Bananas

Was actually in a team meeting the other day where one of my colleagues was supposed to give a talk on some frameloading (warehouse operational term whereby totes were being put onto metal frames - they call it dollies - and then onto the vans to the customers) stuff and mentioned something about certain foods that cannot be chilled, for e.g. bananas. Some what interesting to know...

1. Why bananas go black in the fridge - http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/2001-08/998138054.Gb.r.html


2. Never put your banana in the refrigerator - http://www.eatingbritain.com/208_never-put-your-banana-in-the-refrigerator.html

Quoting from the first article, it says bananas develop chilling injury below 12 degrees celcius. Hmm, does that mean I have to keep my bananas warm during winter!? Yea, keep the heater on to save the bananas! :P :)

The second article is somewhat more informative, to the extend of describing how bananas saved the world! Interestingly...

• PMS: Forget the pills - eat a banana. The vitamin B6 it contains regulates blood glucose levels, which can affect your mood. .. Hmm worth a try?


• Hangovers: One of the quickest ways of curing a hangover is to make a banana milkshake, sweetened with honey. The banana calms the stomach and, with the help of the honey, builds up depleted blood sugar levels, while the milk soothes and re-hydrates your system. ... Ohyea comes in handy!


• Mosquito bites: Before reaching for the insect bite cream, try rubbing the affected area with the inside of a banana skin. Many people find it amazingly successful at reducing swelling and irritation. ... Would like to try this back home!

Volunteering @ London Marathon

13th, April 2008:- Had been looking around for some charity activities and stumbled across Oxfam's Marathon Volunteers on the website. And so, we went. Witnessing the London Marathon the first time myself, it was pretty an experience. Never had I imagined there we soooo many people so enthusiastic about the charity event.

Got to the cheering point outside City of Pride pub in Canary Wharf around 9. Got ourselves geared up with Oxfam's t-shirts and wind breakers and started helping out to set up the cheering point. Blowing balloons, getting runners' names onto boards etc. The runners started to come through around ten. Having high expectations that I would spot Ronan Keating, I eagerly await and cheer on other runners passing by. Many were in costumes and very amusingly entertaining! The most unfornate thing would be when the down pour began around eleven. But the fortunate thing would be that we were already on our rain coats and the crowd behind us offer some space for us under their umbrellas. There were many other cheering crowds along the road from other charity organisations, many with more lovely balloons and pom poms etc.

Disappointingly, I didn't spot Ronan Keating. I must have missed him passing by! Damn! But then it's all fun for a Sunday...

Spot Me Above!

The Terracotta Army Exhibition @ British Museum

6th, April 2008:- Having failed the first time around to queue for tickets for the exhibition, feeling baffled, we try the queue again on the last day of the exhibition, quoting "last day", I mean the last day that they are selling on the day tickets, the exhibition actually ends on the 7th but that day is only for people with advance booked tickets. Took the earliest tube around half five and got there quarter past six. Already, the queue spans up to the next turning corner. Blimey!

Battling the morning cold and rain, we managed to get through the gates around half seven to eight. We had to queue again once inside the museum compound. With white pieces of non real tickets printed "This is not a guarantee for tickets" and numbers of 512 and 513 indicating the number of people we were in the queue, there was a fair chance that we should be able to get the tickets this time. They have 700 on the day tickets that day.

Once inside the lobby, the queue continued. There were only 3 people working on the ticket counter for the first hour, and thus the queue. Lingering amongst the queue feeling bored, we then spotted a filming crew interviewing people in the queue. Not quite knowing who they were initially, they eventually approached us! They told us they were working on a video for the museum and would like to ask us a few questions. With the camera on us, we just tag along answering his somewhat very general questions like "How long were you in the queue", "What makes you visit the museum" blah blah blah. I wonder if our parts will ever get into the afore-mentioned video :).

Around quarter past nine, we finally bought our tickets! Went for the half 10 slot so that we can get some McDs breakfast before that. There were a lot of people in the circular exhibition hall. Many exhibits were like normal stuff you will see in China thb, pots and pans, music instruments, lifestyle stuff etc. The most interesting exhibit is a model potraying workers in the process of making the terracottas. There is sort of a defined route to follow throughout the exhibition and it eventually led visitors to the terracottas at the end of the route. There were only about 12 to 14 of them, and not all of them are perfectly unruined. I think the chariots are way cooler!

What amazed me most is not of the exhibits themselves, but the anxiety of visitors wanting to get into the exhibition. Ebay tickets can go up to fifty quid per ticket. The normal price is only twelve. And although the normal price is just another twelve quid, I just wonder what actually makes those people queue for hours just to get in??? (Btw, I queued merely because I couldn't get in the first time cos we got there at half 8 and the queue is unbelievably too long) While on the queue, I even saw people with sleeping bags. What on earth were they thinking!?

Photographs are not allowed in the exhibition hall and thus the following :)

The queue outside, after the gates (left), Big ad banner for the "show"(right)

Me on a cute template from my HTC (left), Terracotta figures made by some school kids displayed in the museum lobby (right)

Post Easter Update

The long easter weekend passed like the wind. And tbh, didn't get much done. Time just flies past!

But then again so maybe I did get something done.

Slept in on Good Friday cos too lazy to go out. The weather is too crappy and it finally snowed! In March! Snow didn't settle but was a bit lovely to see though. The weirdest weather you can get in UK, it snowed for 5 mins, stopped for 10 mins, hailed for another 10 mins, stopped and then rained for 10 mins. On the Millennium Bridge leading to St. Pauls from Tate Modern, sunset on the left
Met up with Saw Sian on Saturday, had lunch in one of the pubs in Wapping, Prospect of Whitby. And then took a walk from there to the Tate Modern. Went to watch the Spiderwick Chronicles with Holly that night and my review, quite good if you like this kind of children fantasies, goblins, fairies, orges etc. That is whole Saturday gone!



Green Tea Ice Cream with Red Beans, Mochi, Kiwi and some cream at Abeno Too
Woke up really late on Sunday, do a bit of house chores and 'stuff', playing Fluff Friend's Egg Hunt and then went to dinner at Okawari, had Una-don (one of my favs) and then stayed over at Holly's cos need to wake up early to queue for Terracotta Army tix the next morning.

Bank Holiday Monday, a bit disappointing not being able to get tickets. The queue went up to the back of the museum and there was no way we were able to get tickets for the day. Giving up, had breakfast at Starbucks and thought we could give it another go. Got in to the museum at around half nine and still a lot of ppl queuing up for tix. So decided to visit the other parts of the museum instead. I would say the British Museum doesn't look as big as I thought it would be. And personally prefer the MET in New York.

Enjoyed my four working days week, pub lunch at The Speckled Hen for Simon's leaving due, pretty much stayed in these few days for my on call 'duties'!

Complimentary pic of the month:

Crystal Jade Kitchen, Pavilion (very overpriced, be warned)

It's Easter!

It is the easter break again. This year, I'm just going to stay around London and not going travelling. A long chilling and relaxing break is just ideal.

Was reading through some old blog entries and realised how slack I have been from blogging these few months. Ok so maybe I should start picking it up again.

Life after the CNY break has much been devoted to work. And now that I am most oftenly on call, another fraction of my life goes to work. Was called the first time last last weekend and then Tuesday the following week. It went alright I guess, nothing really biggie yet. Been to Top Golf the other day at Watford for some golf swings, courtesy of my company and my waist ached a bit for a few days. But it does revive my interest in golf for a bit ;). Maybe some golf lessons would be interesting.


Feeling a bit adventurous, went for a hair cut at a Japanese salon the other day -> j.moriyama . They have three branches in london. I went to the one on Marylebone lane. And was quite satisfy with the outcome for 35 quid cut...quite jappy. Had my really long locks and fringe cut ... not too short but just right to keep my surviving perms.

Currently watching some movies and tvb series on http://movie.tudou.com/, catching up on some tele on BBC iPlayer and ITV, oh ya so happy Suzanne and Matt won the Dancing On Ice Competition, went to watch "The Other Boleyn Girl" the other day and it was quite good. F1 season has just started and am so not motivated to watch it this season without m shuey around now.

This easter break, am planning to do some cultural stuff and hanging out and a lil exploring perhaps.

Hopefully gonna find some interesting easter eggs!

p.s. Just realised that a mug and Chardonnay doesn't work!

Four Things

I got an email the other day asking me to state four things for each question about myself that you may or may have not known. Instead of hitting the reply button, I decided to stick it in here, just so that I think it is a really good flash back in 5 or 10 years later the answers to the following questions may well be completely different, reflecting just how much I myself have changed.

Four jobs I have had in my life

1. Software Developer
2. Peer Assisted Student Session Tutorial Leader
3. Cinema Usherer
4. Office Admin

Four movies I would watch over and over

1. 10 Things I Hate About You (how can Hollywood survive without Heath Ledger!)
2. Needing You
3. Love Actually
4. My Blueberry Nights (current craze...will definitely change)

Four places I have lived

1. Gopeng, Perak, Malaysia
2. Shah Alam, Malaysia
3. Pandan Jaya, Malaysia
4. Manchester, UK
5. Hatfield, Greater London, UK

Four TV shows I (used to) watch

1. Beverly Hills 90210 (classic!)
2. ER
3. Friends
4. Desperate Housewives

Four Places I have been

1. Kind of hard to limit it to four, but if you don't mind, I can go by continents - Asia
2. Europe
3. North America
4. Australia

Four People who e-mail me (regularly)

1. Does work emails count?
2. MSN messenger and Facebook is more convinient
3. Yea I get spammed a lot
4. My brother cos he gets retarded on MSN, he just don't reply sometimes (*just kidding*...love you bro muaks)

Four of my favourite foods

1. Egg Tart - for some reason I don't ever get bored with it
2. Porridge with Chicken Floss
3. "Yau Cha Guai" with Coffee
4. Milo with Cream Crackers ("So Ta Peng")

Four places I would like to be right now

1. Maldives - already missing the beach and spa after Pangkor trip
2. New York - missing the shopping especially jeans and Woodbury Commons!
3. Tokyo - aww never get bored with jap food!
4. Don't mind Kuala Lumpur ^-^

Four (a couple of more than four ppl hopefully;) family or friends I think who would respond

• Not Applicable - having a friend saying you are psychotic is not the end of the world!

The Day I made Enemy With a Turnip

Ok so this is old story, but just felt like blogging this since I recall my old nasty experience every time I saw the scar on my finger ><. The story starts like this... A question frequently asked by people when I go back M'sia is "How did you manage to live and stay alone in UK?"...
"Well I simply got used to it and yea I have to do a lot of things on my own" (but so what, I can manage it independently, that is the whole purpose of living alone, learning how to be independent).

But then the question comes down to ok so CAN I actually do everything myself? Nope. But so what again. I just have to when it comes to it right? Yea yea. And so comes the day I made enemy with a turnip...Thought of making Ju Hu Char one day and so got some mini turnips from asda. Took out my brand new chopping board and big sharp knife and on the board the turnips go. "Accidentally" (no need to mention!) I cut my index finger on the first chop. Blood, alot of them! Tried to stop the bleed but not quite successful. I panicked. Tried cleaned it for a bit and put plaster on it. The pain had still not subdued. I sat there contemplating what I should do. And after a long thought, I took out the list of GPs in Hatfield. It's a Saturday evening, I tried calling but all calls got diverted to the answering machine. GPs in UK are closed on weekends (what kind of medical service on earth is this! Just when I needed it!). The last called got diverted to a hospital emergency dept. The woman said "You have to come to the hospital yourself". After hanging up, I didn't move an inch and thought again, ok so yea I can go to the hospital but it's only a finger cut. I might be sitting there for hours before anyone is free to attend to me. And so I gave up that idea. Not having a first aid kit or any extra plasters around, I simply get changed and went to the nearest drug store for some. Came back and clean the wound again with some tea oil and put another plaster on. The bleeding only stops the next morning. Well it wasn't bleeding profusely but there are still blood soaking the plaster. The wound got a bit bruised for the next few days. And there goes my story with a turnip, leaving the wound slowly to heal.

Back to the question of how I felt living without my family around? Hmm not sure, I guess that's another kind of experience into my pocket.