Happy New Year!

It's that time of the year again when we all wish each other a Happy Chinese New Year. Bring on the rats, London! There aren't enough already crawling on the tube train tracks. I want to see MORE when I'm waiting on the platform.

We all gathered for steamboat at a Viet restaurant. Viets don't really do steamboat, at least, I didn't think so. I mean, I would think that I am entitled to such an opinion given my background, but then again, I am fairly ocker too. Chinese-Viets do steamboat but that's Chinese style. We had ordered two 'seafood' steamboats and one meat. Not what I was expecting, the seafood Viet steamboat was a pimped-up version of my Canh Chua.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it tasted bad in fact it was rather good. A little sweeter than what I'm used to but by all means, that's not a criticism. Tasted just like Mummy's otherwise! I think it was just more surprising to see a rather humble family dish which I've been eating since exiting the uterus and only ever consumed in a house served up on a fancy steamboat platter. Do I live in the only South East Asian household which only ever served it a communal bowl?

The female gang. I have no photos of the males present.


Pimped up Canh Chua only because I'm povo and only ever added fish and sometimes prawns. This version included scallops and mussels.

Once again, happy new year!

The Sound of Music

Leesh, Kt and I watched The Sound of Music stage musical tonight. I'm not a huge fan of the movie, unlike Kt who declared it her 'favourite movie of all time' (big call) but it was definitely one of the musicals I wanted to see. I'm not sure why I really wanted to watch it, probably because the movie is enjoyable enough and the songs are easy on the ears. Don't worry, I do realise that the movie IS based on the original stage musical and not vice versa, but clearly the movie has influenced the current version of the musical.

There were a few differences between the stage and movie versions, but I'm not going to delve as anyone can find them on wikipedia.

I've always thought that the movie fell flat after Maria and the captain realise they're in love and I didn't even know that they got married until I watched it for the third or fourth time! I think I was 9 or 10 when I finally found out.

A few things I will comment on:

• Maria had really big feet
• Captain Von Trapp was too short and stocky (he was played by Simon Burke of Playschool fame!).
  
• The kiss between Maria and the Captain was far too long
• The Baroness was too skinny
• An extra song about the Nazi enforcement, glossed over the severity of the regime and the 'happy tune' was really quite inappropriate. I can understand why it was excluded in the film.
• I really liked Uncle Max. Looked like Clive James.
• The stage sets were cool
• The singing goat souvenir was very tempting
  

Next, I really want to see Jersey Boys!

Happy Birthday J

Tonight was J's birthday celebration which started with a dinner at Haz, which to my disappointment had terrible service. Hmmph. I'll still eat there only because I do quite like the Turkish food they serve up.

After dinner, which wasn't very late at all, we headed towards Reflex for some good ol' fashioned 80s music. To our horror, a queue had already formed. It was only 8.15pm. It wasn't too surprising - this is the land of static queues. We managed to barge in line only because Leesh was already in the queue. It was of little help as we didn't budge for a good 20 minutes. The bouncer said that there were a few private parties that night and they couldn't let anyone in without a person leaving, so we gave up and headed to the bar down the street. No one really liked it there, so we left!

Without knowing any other bars in the area, we walked across the Thames and had some drinkies at a bar near Borough Market. Despite all of J's stressing, all was well. Happy birthday J!

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!