Exams exams exams. I have two papers on Monday so I’ll have to miss
out on some sleep tonight so I can sleep early tomorrow. Need to get in
bed by 11 pm so I can wake up at 7 am and take a shower and pay my rent
and then catch the 8:30 shuttle to Caulfield Racecourse. Last exam I
got a really good seat. Right in front where you can see out into the
race course. It gives me just that little bit of inspiration. Heh. I’ve
got a paper from 9:30 – 12:30 and another one from 2:30 – 5:30. Not
exactly the best arrangement considering both of the papers are really
important. Oh well. Wish me luck people.
Yun Yun
I didn’t sleep last night to do a bit of revision and finish up my
assignment. Wanted to pass it to my lecturer early morning and then come
back to get some sleep before Spit Day. Things didn’t go exactly as
planned though, I got home at around 10:30 am and only went to bed
sometime before 12 pm. When I awoke again it was dark and looking at my
clock I saw it was already 8 pm. By the time I got to the mound, there
were only scraps of meat left and all the beer and Strongbow was gone.
Bummer. Anyway, I walked to the middle way place between Pinewood and
halls (don’t know what that place is called) to try that Chinese take away
place that I’ve never been to. At the lights before I crossed the road, I
saw this funny fender bender happen. The first car wanted to run the red
lights but changed his mind at the last minute and screeched to stop
slightly past the line. There was another car behind it (about 25 meters
or more) that stepped on the brakes too. She must be going pretty fast coz
that 25 meters wasn’t enough to stop her car. She slammed into the back of
the first car. 25 meters! I wonder how fast she was traveling. I think
they knew each other coz they didn’t even bother to get out of the car and
just drove away together.
Anyway, back to the take away place. It’s called Yun Yun and it has a very
old skool feel too it. It’s like it dropped straight out of the 1970s. I
like it though, it reminds me of this restaurant back home that has the
same decor. I felt like I was in 1970s China. Heh. It closes pretty early,
at 9 pm and thus there were no other customers inside when I went there at
around 8:57. I looked at my watch, that’s why I had the time down. There
were a couple of tables and benches inside so it’s not strictly a take
away place. It even had a dentist style waiting bench, complete with old
issues of magazines that nobody reads. Anyway, I had the sweet and sour
pork in batter (A$8) and a special fried rice (A$6). I like sweet and sour
pork, I had this a lot when I was younger so that must be why I always get
this inexplicable craving for it. The sweet and sour sauce was very nice,
not too sweet and not too sour as well. Pretty generous portions, it comes
in the standard takeaway rectangle boxes most Chinese food places here
use. The special fried rice comes with a lot of BBQ pork slices (char siew)
and chicken pieces. It also contains bean sprouts (!) my most hated
vegetable, so you should get the cook to hold the sprouts if you go there.
The brochure I got said that it has new management now, it’s now run by a
Colin and Anne Lew. The cook and cashier are both around 60 years old,
which adds to the 70s feel of the place. I like the fried rice, it has a
very
umami [glutamate.org] taste so I’ll be going back for more when I’m
craving for Chinese food.
Dentist bench for your waiting pleasure.
The tables. Complete with a slippery vinyl table cloth.
Old skool air conditioner in the upper right consolidates the 70s feel.
The cashier desk.
A peek into the kitchen.
Spyder
Today is the last day of the semester. I’m going to catch the 8 am
shuttle to Caulfield and then hand in my assignment. After that, I’ll
have to see some of my lecturers and tutors and then get back and get
some sleep before Spit Day starts. Note to self: Remember to return the
overdue library book. Anyway, Spit Day is a Roberts Hall event that
marks the last day of the semester. Otherwise known as the Festival of
the Mound, there will be BBQs and some drinking on the mound, which is
a small hill in the central courtyard of Roberts Hall. On another note,
I saw someone trying to kill a spider with a keychain today. I was
walking up the stairs when I saw this girl trying to hit something on
the ceiling. Responding to my quizzical looks, she told me that there’s
a spider, pointing to the area above my head. Now this disturbed me
greatly, because I don’t like spiders. I have arachnophobia due to an
unfortunate incident when I was 7 years old, which involved a bathroom,
a large spider and running out of the bathroom naked. Anyway, back to
the spider incident, I was trying hard to remain nonchalant but my
steps instinctively become rather hurried while I hunched my shoulders
stiffly and prayed that the spider won’t suddenly decide to drop down
my neck. After reaching my floor safely I looked down and saw a spider
about the size of my palm crouching on the ceiling. Phew. I think I
would have produced a very unmanly noise if the spider really did jump
on me.
Very farnee
Two men are driving through Alabama when they get pulled over by a highway
patrolman. The cop walks up and taps on the window with his nightstick.
The driver rolls down the window and ‘Whack!’ the cop smacks him in the
head with the stick.
The driver asks, “What the hell was that for?”
The cop answers, “You’re in Alabama, son. When we pull you over, you
better have your license ready when we get to your car.”
The driver says, “I’m sorry, Officer, I’m not from around here.” The cop
runs a check on the guy’s license, and he’s clean. He gives the guy his
license back, walks around to the passenger side, and taps on the window.
The passenger rolls down the window and, ‘Whack!’ the cop smacks him on
the head with the nightstick.
The passenger asks, “What’d you do that for?”
The cop says, “Just making your wish come true.”
The passenger asks, “Making what wish come true?”
The cop says, “Two miles down the road you’re gonna say to your buddy, ‘I
wish that asshole would’ve tried that shit with me!'”
1 week
I am going to sit for my finals one week from today. Better get some studying done.
I like cross product marketing
Went to McDonald’s today to grab something to eat. I saw someone walking
this big furry dog, it was huge! The tail itself was as thick as my arm.
Interesting, only matched by the cat one of the Monash College admins
keep. That one is a huge thing too, and its funny to see her walk. I think
it’s a she anyway, I didn’t peer underneath to check. I would look strange
doing that coz the cat was on campus grounds and there are people walking
around. I tried carrying her once, and she’s real heavy. I think she
didn’t like it though, coz she struggled to get lose. It’s a nice feeling
though, picking up such a big sized cat. A nice heavy weight. Anyway,
McDonald’s has this promotion going where you get two Scrabble stickers
with your drink and two with your fries. It’s only for the large value
meals though. Basically you stick the stickers on the tray liner which has
a Scrabble game going and you win whatever words that match your stickers.
I got a D and an N for the fries. Forgot what I got with the drink. The
funny thing is, there is this Scrabble sticker on the bin asking you to
check for stickers before throwing away the wrappers. Cute. Just realized
that this has become a food centric blog. Oh well.
Cranberry
I was planning to go and see Mamma Mia (the musical) today but the tickets
were sold out. Oh well. I’ll just catch it after the exams. I picked up a
4 pack of Cranberry Flavored Bacardi Breezer while on the way back.
Hmm…I can’t even taste the rum in these drinks. Naughty stuff. Most of
the drinks coming out nowadays mask the taste of alcohol very well. Weird
and disturbing trend. Anyway, I played several games of old skool
Starcraft and Unreal Tournament with Jimmy tonight. My skillz have pretty
much atrophied and I’m wondering it its the new mouse (which I’m been
blaming all this while) or I just suck now. I used to wreck the horizontal
and the vertikal but apparently not nowadays. Oh well. Anyway, we did a
late night run for food at the nearest gas station. I had an Aussie Hero
(Supreme) Pizza Roll. The attendant was from Roberts Hall too last
semester, what a coincidence. Pretty nice guy. What’s that Mr. Sandman?
Say what? Be right back, someone wants to speak to me…
Never have urinary tract infections again.
Taken on the dirty table beside the microwave in the gas station store.
Korean BBQ Restaurant Review
I decided on the spur of the moment to eat someplace I haven’t been to
before so I went to Clayton with my mate Jimmy in search of Food. The one
I was wanting to go to (Agra Sweets – an Indian food place) was closed so
instead we headed to the Korean BBQ Restaurant at 3/299 Clayton Road.
I had:
Seafood Pa-jeon “Korean style seafood, spring onion and vegetable pancake”
A$7
Yuk-gae-jang “Spicy beef stock with mixed vegetables in hot pot” A$10
Shik-hye “Korean traditional rice punch” A$2.50
The mochi type dessert A$3
No, I don’t have a photographic memory, but I do have a digicam and I took
photographs of the menu. Heh. There were only 3 other tables filled in
there but the service was pretty good. Friendly and accommodating. I’m
pretending to be a restaurant critic here, so bear with me. The food
turnaround was around 10-15 minutes. The pancake was pretty good, quite a
bit of seafood in there but pretty bland without the soy sauce side dish.
The main meal was okay, I’m not expecting it to be so heavily laden with
kimchi, which I’m not a big fan off. It tastes weird to me. There wasn’t
lot a lot of beef bits in the stew but there were heaps of rice
vermicelli, all sorts of vegies and eggs. Everything tastes like kimchi,
good for a cold night but like I said I’m not big on the taste of that
stuff. It also comes with 2 platters of condiments (6 types altogether). I
don’t know what some of the condiments are but they taste sour. Quite
good, it balances the kimchi stew. The rice punch was okay, small tin
though. I drink a lot, so that is of concern to me. I ended up ordering
another coke to reach my “drink quota”. I also had a mochi type dessert
for A$3. It’s rice pastry (the soft kind) wrapped around chocolate ice
cream and dusted with some powder. Mmmm, I liked that. Tastes like a cross
between the mochi dessert you can get from ice cream vendors in Malaysia
and kueh.
The decor
Total cost: A$24.50 including GST
I think the food wasn’t really good enough to justify the price. They are
more famous for their BBQ. Oh, watch out for the funky chopsticks, they’re
a bit tr to use. The table beside us was having that and they seem to
be enjoying their meal. The female shop proprietor is a bit paranoid about
having her picture taken. She ducked or turned away the both times she was
in front of my lens. Thought that was pretty funny.
Listening to: Eminem – The Eminem Show
Yeah yeah, I know what everyone thinks of him. I listen to a lot of
Westcoast gangsta rap so I’m pretty dubious about a white rapper too.
Finally decided to listen to his Marshall Mathers album with an open mind
and found out that he’s pretty good. He can write some pretty provocative
lyrics (or is it Dre?) which people can actually relate too. There are
some people who think that he’s fake coz he came from a middle class
family so he’s not gangsta enough. Personally, I don’t really mind. If he
can churn out good songs, it doesn’t matter to me if what he raps about is
real or not. The Eminem Show is even better than the last album. Loved
every song on the first listen. My favourites are My Dads Gone Crazy (Hailie
sounds adorable in the backup vocals), Superman (But I do know one thing
though, bitches they come they go), Cleaning Up My Closet (reply to his
mom), Soldier (about the Kim kissing another guy at the club incident) and
hmm…I pretty much like every track. I’m not going to apologize for
liking Eminem. If you think he’s manufactured (most of the current artists
are anyway) and it bothers you that much, hell just don’t listen to it. Go
and listen to your underground band. Elitist fucks.
Keys
I found my long lost keys! I lost my keys about a month ago, tried
searching my whole room but didn’t end up finding it. Well, while doing
laundry today, I happened to look in the small ledge under my wardrobe and
there it was! Good thing I found it, now I can lock my door for a change.
I’ve been keeping my door unlocked even when I go out coz I didn’t want to
lock myself out. I know that’s not very safe but I’m sure the keys are
somewhere, I just couldn’t find them. I knew they’ll turn up one day and
they did. 🙂
My room key, cupboard key and dog tag to open doors in Roberts Hall. On a
different note, it seems that the 885 has high chromatic distortion when
taking pictures indoors. Noisy shadows too, but at least outdoor pics are
really good.
Pr0k chops
There was this slightly demented guy distributing leaflets and carrying on
like a pork chop about how McDonald’s is poisoning everyone. According to
him, 140 people were taken to the hospital last night after having
McDonald’s for dinner. He said he heard that on the radio and was
“creating awareness” by distribution leaflets and ranting in the Caulfield
campus. When no one paid him any attention, he mumbled something about
kids not caring about their health nowadays and walked away to bother some
other people. To which the shuttle driver cracked “Dunno what radio
station he’s listening to, but it sure ain’t 3AW”. Heh. I like that
shuttle driver. He’s always cheerful and friendly. Anyway, I’ve got heaps
of stuff to do now. Two assignments due tomorrow. Poor me.
Picture taken using Nikon 885 from 29/05/2002 print issue of
Herald Sun [heraldsun.com.au].
Carrying on like a pork chop is Aussie slang for making a big fuss.
