This blog pisses me off.. there’s not much I can do here and only max 50pics a month! Well, I have created a new blog, but have yet to shift over. I’m still weighing the pros and cons, although Blogger definitely offers better options.
Well, if anything, read more at my new blog.
As promised.. the pictures from PowerChef. I shall strive to be fair enough and not hog all the pictures, but I did notice something.. even the photographer (EricShiro) took a large amount of photos of those guys I was talking about. HEH.
Early morning prep in Champions Kitchen…
L-R:Siew, Lisher & EvenStevens starting on the sauces. Btw, imagine 300+ of those to wash with lids. >:(
EdmondYabah @ the salamander
Mr. Oliver, Dept.Head and Emcee of the day, starting the event.
The contestants from Federal Territory schools..
One of the outstanding presentations for Salad
THIS is the guy with the BIG biceps I was raving about… The photographer took loads of him. LOL. More on the way…
Why MUST he roll up the sleeves la… aih.. sengaja asking for attention.. ;D
Mr.Oliver - Department Head of SHTCA (School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culinary Arts)
The Adidas Sandwich
The really good sandwich - neat and precise cutting, simple but clean and outstanding!
Tasting time!
See the people behind me.. spying.. stalkers!
Mr. Fuad and Chef Hamiruddin tasting
Judge, Mr. Jerome Heah
Beautiful popiah presentation - the pic doesn’t really do justice.
Conferring… that group’s good.. that one sucked.. that one is SO messy.. etcetc. Judge-bitching. 
Me stuffing myself as usual. teehee.
Even Stevens, PhilthePill, Ms.Leong, YangYang, EdmondYabah, Carolyn and Hana
AaronGrooveDoctor trying to look cool and pissed at the same time. Tak jadi la.
Chef Hamiruddin’s fruit carving demo
It’s a watermelon fyi.
The finalists.
Spoiler: The guy and girl in pink snagged the 1st prize of RM5000, a laptop each, 25% discount for KDU course fees, pewter, Champion trophy and food vouchers.
We all pulak, doing all the work, got char bee hoon and had to cook our own meals for SOME of the days. 
I don’t have the other pics, hope to get them some how as the finals were really good. Well, that is all for that… Will post up if any. TA!
YAY!! I got my St. Patrick’s keychain. It’s not a shamrock per se, it’s a clover - they should make a lacquered green one… it’ll be sooo cute. mmhmm! xD Oh well, I did think, I shoulda just asked my uncle to give me tons of them, instead of buying drinks to get an uptight bartender giving it to me.
But… Where’s the FUN in that, eh?
the arrival….
the first sip….
my reward…
Ok, the guys and I were outside the lift, going up to the HTCA School and then, I just stared at the Digi Ad in front of me. There’s the picture of this guy, lying down on a field, his head on a football - smsing. He’s absolutely surrounded by all these "SMS Bubbles" and then, I noticed something weird.
I turned to the guys and asked, "Hey… what’s….. ‘orz’?".Okla, they’re younger than me right? So I expect them to know mah. Everyone started thinking, scratching and shaking their heads. *silence* *scritchscratch*
"Errr………I think… could it be….like… oh ah see like in OIC?"
"Or is it like… Oraitz?" I ventured.
Mystery unsolved, we all went on and soon forgot about it.
Unbeknownst to me, EvenStevens went home and actually consulted his SMS King - his little brother. His little brother told him and EvenStevens came up to me the next day, eyes shining, like it was a great secret revealed. Everyone gathered round - it was breaking news! This was the first time, EVERYone did not know something that was phone/sms-related - damn baffling right?
Aided with pencil and paper, EvenStevens wrote out ‘orz’ and explained to me, "It means sorry." How the fuck is that supposed to mean sorry wei! wtf!!
Ok, for those who MIGHT not know, orz is supposed to resemble a person kneeling down, hands touching the ground. In my time, we used smileys - now they’re representing Body Language??? smartasses with too much time on their hands.
Reactions of the group?
"Ohhhhh……"
"Waaahhh… too much time d that fella.."
"Eh, we’re so old fashioned la!"
"…..yeah hor…."
Suddenly, someone, I think it was YangYang, grabbed the pencil and drew something beside the debunked myth,
"EH! You know ar….. there’s an alternative you know… some people use this - o!z"
-_-
Kanasai.
It’s been nearly a week since my last entry… why?? Coz I’m so fucking busy, that’s why. Writing this (this is the slight calm after the storm) I’m interrupted by snoring. Turning back, I see IanPenguin’s peaceful face:
i’m such a stalker… teehee.
Well, I shall slowly try to put up bit by bit the things I’ve promised… such as pics from Power Chef Day 1, PhilthePill’s escapades - I’ve warned him that we all have been recording and amassing all evidence of his deeds… hmm.. what else? anything la. hopefully i live up to my words. eheh.
Recap:
Day 2 of Power Chef was on Saturday.. as well as Pinky’s birthday thingy at the pool. Oh, it was Earth Day too. We all were wondering, is the radio gonna stop broadcasting too. You’ll only know if we DON’T switch off everything right? True enough, JessTheHippo checked her watch, "Eh! 8.03 already!" and the deejay was going on and on asking everyone to switch off everything to conserve energy for 1 hour. -.-
So yeah, Friday was crazy, got to college at 11.30am, my car packed with takeaway boxes, sauce containers and whatnot. Felt like a kopitiam person buying supplies. The whole day was filled with chopping stuff, filling up boxes, hunting for 200odd plates, running to different kitchens, arranging the whole cafeteria area with tables and chairs and setting up the utensils, washing plates, scrubbing the super-black chopping boards, counting this and that.
Went hunting for disposable piping bags and coloring. Bake With Yen had a old malay lady who was super unhelpful with the piping bags - I mean, it was a life or death situation for us to get it, and she was like, "No stock. Dunno where. You waitla."
Luckily, few doors away was another baking supply shop, EvenStevens had a brill idea of walking in. He kept grabbing the HUGE packs of KokoKrunch and Rice Puffs (RM7.50/pack) and exclaiming, "WAH! Outside, 1/2 of this costs RM14… *slurp* if only…" After drooling and looking at all the funky gadgets they had, we rushed back to college to continue prep and set up. *phew*
Left college at 8.30pm, went home and started prep for Pinky’s party. Deboned 6 chickens, chopped up all the stuff for the mushroom risotto, made the carbonara sauce and cooked the pasta. Finished at 4am, then went to bathe. Adoi, I’ve officially been on my feet for at least 14 hours straight. Ian was nice enough to give me a foot and back massage before bed. awww…. the last time my feet felt that bad was after the first day at work in the Nyonya restaurant in Penang.
Was supposed to be in college at 6am, mana tau, got up it was 8am. CIS! Rushed to buy 600 gloves and got to college about 9.30am I think. Kept apologising, and Benedict was, "It’s ok… as long you don’t harm anyone, I’m cool." 0.o EvenStevens was, "We all know your ‘problem’". (problem of waking up… or busy schedule? lol) EdmondYabah was like, "It’s ok! There’s always ME! You know la, me and the Hot Kitchen… don’t worry!!" after that BIG speech, he whispered, "Actually, nothing much to do today - coz we did everything yesterday."
-.-
Ma hai, rushed for nothing. I get that super stressed, adrenaline rush in the morning which always make me sweat like a pig and have a totally unbecoming frown/guilty/worried look on my face.
Thank goodness, they got lecturers to judge the event. HAHA! So, the whole day was pretty much devoted to smoking, PhilthePill and YangYang acting out what it’s like to be prostitutes caught on camera..
This is what we do in the kitchen. Seriously.
After that, I rushed back at about 3plus, didn’t bathe or change (ew, I know) and started roasting capsicums, frying spinach, chopping more garlic, making the chicken roulade, baking, cutchopslice pineapples, bake those, heated up the carbonara sauce.
Pammypoo came over with Abigail to collect the food, she took the Crudite, Potato Salad, the spaghetti, all 8 Chickens. The Creme Caramel and Buffalo Wings were already with Wen Ping.
So I pepped up the Bruschetta, made the dip for Crudite, deepfried the Okra and baked the Pineapple. Maluness I know, but the food only arrived at 9.50pm.
Dinner was supposed to be at 7.30pm, so by the time we got there, the chickens all wiped out, everyone was about to eat plain spaghetti, the creme caramel habis and the buffalo wings left with crumbs.
Another reason why I was so damn slow. Haih. Wanna take pics also, asking for too much.
Anyways the story is, back in Power Chef Day 2, we received instructions to buy the plastic containers (I digress) so that we need not wash up! Let’s see…. roughly about 350 sauce containers (filled with mayo, italian dressing and thousand island. Get my drift? These items do not go well with plastic and washing.) And we had about 500 takeaway boxes (oh yeah, everything has LIDS) and suddenly after everything has been done,the instructions came that they wanted all those containers washed, dried and stacked back. MA HAI!
OK, we have this pink colored soap that has SUPER cleaning power.. It’s like a BIG LUMP of PINK ROCK inside a bottle, and we just put a little water into the bottle, and swirl. After we get that little bit of now-pinkish water, we add MORE water to make ONE baldi of soap. Cleans well.
But today, tiredness took over and well, we all know that more soap is needed for the 800 over containers to wash, so we filled a sink with HOT water and TONS of the Pink Ecolab Soap. Put your hands in, search for the plastic containers, which are so cheap that they are MEANT to be thrown away, they cut your hands. Nothing much. Just miniature slices. BUT then, the HOT water takes action - puffs up your skin making it more fragile. Then when there is a cut, the detergent starts eating away at your flesh.
DAMN. My hands looked like cooked lobster with bright sweltering red spots on em. PAIN OK???? Mother… I felt like there were tons of knives slicing my skin every moment. Even cloth feels like sandpaper. Still bad today. I swear, I’ll never do it again. It hurts way too much. I know, some of you will be smart and say, "But you always said you LOVE pain."
Well, yes. IF IT HAS PURPOSE!
Mother of Mercy - put moisturiser also can make me cry. IanPenguin took care of me though. Put up a brave face for Pinky’s party.
To finsh up the event for the day, we took away 270tables, folded and stacked, put BACK the even more uncountable tables and chairs in the cafeteria, they finally sat us down and said, "Thanks guys, you all did a good job today."
The best part, we started clapping. Not them. PHooEY!
Well, it did feel good, having gone through the whole day without any big glitches, and later that night, it was nice to hear everyone say, "Hey Julia, the food’s really good!" It’s nice to have people eat your food and look happy eating it.
Well, I said, I’m tired but it’s now 8am and I haven’t slept the whole night and wtf am i doing? K. Gonna sleep. Gotta get up in…. dammmit! 4HOURS TIME! niaooooooo….
Met up with Pinky and Pammy-poo just now, went for dinner nearby in TaiPan. Had dinner - char koay kak, popiah and hokkien char. It was okay la, we all can never rid ourselves of the lovely Penang food we grew up eating, and it was my only meal of the day. Knowing me, having that incoming dastardly month of the time :), I eat and eat and eat. Came home, was still hungry, but nothing to eat! Made some milk and oats and now I feel bloated and sick. *ergh* Watched Sydney White and now, while waiting to watch the rest of Boy’s and Girls’ Guide To Getting Down, i decided to blog a lil.
Sydney White is your typical corny, predictable teen flick with the dorky girl, hot guy, mean bitch and weird guys thrown in with some sorority pledging, frat parties and misunderstandings and of course, the happy ending. But I have to say, Matt Long (the main guy) is so super cute! He looks like a younger, not so smirking Josh Duhamel. And this other guy, Jack Carpenter, he’s cute too! *lol* I think, judging those highschool kids has infected me with some schoolgirl-crush disease. Mana tau, already so old konon.
So yeah, after dinner, Pinky goes, let’s ‘adjourn’ to Starbucks, and ‘adjourn’ we did. Again, cute guy at the counter - and the friendly girl nicely drenched my macchiato with tons of caramel. *yum* OOH. I get Venti’s for Grande prices now. I think the baristas at Borders pity me coz I look like I have no where better to go. -.-
So now, the menu for Pinky’s thing has become more exciting, and so have the games. Best part, Ian’s mom started laughing, when we were discussing it at home (the Taipan Starbucks closes damn early - 12, and Pammypoo thinks all Starbucks are 24hours.lol. Pam..pam…). She said, "24 years old and you guys are playing games?" Lol. She doesn’t know the amount of joy we derive from torturing people with seemingly deceptive-looking games… We, I am proud to say, MGSians from Penang, are absolute MASTERS at torture. I think we inherit it from the spirits of the Japanese soldiers who (supposedly) stalked our school, which back then, was a convent/safe house by the missionaries. HAH.
Which brings me to all those ragging events, the crazy games and especially, the end of the year, where teachers would give us a whole day off, and each activity club would come out and we’d have a field day in the school. Noone was spared. I think, the teachers foresaw uncontrollable violence in us girls, so leaving the school aka cancelling classes was the safest way to go. This day would start off by each club and their seniors giving a hard time to the juniors. And then, basically, the whole school became a battlefield.
Man, I kena what ar? One of the worse ones was, eggs, flour, mud in my face and worst of, my hair. By the time I went home, after all those hours chasing down people in the heat, I was literally walking around school with a Cake as a head. Took me a whole day to just get the big chunks out. Them war-whoops would make any boy pee his pants.
Some people ask me, when I recount all this, "are you sure you’re from an all-girls school?" or even when I do certain things that most normal (maybe CITY) girls don’t/can’t do, I go like, "Hello! Everyone in my school does this. I think I’m milder in fact! You should meet Pinky and Pam!" lol.
There was this one time, when I was still in TOA, when Eelyn and Rex came to Penang to visit. So ngam ngam, I had an invitation from Pinky to go back to school and play floorball with our juniors. Sounded great! Ok, to be fair to Eelyn and Rex, I didn’t tell them anything so they gamely came along in their pretty sandals and were also dragged up hiking Penang Hill in those same sandals. Looking back, I musta been a meanie. 
Anyways, we reached my school gym, and it was pretty much going on already. Flopped down on those musty mattresses, we sat down and watched. I was getting EXcited!! YAY!! Then, the round finished, time to switch players. I jumped in, played amateurly a bit (juniors were more lenient and gave face to the seniors - maybe coz we looked older and more fragile kua) and then, before I knew it, I was sweating like a pig, and the round was done!
Stayed for the next one, and I came up to Eelyn and Rex. "Hey guys, wanna play?? There’s space for you guys.. Cmon it’ll be fun." Silence greeted me. Along with Wide Eyes. "NOooOoooo…. are you CRAZY?????? You guys are friggin VIOLENT!!!" oh-kay. never had anyone say that about us before. hahaha..
looking back, those were the best times ever. E-V-E-R!
evereverevereverever…
I’ll never forget that.
*warm fuzzy feeling*
thanks you guys…
it was the friendship that made all things
- wonderful
- possible
- violent
- scary
- crazy
- laughable
- and mostly, memorable.
*hugs*
i just realized… Pinky & Pam.. you never got to tell me about Pam’s funny election story. dammit. now i cannot sleep d.
today was uneventful…
except for one thing… that blardy bitch who doesn’t want to sell her place. Refinance some more! stupid mutt. getting her to sell was one thing, now another problem. all that running around finding out about loans and all was wasted. sigh. maybe it’s not meant to be. but it’s pretty nice, that place.
other than that, super super broke. and all i can think of is getting a lovely tinkly shamrock on my car key ring. that would so make my day. everyday.
So now, i’ve got so many things going through my mind. already we are taking the place with repairs undone, and now, she wants us to bear the penalty of HER early payment. WTF. and of course, other unmentionables. LOL. i should start talking about the unmentionables which would be a total oxymoron.
Mentioning the Unmentionables. or, a Hyperactive Invalid. or.. a Meat-loving Vegan. a Loud Mime, Healthy Fast Food, an Honest Lawyer, a Fatal Injury, a Tanned Albino, bla.. i shall stop before lameness besiges me. *Ian suggests - "roti canai without flour" which then led to, "Flourless Bread"* 0_o someone… show him some lurrve please. and yes, Ian, stop rubbernecking. Even in the dark, I can sense your big eyes reading every word I write. *boo* Beer cat, he says.. paltry..
On to watching Water Horse. *Ian’s words: the Loschk-Nesh monshter* teeeheee. lap you la.
it’s been raining. the whole day.
good to fill up petrol and maybe score some ciggies and reloads.
i’m so sick of wannabe cupcakes.
sick of pretentious copycats.
bloody fake sycophants. go away.
someone out there knows me.
most don’t. i act a lot.
yes i do. no i don’t. is that true?
i breathe heavier today.
heavy chest. why?
had an iced vanilla latte today. felt like change. stifled. predictable.
obsessed with vanity. others and mine.
wonder what it’s like on the other side of the mirror. fair, fairer, fairest?
raindrops only remind me of tears. their sounds bring remorse and feelings of darkness, guilt and depravity. waves however bring me relief, forgiveness and peace.
drop drop drop. trickle. smatter. drop.
if only life were simple for me.
i have so many wants - i’m Selfishness Personified.
what do i get out of dying?
where will i go then?
when will i go? tomorrow?
sounds disturb me, except my own.
i’m so irritated, it irritates me.
loneliness in company.
peace in solitude.
why the fucking contradictions?! for once, just be simple. be pleasant.
is he there? is he? why not? tell me.
or it’s all one big excuse. too many of late.
stop spying. it’s geek-ish.
i’m afraid of ending up like her.
i’m afraid he’ll end up like him.
i don’t want to have a kid like her.
am i gullible? many say i am.
deception - current? or past?
i’m so afraid of wrinkles. and a downturned mouth. more so than i am of cancer and liver failure. those happen to other people, not me. not yet.
turmoil, wretched soul. self-deprecating comments bring me joy. no, joy is permanent. happiness is momentary. yes, happiness.
sometimes my fingers look nice. other times, i think they look disgusting. so’s toes. like little alien-feelers sticking out of tree stumps. concentrate harder and i’d need to chop them off. where would that leave me then?
hmmm… i hmmm a lot when thoughts and what i want to write collide. hmmm…
i want to say so much - have the world sympathise, perhaps? no outlets for rage for sorrow for inadequacy for envy for despair.
you would be shocked by my thoughts.
what goes on in my head. *shrug* maybe everyone’s like that. we all just play at being like one another.
take a photo! take another! wheee…
is this nice? is this sexy? is this hawt?
i’m lost. really i am.
promises? i’m sorry grandma. maybe i’m just like her. a bigger faker. a worse hypocrite. coz you actually believe me.
hey, maybe this won’t work. it shouldn’t, should it? ready?
i’m too self absorbed = soliloquy
Day One of the Power Chef…
We all stood in the kitchen, wondering, what we’re going to do. As we tried to solve the mini glitches, and rushed to get something or another.. all I could think of was, YAY! I’m back in my chef’s jacket and pants.. and the safety shoes - noone can forget you’re wearing safety shoes - Heavy, clunky and uncomfortable - while you’re rushing. I was so delighted to be back, I even kesianed all the mini-roaches today.
Then the competition started, we all rushed and got everything ready - and I found out, I was one of the judges. The other two were staff of the college - we looked at each other and said, "Eh, you gonna eat ar?" "I think we have to." *silence* "oh.*silence* okay." "Yeah, get some medicine ready."
Verdict: Most of it tasted the same. There were good ones… and VERY bad ones. ergh.
We’re supposed to give them tips on hygiene and all, and there was this one group, 2 guys. One fella, I think, took off his gloves, dumped them on the table and continued his jobs. I was right there, and then he, realising, looked at me sheepishly. He quickly took the gloves, and put them in the dustbin and then gave me a reassuring smile before continuing his tasks. I was like.. WTF? His version of hygiene is, putting rubbish in the proper place. My version is, USE THE FRIGGIN’ GLOVES! I thought twice before tasting. I think I had a pinch and that was enough.
Better yet, I was only girl judge, and there were these two guys who are taking the City & Guilds exam, a cooking exam that is pretty prestigious, and well, they were the most silent and efficient workers there. Not only that, they had good presentation skills and their food tasted pretty good. There was this one bite I took, and I was like, MMM! Ate some more before they cleared the dishes. *eh heh* But the thing about them was, this one guy had AWESOME arms. I mean, like, super tanned (even somemore!) and he HAD to, he HAD to roll up his sleeves. I think I stood at their table the longest - super huge! *schoolgirl faint*
All in all, my stomach doesn’t feel that funky - but, thinking of next week, when we’re gonna deal with nearly 200ppl, I do not know what’s going to happen. I’d rather be the emcee than be a judge - i turned down both, and look what happened.
But everything went pretty ok… no big glitches. I know I wanted to take pictures, I’ll put some up later on.
I’m back now, and I’ve to prepare dinner. Tired la.. but sigh, cooking.. hehe… alrighty then. A short nappie then cook then pick Ian up then major ZZZ. I actually want to go to the Paddock Party@Zouk but I am absolutely broke. How bout credit card? NO! dammit. my conscience speaks against my alcohol system.
Have you ever wondered what tomorrow will be like? Plans and routines aside… what makes that promise of the unknown so enticing? Or do you, like some people, find it hard to wake up and face a new day?
I fluctuate between these two extremes… one of my many spectrums. And I find myself sometimes thinking thoughts like, "Life is so beautiful!(corny i know..) and the next day, I wonder, "what’s it like to just drive into a wall at topspeed?" morbid? *shrugs* I think, perhaps in my case, it could be a forewarning of bad things so the fact that you actually think about it, you don’t.
You know.. like when you’re clench your hand when cutting something and the knife swipes at your finger, but doesn’t cut it. And in other cases, when you’re just doing your thing, after you’ve washed your hands, a small stinging feeling shows a cut, even though it was a relatively simple/routine task. hmm.. power of the mind.
arrr.. i’m just rambling…
Anyways, yesterday was pretty fun. Had a late lunch with Atto, Yang, Daryl, Ian and Crystal at Pin Kee - I know, it may not be that great, but my current obsession is with their Thai Style Chicken Chop. MMM… pretty big portion, so, don eat nasi also can!
Then, went to 1U after damnation years, bought meself shoes and jeans. teehee. eh, my shopping habits have been curbed noticeably. but the shoes are cute. and so are the jeans. and Ian thinks that he looks like a hairdresser in skinny jeans - which he is considering of looking like soon. lol.
Before we left, we passed the donut shop, and I (usually am so sick of the smell, but due to my incoming that-time, I eat like a pig, and allow myself to get away with it. jeez.) but yes, I, grabbed Ian and said, do you feel like?????
so as we lined up, we thought, hey just grab one and ciao. Mana tau, ended up with four. I laph-laph the Duren Duren one and the Chococino. yum. actually, just a sucker for the cream. heee.
Then as we were heading towards the carpark, we grabbed each other. (food-related, mind you) CARLS’ JR!!!! YAY!!
That lil starry face just gives me the tummy-rumbles! OK. Tummy rumbles don’t usually mean a Large Double Guacamole Bacon Cheeseburger Meal - but their chips have gone from ha-hum to NICE! With the SKIN on, it’s super Crisp-Crunchy. Dipped in Guacamole some more… *heaven*
Then, met up with Wen Ping and Pam last nite, went to Ali Berkat for nasi lemak, no I didn’t eat, how could I, even with the evil forces in me… Sat there and talked and laughed and talked and laughed. I think that whenever we all get together, people get irritated. WHO CARES! We have funfay!! (Fun For All of You) heh. <- that was crap.
Then today, kena tiu from Dept. Head, more like a lecture, concerning our prep team. Thing was, so many unscheduled people came, so he was like, WTF? You guys need 14 people to cut onions and celery for 12 pax? damnnit. Kena lagi. But after that it was fun, lunch was shit, day was tiring.
Alll in all.. i’m excited about tmr. Let us pray that I don’t become a judge. OOOH - I must take photos. hahahah.. and then… will try to update and remember each horrifying experience. LOL - will do will do.
til tmr’s fortifying (note:promise of the unknown as stated above) meals….
