hole in the wall joint for what was ‘tex-mex, but just as good’. The night before I had bustled around and gone to the best straight-up mexican place on recommendation and had come away having to run in the rain and slightly underwhelming fajitas. So

it was with lowered expectations that I came to this dilipidated restaurant that looked very much like any other kopitiam back home- plastic seats, dumpy looking men and women and children watching Disney’s Tangled dubbed in Spanish. I walked up to the man at the front who was scribbling away furiously on people’s receipts, barking orders left and right and informed him that with all the money I had, what I should get.

Back to the pastors and the surtido. After the ridiculously good meal, I walked back to my digs sipping a horchata (almond drink) that the kind hombre at the front had given to me for free and digged around for some more change to walk back for more tacos. going for another round with the pastor/surtido combination, I wanted a walk on the wild side and picked up one cesos dorados- ‘golden brains’. Dorados usually refers to a prize catch of fish that shimmers gold but in this case it meant fried and dios mios was this fantastic – I don’t know what animals brains I was feasting on but it was a real head turner – warm, creamy, meaty goodness. Think uni but not as rich.

Unfortunately I’m going to have to vamanos at this point because it’s getting late – in toronto now, having left montreal yesterday. One more day to new york and two more days to giu and niny supa psyched.

oh btw ki en is in bed next to me because i’m crashing with joe en – there are three beds.

catching up

so here’s a brief update of what’s what – probably will rehash a  bit of whatever I’ve written but I don’t think anything substantial has been penned down on yb so here we go:

finished my one and only exam the last monday – the night before marked the start of the mother of all murphy’s ( aphrase I realised I’ve used multiple time because it sounds good and it really does describe very well what happened) things went wrong starting from not putting the right things into my notes – my roommate going to bed early and locking his printer in his room – having a man on shrooms giggle away between me and zf as we try to cram – discovering that I brought down a print card with not enough money to print on the commons printer – come back down with a card with enough cash only to find the printer is doing a scheduled reboot at 3.20am the paper is looming in 4 hours and 40 minutes – go to the exam hoping to type only to discover that i should have applied to type two weeks ago – bomb the exam, terribly. I am in actual fear of failing this. (murphy isn’t done with me yet) – take the entire time between my paper and the time i ought to leave for my bus to seattle packing, repacking, weighing, taking stuff out, thinking what i can leave behind, unpacking, stuffing, crushing clothing, finally getting everything into 4 bags of various sizes and weights into the car – discovering i don’t have my wallet, ransacking my room and almost tearing the paint off the walls – finding it and speeding off only to arrive early for my bus – take it to seattle on a bumpy, unsleepable ride – trudge through the rain and unfamiliar bus routes with back numbing luggages and straps that pinch on nerves and blood passages – arrive at the far end of the airport, continue the Long March – leave my two prints that I had obtained at a steal behind, somewhere, near Alaskan Airlines – endure a night of truly being sleepless in seattle before I get on the plane – fall asleep once I get on, only to wake up an hour and a half later to realise we haven’t left; ‘weather troubles’ arrive in new york, not have enough change for the bus (but the kindness of strangers and bus drivers prevail) – trudge through more rain, subway, people, sidewalk, the sweet smell of new york city trash gently wafting in the cold air – arrive at whole foods only to realise it doesn’t have wifi and the nearest starbucks is on the other end of the street – arrive in starbucks and contact shawna who is to house me only to realise i have to walk back past whole foods – finally meet shawna, get to some food, crash under her bed and sleep, wonderful sleep.

I would write about new york – montreal (fewer things go wrong) but I am four pages away to my essay and about 24 hours from my deadline. I will finish this before bed.

mad meals w giu: revisiting some of the craziest eats of exchange

am at the airport now, so in increasing order of madness:

5. Singapore Speaker’s Talk, 7/11, late dinner
– hainanese chicken rice w sambal squid gravy (x2)
– sambal squid
– deep fried cod (x2)
– char kway teow
– 2 spring rolls
– bo bo char char
– lychees & longans & grass jelly (DIY ice kachang)
– laksa (half bowl)

*special mention for a 2.5h walk after this meal because it was just too massive / meal was preceded by bacon sandwich, blueberry donut, custard donut, eccles cake, toffee nut latte, lemon cake

4. Antepliler, 22/11, dinner
– 3/4 focaccia bread basket
– 5 large lamb chops
– fries with sour cream dollops (mad)
– lamb pizza (shared)

*special mention for a hand sized chicken doner that was all meat, two inches deep that i had at noon the next day

3. Borough, 28/11, lunch
– half duck confit brioche
– brindisa double chorizo w double pepper
– portugese egg tart
– 100g of camembert cheese (LOL)
– elliot’s cheeseburger w maris piper fried potato discs and pickles

2. All over London, 30/11, lunch/dinner
(lunch)
– half bacon sandwich w custard donut
– half bacon sandwich (immediately after because)
– tiramisu drenched in molten white choc
– eccles cake (currants, sugar, butter)

(dinner)
– patty & bun smokey robinson burger
– smoothie
– banana cake w cream
– lemonade
– shortbread dipped in chocolate
– chocolate cookie

(11pm)
– half 20pc mcnugget
– turkish kunefe dessert

1. Wapping, 14/12, lunch
– dirty barbie burger (two thick angus patties – biggest patties all trip, times two, double cheese/potato rostis, bbq sauce, candied bacon, caramelised onions)
– half a latte
– half a sea salt banana cream donut
– fried buttermilk chicken burger w coleslaw/hot korean sauce
– gingerbread cream whoopie pie

* special mention for me not eating any meals till dinner the next day

Honorable Mentions:

Meatmarket, 8/11, dinner: dirty hippie burger + lasagna sized tray of beef chilli cheese fries with latticed triple cheese and pickles (shared)

Florence, 15 gelati over 3 days

Dip n Flip, dinner: half a patty melt, one dip n flip (bacon cheeseburger w roast beef on top), half strawberry milkshake

Top Tips:
– avoid sugar always
– start breakfast w fruit or complex carbs
– throw your snacks and sweets in your laundry basket and cover them up and forget them
– choose your friends wisely
– learn to cook
– never say never
– never buy 30 eggs at a go
– fight for what you love

finally, if you’ve made it this far, here is my (mostly food) guide to London that will be completed by this Sunday.

peace :—)

bocca di lupo (or “how i finally got over dolmio”)

when it comes to pasta, i’ve always had rather vulgar tastes. my idea of a hearty helping of pasta is sauce:noodles in a 2:1 ratio, and the first month of exchange was testament to that – i would warm up Marks & Spencer bolognese, dump half a jar of Dolmio atop it, and dig in with gusto (there were nights where the wind would keep me indoors, and i would forgo pasta to have a warm bowl of Dolmio on its own).

so i was appalled at first when the chef’s special (spaghettini with mussels, 1/2 lobster, cherry tomatoes) arrived. stray pieces of cherry tomato lay scattered around my plate like punctured balloon skins, and while the pasta looked up to scratch, it was also disappointingly devoid of sauce. no devilish dollops of Dolmio, no oregano or thyme or any herb of any sort sticking out roguishly, no swirls of sauce that i could scoop into mounds and devour, just strained, watery smatterings that lay limply around the noodles.

i took my first bite, and it was unremarkable, but i steeled myself for another twirl of the fork (the plate had cost a hefty sum), and

you see, the thing about white wine and fish stock is that they are largely colorless. get them on a clean white shirt and there’s room for debate, but when hidden under noodles and spilt round the sides of mussels, their magic goes largely unnoticed to everything except your tastebuds. and my first twirl was mixed up with suspicion and a reluctance to like this weak, stringy semblance of a shadow of what i thought pasta should be like, but the second twirl was so magnificent. it was an A-grade essay – no showboating or superfluous sesquipedantics (my word), just a quiet confidence and an assured clarity that came through stronger with every word/mouthful, it was the fish and the wine and the lobster and the oh-so-tender tomatoes that had been gently reduced till mere essence and soft pulp and skin were all that remained (how could i ever have compared them to deflated rubber), all of that coming together in a splash of subtle, rich flavor.

i polished off the pasta, dabbed at the corners of my mouth with a crisp napkin, and sighed happily, a very contented man. it was new – not having my mouth sledged with sodium, or coated with warm tomato paste, or actually being able to taste the noodles for once – not being ridiculously full. that was great too (though i fixed that shortly after with an Espresso-Peanut Butter-Raspberry Double Scoop Gelato Cone).

*i submitted my last paper today, so that’s another closed chapter!! NYC, here we come. ybbbbbbbb ^____^