Written while Drunk on Thoughts

21 Oct 2013

18 October 2013

Two nights ago, without planning, I had the best night in my life so far. Why was it the best night? Well, it involves the usual elements you need to have the best night and some more. I hit myself (softly) on the head that I ALMOST missed a great night out.

The day started out rather crappily with the usual family drama (my family must have miss me too much, they decided to remind me of them with a bit of drama) and I went into a very upset mode which quickly turned into a defensive-do-not-talk-to-me-or-I-will-kill-you mode. Thankfully, no one was harm.

The day went by in a rush because we were in a rush. We rush to university then rush down to Cheam (with coffee in between), then rush back to London. Everything is rather like a blur due to the rush and the tears in my eyes.

But I was wrong, what was originally a rather sucky day turns out to be quite fun. We rushed to a pub called "The Comedy Pub/Club" which essentially is down the road from Eat Tokyo. I was so tempted to head towards the food instead of the loud loud music. We went there and I met the funniest, coolest and easy going person on earth (based on first impression - its not easy to achieve that), she is what I expected but more. Even though she know me for 2 seconds, she would tried to make me feel less awkward (I know exactly one person there and being the most outgoing person on earth, I find it too difficult to fit in) and by the end of the night, it's as if I knew her for my entire life.

Night started out with some weird, country-folk songs moving into a soul (my kind) of music and ended with a very young Beatles lookalikes. I went out for a breather and apparently I went out for what seems like a few minutes turns out to be an hour because the performance ended .....


.... and I found these 2 dancing.


I envy the larger in life attitude where having fun is all that matters that they have. All I did is sit there and laugh my butt off. B decided to have round 2 and walked around Soho and got to a rather cool dining / pub call Garlic and shots. There is literally garlic in everything, including beer. But it was too crowded and we decided to give it a pass and ended up at Thirst.

I probably had told everyone that I met that I can't dance, I absolutely can't stress enough that I CANNOT dance. Of course, its only a matter of time I met someone that LOVE LOVE LOVE dancing more than he loves sleeping and eating. He had previously tried to convinced / hoaxed / persuade / everything shy of beg for me to go dancing with him and I always refused, lets face it who wants to make a fool out of themselves? But last Friday night I did, I said yes and went dancing. As much I hate to admit it, I ENJOYED it. R said to me "the whole thing about you not being able to dance, you are lying."

So, we danced our night away. The night not only re-lifted my mood and helped me decide what to do to my ongoing family drama, I made new friends, helped me find a side of me that I didn't know I have and found a side of him that I didn't know that I would ever find. In spite of all the drama, all is well.

Disclaimer: I was too busy enjoying my night and forgot to take pictures. Also the light is not exactly helping in taking pictures, of course, I couldn't stop laughing and that doesn't help in taking pictures and that, I am not sorry.

16 Oct 2013

Walk down Memory Lane

Norwich, a small town where I spent about 3 years of my 24 years living in. Ever since coming back to England, I always wanted to visit Norwich but never seem to have time or just plain lazy / procrastinating. Somehow last Saturday, I decided that its time to visit Norwich.

Somehow, I managed to plan an agenda for everyday through this week, starting the week with a walk down memory lane and ending it with an outing with a new friend but I left one particular person out. Of course, he wasn't too happy about it but it turns out to be a pleasant surprise.

I can't believe that I am saying this but one of the many reasons I procrastinated to go back is because I am afraid. I am afraid that I will be sad, I don't want to face everything that I once had and lost. Going back will remind me of everything that I failed to do.

Oddly, I felt intimidated. Its so familiar but it scares me, Norwich scares me. I know its strange but I felt more free and easy in London considering its so much bigger and chances that you will never see a person that you don't personally know more than once. Having lived in London for the past year gave me the feeling that Norwich is just like Penang. I never had this feeling before. Walking down memory lane does give you a mixed feeling, in my case, literally.

I didn't quite managed to do everything that I wanted, partly because I wanted to save it for the next time, partly because this was too sudden. Anyway, enough of me reminiscing the past. Norwich is beautiful. Its smaller than I remember though, the railway station and Norwich city centre is about the distance between where I live and the nearest underground station in London.



My favourite cafe in Norwich, its the first stop I made.





Then I took the bus back to University of East Anglia.


It wasn't a sunny day, in fact its slightly chilly but it brings me back to where I was 5 years ago, I even located where my room is and saw the new students currently living in there. I regret not getting out from the room to the lake more.



View from the roof top of Suffolk Terrace.



Not to forget where I spent my 2nd and 3rd year of University with my former housemate, Alex. 



In the end, I came back to London feeling content. Yes, things changed. Norwich didn't change much, University doesn't change much except that there are another accommodation building near Colman House currently going under construction. School of Economics moved to a new location and the opposite of where it used to be.

But I changed a great deal. I used to fuss about how far it was having to live outside university and the long bus ride to city centre. I used to be afraid of things that I am not certain with. I am still afraid but now I learnt how not to fuss about it too much, just try my very best.

Hope you enjoy this mini tour around Norwich. Hopefully in the near future I would be able to take more picture around Norwich.

11 Oct 2013

Cooking and Baking is NOT my forte!

I love to eat (who doesn't), usually its other reasons that make the eater think twice, usually one of these 2 reasons: afraid of getting fat OR plain old lazy. I happened to fall in the second category, occasionally the first category. Who doesn't want to indulge in their favourite Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough ice cream (I once finished a whole tub in a sitting)? Who doesn't want to fall into a sugar coma after eating too much dessert?

I told a friend that I don't really like eating and I don't eat much. His reply?

"You are a liar. You can eat, you are tiny but you can eat! You just finished a whole week's worth of food in one meal. You are just lazy to do food shopping and cooking. By the way, you must have take massive dump daily, where did all the nutrition go?"
Sadly, the fats doesn't find its way to where its suppose to be. Its suffice to say I LOVE to eat, I am just too lazy to cook. But being the lucky me, I seemed to always have a guardian angel, or should I say a cooking-loving guardian angel, willing to go out a limb to cook for me. When I was struggling on my first term tests and assignments, my cousin made me japanese hash brown (korroke) and some really delicious pumpkin dish (sorry, forgot the name). Then, comes new year's day, I just have to show up at her door step, I get wonderful home-cooked hot soup noodle to warm myself up.

The cycle went on, all I had to do is show up and I got food in my belly and a huge smile on my face. Until she has to leave. =( I went on for 3 months with no proper food, then I got close with Pretty Girl and she became my food angel. =P Though she doesn't cook for me as much, for some reason she kept asking me whether I am hungry. Making sure I do eat something.

July was a crazy month, I spent most of the time either sleeping or out wandering around London with Ipek or Pretty Girl or the pub. Not much food went into my belly that month and without trying, I lost some weight. I remember that for my birthday, I only had ONE meal. That is definitely a record (I am a Chinese, we celebrate everything by eating too much.)

Then the inevitable happened, Pretty Girl had to leave. No one is going to ask me whether I am hungry anymore (the funny thing is, when we go out, we don't eat together. She will eat while I am still full and when I am hungry, she had just finished her meal not long ago) =( Then the universe sent me another food angel, he cooks good food (I am impressed because the male species that I am familiar with, can't cook) and because he is always hungry, I eat whenever he does (Its not nice to decline someone that put in so much effort to cook you something). Had I not been bad in cooking, I probably would never appreciate the effort as much.

Ok, ok, enough about cooking. I actually want to talk about baking. I wasn't really into both but if I have to choose one, I will pick baking, mainly because I am nuts for dessert. I can make wicked waffles (which my family love) and this is my first attempt to make Green Tea / Matcha Mille Crepe cake. I steal the recipe from Julie Van (Green Tea Mille Crepe) and I must say it is quite successful for first attempt. Its not perfect (custard is abit clumpy and the crepes are not even in size or shape) but I am quite pleased with myself. I wouldn't go through the steps as its quite messy while in progress, so I will just post the picture of the end product.



Ugly custard.... Well, at least it taste good. Alright, I am going to finish this cake which I painstakingly stand in front of the stove, making layer by layer for the past few hours. Plus, I am quite positive no one would like a matcha on matcha cake as much as me.

Edit: By the time this was posted up, the cake no longer survive my gluttony.

8 Oct 2013

A book to remember.....

Moleskine is an Italian company that specialises in notebooks, journals and diaries. The notebooks, journals and diaries all have leather cover. I am a fan of leather, if possible, I would have everything in leather: leather bags, leather jackets (those are the coolest!). Bags and purses made out of leather just look much more grown up and expensive. Remember the canvas wallets complete with velcro that we used when we are a kid?

Back to Moleskine, I always like them but its quite expensive when it comes to the price of a notebook. However, I think if its a journal that you will be using for the entire year or better yet, for the next 18 months, a leather cover diary is definitely not too much. 

I have 4 / 5 different Moleskine for different purposes. A diary, a couple of notebooks and a Book journal. Recently, I started to record my feelings about incident or events that had happened in my life or just random thoughts that spring in my mind while I am out and about. A few days ago, I bought a new Book journal to record all books that I have read. I used to be an avid reader since young but after university and work, I never seem to find the time to indulge in some book reading. With more time on hand now, I bought a few books on the cheap and went to the local library and borrow a few more. I was searching for a book journal to record all books that I've read and I must say in addition to the pretty leather cover and different languages imprinted on it, this book journal is the best one I had came across. Of course, the stickers are a bonus. =)


Oh, if you can't tell already, I am totally obsessed with everything French. The language, the jewellery, the country, the FOOD......

3 Oct 2013

Creative Writing

I am writing because I always love writing. Many people in my life told me that they admire people that could write and write and write. Some told me that they not persistent enough or are too lazy to do it daily. Even though I am good numerically, I longed to be good artistically, but unfortunately, I can only draw to an extent, I can't design, so I decided writing is a perfect outlet for me to express myself. Now that I have more free time on hand, I write a lot a lot more. I even chose to attend Creative Writing class once a week. Even though a few person don't really agree that I should attend a class to learn how to write, I think being exposed to writing formally will help me appreciate what I am writing even more.

For starters, writers see a text much more differently than non-writers. True enough, everyone is a writer, who hasn't write essays in their life? No matter how much you hated it, everyone has to write essays in language classes and if you are from Malaysia, you would probably have to write it in at least 2 languages. But those essays are different, we followed a certain structure, a certain plot (usually plots that would score us the highest marks possible) and are never allowed to write, creatively. A friend of mine wrote about his thoughts on a series of books (I don't remember the name) for his English class, because he knew his teacher will like it. Of course, he aced it.

During school time, writing is always a must, but it doesn't come from the heart, it always come from memories, from pages and pages of essays we tried hard to cramped into our head the day before the exam. So, suffice to say, a lot of people hated it.

I remembered when I was 15 someone asked me what do I want to be when I grow up, I told him I wanted to be a writer. I suppose I always know what I wanted but did not follow through that ambition of mine. So, attending Creative Writing class is a step closer to what I would love to do. Right now, its a hobby but who know what will happen in the future.

Anyway, this is something I wrote during the class and would love to share. The tutor walked us through memories of our life - from early years till present. She told us to write something when we were a kid, 10th birthday, thing / person we loved most during our teenage years, favourite place and the place we are living now (more precisely, the room in a house we hang out most). To be honest, writing came pretty easy for me when I was writing about my baby years, favourite place and the place I hang out most. But when it comes to my 10th birthday and the thing / person I loved most during my teenage years, I was just making things up. I got stuck and uninspired.

This is why I love about writing. Writing reflects a certain part of the author, it may be fictional but the final work will always reflect the characteristic of the author. It will also reflect characteristic and personality of the reader. Well, someone that prefer to see things the positive way would never chose to read something dark and depressing or they would not enjoy it. I am now very clear that why I was stuck and uninspired when I was writing about my 10th birthday and my teenage years. Those were the years I "blanked" out, I was searching for myself and is always uncomfortable and insecure. I am happy to know that I grew out of it and its those years that shaped my character. So, even though I hated my high school years (and the fact that I went to an all girls' school), its those experience that made me who I am. My friend once told me "Love it or hate it, treasure it, its what makes you who you are today. If you were to go to a mixed gender school, you would be less "you" and we probably wouldn't have crossed paths." I think she is right, even with the ups and downs, I wouldn't want my life to turn out any other way (and it could only get better from here).