Consuming my time

I've decided to accept the current status of my brain rot and have succumbed to the sin of all sins - computer games.

I've never been a huge fan of computer games. My thumbs and wrists hurt and I get RSI after 10 minutes of console playing. Stupid knobs. Ugh. Gameboys - meh, boring after 15 minutes. Timezone? Bleh, only the game where you hit the alligator heads was fun. The only game I did play once in a while was Minesweeper and some of the other Windows games. Oh and Who Framed Roger Rabbit and a PC version of Aladdin.

Everything has changed now that I have a Nintendo DS.

I never quite caught on to the the Tamagotchi craze which occurred during my high school days. I thought I did want one but I got bored playing with it after about 10 minutes. Nintendogs, is similar to a Tamagotchi but this time the pet is a puppy, not a horrible little black and white graphic. I loike puppies very muchies.

The best bit about this game is that the DS has a microphone so the puppy can obey your verbal commands and you can train it like a normal dog. Yay! You can see how this is time consuming and has become somewhat obsessive. I feed my puppies everyday on the way to work (yes I do whip it out on the DLR), everyday when I eat lunch (I do have to do that in secret sometimes) and then again on the way home from work. I do get a little upset when I forget to feed them and the scale says that they are hungry or thirsty. It makes me feel like a bad mother.

I initially only had one puppy, Sparkie, but I thought that she might be a bit lonely so I bought another one, Buzz. I'm so happy that they get along.

Sparkie and Buzz playing with a rubber mushroom.

Buzz and Sparkie vying for my attention.

Sparkie in her red beret. Buzz waiting to be petted.

I should mention that I was initially obsessed with Brain Academy and Brain Age, but I have decided that brain rotting is better and have now allocated my gaming time to be with Sparkie and Buzz. :D

Book Review: A Short History of Nearly Everything

This is the type of book that would normally tick my boxes. History - tick. Scientific facts - tick. Uncomplicated vocabulary - tick. I like it when mundane topics are made interesting and I would normally plough through books like this; 'The Adventure of English' a prime example.

Despite the general rave reviews for 'A Short History of Nearly Everything', I found it a chore to read. Not to be a smarty-pants but yes, I knew I would be familiar with the facts and explanations for many of the scientific concepts. Plate tectonics, chemical nomenclature, atomic structure, prehistoric creatures, the theory of evolution - yeah, yeah I could immerse myself in stuff like that. I thought this background knowledge would work to my advantage as having them reiterated could only increase my enjoyment.

Alas no. I have to admit defeat. For now, I'm choosing not to complete reading this book for which I have mixed feelings. Sometimes, I do find myself getting into the "reading zone" but other times, I find myself flipping through the pages to see how many more I need to read until the end of the chapter.

There are many reasons why I want to put this book in the recommended pile but I can't bring myself to do it. I don't understand why people LOVE this book and claim they've read it repeatedly. It's not as though I didn't make a fair effort to read this book - I read 237 pages out of a total 574. But if a book can't maintain my interest by page 237, well then sorry, I'm going to have to put it down.

At times I found the humourous anecdotes annoying. While I agree that the Universe is a truly amazing, incredulous place, there was a level of pretense in the author's enthusiasm, creating a false display of childlike awe. It didn't happen too often, but when it did, it grated my nerves. Admittedly I've never read any other Bill Bryson books and it may just be that I am not appreciative of his writing style.

I might pick it up again one day but only when I'm in a reading mood or I have absolutely nothing else to do.

Some people will consider the rating I've given this book sacrilegious. Oh well - tough.

Quality of Content - 2
Readability - 1-2
Would I recommended this book: No
To who: Only for the easily fascinated.

Won Tons

I made won tons for dinner. It's been a while since I've eaten them.

My soupy won tons on the left. Some were naked wontons because I ran out of skin. Smee's dry style on the right.

Don't be fooled by the 'home cooking' is healthy myth. My soup is full of chicken powder. That's a tonne of oyster sauce on Smee's dish. But who cares? It was yummy!

Canh Chua

It's been some time since I've had proper Mummy-cooked-Viet food. While I had been given the recipe for Canh Chua a while ago, I'd never bothered to cook it as it involved going out to get a relatively fresh fish. Also, it is a bit weird and is not usually served in Viet restaurants but eaten in many Vietnamese homes. So I opted to cook it when I was home alone.

In a hurry to get home, I had rushed to Chinatown to buy some fish. Not expecting much, I chose the freshest looking one without a bleeding eye. I was quite surprised that it had looked so fresh. I'm fine for scaling fish, but when I got home I realised the damn fish hadn't been gutted. Dammit.

I couldn't bear the fish looking me in the eye so I had to chop off his head. Too bad it took several blows with the cleaver. Poor fishy. He wasn't too happy after I did that to him.

Next, the guts. Luckily we have a filleting knife and I managed to cut out all his organs. Gross.

Anyway, the fishy made a lovely, crucial addition to my meal. I'm so proud of myself for not screwing up the dish.

Yah huh. I ate him all by myself.

A new Knut?

Yes I'm a Knut fan. Jumped on the bandwagon when I first saw his little button eyes, snow white fur and squishy paws. Now it appears there seems to be a Knut Mark II with the birth of another German little ball of fluff in Nuremberg Zoo.

After reading news articles about a fellow bear (Vilma) at the same zoo consume her two cubs, I was force to think a little more deeply about goo-goo ga-ing about captive cubs. Part of me can't resist the wanna-cuddle-the-furrball factor but then another part of me gets angry at people like myself whose interest was tickled by the cute factor.

The uproar directed at the Nuremberg Zoo for not intervening in nature's ways resulted in mother bear Vilma (presumably) eating her young. While cannibalism is frowned upon in the homo sapien world, people should realise that such an act is not uncommon in the animal kingdom. As much I would've preferred those two bundles of fluff survive (allowing me to goo and ga) unfortunately, nature took it's course.

I'm not pissed off that the zoo made such a decision. I am far more annoyed at the general public for criticising the zoo. The publc's concern probably stems from the fact that it is a polar bear cub - a potentially cute cub - which died. Reptiles eat their young too, as do fish and dogs. Would there be the same media attention and consequent uproar had the animal in question been a snake or a tropical goldfish? I think not.

That is how I realised I could not be a vet. I do not love all animals equally.

Ok, back to the topic. The cub that is now being hand-reared is the offspring of the other mother bear, Vera. The choice was made after seeing her pace around her enclosure with the cub in her mouth, dropping it every so often. Admittedly I gasped every time I saw the cub drop from her mother's jaw (video below). But it angers me to hear that Vera only started pacing when her cave was disturbed by a cameraman and that it appeared that the cub had been well-looked after prior to it's removal from it's mother. I will speculate that the cub, despite being born under the most artificial habitats (captive bear mother, non-Artic surroundings), would have survived past infancy under the care of it's own mother. That is what pisses me off the most. That the zoo interfered, bowing to public pressure and because of a cameraman's selfish desire to snap the first photo.

This could lead into a debate about the roles of zoos in society and the implications of hand-rearing a wild animal. Is there any point of hand-rearing an animal which would be incapable of surviving if released back into the wild? This will eventually lead to a discussion about global warming and then I will start feeling as though I'm not doing enough to help save the world. So I'll end the ranting here.

While I am overjoyed to see that another polar bear cub is to be hand-reared, I can't help but feel a little disappointed in myself. I'm just another sucker for the cute stuff, happy to retreat into my bubble of oblivion.

UPDATE: The cub has been christened 'Flocke' (Snowflake in German). It's a girl and is supposedly cross-eyed and I do wonder if that is from resultant head injuries. Nuremberg Zoo have also given Flocke her own webpage.

Purchases

Hmmm I don't usually do this but I don't think I've ever done a proper shopping post. As much as the shopping in New York rocked, I was extremely disciplined. Yeah I bought some clothes, shoes, make up - the usual stuff. It's hard to resist when the prices are half price when compared to UK and Australia.

Anyway, one of my goals was to get two dresses for the upcoming weddings. I have loved BCBG dresses ever since I stepped into my first store in Singapore and especially more so when I found out that Summer on The OC wore a lot of BCBG. That certainly explains why I really liked her clothes. They're not terribly expensive either. It's a shame that it's not sold in Australia and of course it is double the price in the UK. Damn the pound!

Anyway, I managed to get two BCBG dresses for US$130 each at Woodbury Common. Wow, it was so cheap! I'd never be able to buy a dress with tulle, lace, boning for that kind of price elsewhere in the world! Well except maybe less developed countries where you exploit the poor seamstress and then worry about your ethics.

My two bargain dresses.

I didn't want to whinge but I will. Technically the black lace one has thin straps and the ruffle one is strapless. But I'm not going to kid myself - they are very similar and are clearly based on the same design. Not only that, but the colour is similar. Unfortunately beggars at an outlet mall can't be choosers and while I would have preferred maybe a halter neck or something else, none of my other choices were available in my size.

It just so happens that this weekend I bought another dress at Harvey Nichols hahahaha. I didn't mean to - really I didn't! We were meant to be searching for a dress for J, but I ended up finding one for myself, which I've decided I will wear to Meme's wedding. It was £50 marked down from £200 or something.

I will say it does looks crap on the hanger.

Hmmm other essential stuff I got - a Nintendo DS Lite. Well actually I didn't really want to buy one and it wasn't even on my list, but the same argument goes - it was half the UK/Aust price! I'm even happier that I got the limited edition crimson/black one.

I've named him 'Ninny' cos I'm so original. I put on those red glasses just to match him.

Finally, I thought I should show you what I bought from Berlin Zoo. A child's tshirt, size Large and a cloth Knut bag. I do fit the child's t-shirt and there's a slim possibility that I can pull off wearing in the street. Maybe.... maybe.... The cloth bag is for you Moo. Your make up is actually inside it in this photo. I also bought a plush toy but he didn't walk into the photo in time.

On a totally unrelated topic, I am still reading that Bill Bryson book. Well actually no, I haven't touched since for nearly two months. I'll try to finish it, but I'm tempted to write my book review already.

ML's Birthday Drinks

ML had her birthday drinks tonight at Beduin bar. Drinks were surprisingly cheap. We got up to the usual antics and a bit more.

It's a crime. Our girly photos are looking the same. Leesh arrived later from another party and unfortunately after our happy snapping.


J and MF with her new, hot hairstyle.

Lil Miss J doing something with Bao's clutch.

The best way to end the night? Fried egg and spam on toast.

Happy New Year!

Well, I've been the slobbiest of slobs for the past few days since getting back from Berlin. All that jetlag finally caught up with me and I was so glad to get back into my own bed. I slept for about 17 hours straight, waking up at 6pm the day after returning from Berlin. Even I surprised myself at how sloth-like I was!

Of course that ruined me. I didn't sleep until 6am but still manage to get up by 10.45am to watched 'Enchanted' (excellent for fairy-tale Disney movie-lovers) and 'I am Legend' with Kt. You would've thought that my sleep pattern would return to normal but no.... For the three following days I woke up at either 3 or 5pm. Mmmm lazy. There was one episode of late night vacuuming.

Anyway, this is the HAPPY NEW YEAR post!

I had dinner with a few others in Covent Garden where the dinner began at 7.30pm and ended at 11pm. Service was far too slow.

That kinda ruined our plans a bit to return to Old Kent Road Party House to view the fireworks from the rooftop. An hour would normally suffice but this was NYE.

We managed to finally get onto a tube and then force ourselves onto an overcrowded bus at 11.55pm, while the boys opted to run back.

You can predict what happened next. The clock struck 12 and the first firework exploded while J, SuBoo, J's friend and I were on the bus. Yay-frigging-yay. People wished each happy new year on the bus half heartedly.

Luckily our stop was next, so we ran across the road and all the way up the stairwell to see the last 5 minutes of the fireworks bonanza.

It is now that I suspect someone tried to pickpocket me on either the tube or the bus and stole my Napoleon skin primer. A little disappointing for the thief but very annoying for me! I can't find it anywhere and I do distinctly remember seeing it at dinner. Grrrrrr

At 2am, Munabuna decided that it was time to light some fireworks that he bought from the local supermarket. I totally understand why these are illegal to purchase in Australia. Fireworks + stupid people = bad things.

The offending objects.

Fireworks are meant to be planted into the ground. Since there is no 'ground' on a rooftop, the boys use an upside down outdoor table. Smart.

Our own fireworks display was very pretty though. One of other strangers on the rooftop demonstrated the supreme act of stupidity by holding one of the fireworks as it ignited. I was waiting for a spare arm to fly off.

I would like to say that there were some consequences from the stupidity, but then if there were I probably wouldn't be posting it up on a blog because it would probably involve a terrible injury. That would be just bad taste. Stupid people are also lucky people too.