PAs, The Simpsons Movie & Seven (27.07.07)

Many thanx to princess MallyMoodle that a bunch of us got department subsidized movie tix to THE SIMPSONS MOVIE last Friday! We started the night off at PAs (surprise surprise) after work and just chillaxed with a couple of drinks and dinner. MallyMoodle enlightened me with her burger munching technique, it's a must learn for me coz i can never actually eat my burgers the way they should be eaten. Most of the time it's just falls apart and I end up eating burger bits. I was all pumped and ready for a big weekend last Friday especially after my super random and slack weekend previously, it was going to be the movie, then "winter wonderland" @seven nightclub with Ginger and her mates! PAs was nice coz it's been a long while since I've been back with work people, actually i think it's been a while since i hung out with work people period (unless there's something i can't remember right now....which i won't be surprised coz I'm as sick as a duck!). I think one of the highlights of PAs was MallyMoodle's super hardcore punch at John the Builder's (JtB) jaw bone! Hahaha.....so here's what went down: I was wearing "Be delicious, green apple" by DKNY and JtB asked me about it....so after talking about perfume (as you do) for a bit...MallyMoodle walks into the conversation and holds out her wrist to ask JtB whether he knew what she was wearing, so he first smirks, then replys: "I dunno?....Lebanese sweat??!" No need to say, this obviously enraged MallyMoodle enough for the knuckles of her right fist to accidentally land on JtB's jaws, putting him into...hm...let's just say quite a bit of pain (while the rest of us laughed our heads off)!

AD@PAs

So after PAs we made our way to the Simpsons movie @ Melbourne Central (Thanx JtB & Peter for the rides)! I had this fear that I'd hate the movie coz I luv the simpsons and so had high expectations. Fortunately I was proven wrong, I actually really enjoyed the movie and I think it's definitely worth seeing if you are a simpsons fan! The 90min episode begins by mocking its own audience for paying good money to see what it can watch at home for free and proceeds from there through the most wickedly funny arsenal of assaults on big government, organized religion and corporate America. In a nut shell, it all begins with a pig - the adorable little oinker that homer saves from becoming tomorrow's Krusty burger, with whom he develops an inseparable bond. Homer's dumping of it's prodigious poop into lake Springfield causes massive environmental damage. Thus president Schwarzenegger (who is elected to "lead" and not to read...lol) and an overzealous EPA chief rushes to contain the Homer-instigated eco-crisis by encasing all of Springfield in a giant, impenetrable bio-hazard-sphere. I think the movie worked well coz it revisits the series' most enduring situations and themes, but upping the ante just enough to lend everything a new level of suspense. This time round, Homer doesn't merely put his own family in jeopardy, but nearly wipes Springfield itself off the map! Anyhoo...go see it!!




Ok, so after the movie, PowPow and Ginger picked me up from Latrobe st and we head to Manchuria for a bit to meet up with Lisa, Cindy and their mates before heading to Seven nightclub. I got a rose...can't remember the brand...but it was really nice...and I met Mitsu...who is a German-Jap, who spoke with the cutest accent, and was just really pleasant to chat with! Don't have much to say about seven except that I had a awesome time dancing with everyone....i think i enjoyed it coz everyone was really in for a good time and a good dance.....even though the crowd was.....hm....you know how Asian clubbing crowds are...there was this weird incident where KT & I were heading to the ladies....because it was so so packed she was holding one of my hands and leading me....and all of a sudden my other hand was being held...so i looked around and some random sleazy guy just kept holding my hand and tried to talk to me etc....and i was just like...what the hell....i just want to go to the loo...for gods sake....Unfortunately I don't have any photos coz i left my camera in PowPow's car.....so hopefully i can grab some of Lisa sometime. Anyhoo....I had a good time with free sohos and all, we left by 3:30amish coz PowPow was buggered....which suited me coz i had get up early the next day for Kazza's b-day celebrations :)

My slack ass random weekend (21&22. 07.2007)

Well, so much for being good and updating my blog every week...lol! I'm going to try really hard to remember what I did two weekends ago....hm.....well...there probably isn't that much to remember coz I had my first totally random, unplanned, slack ass weekend...and it was bloody freaking GREAT! Think I've been needing it for quite a while coz I was getting totally frustrated and disappointed with work. Got so bad the other day (when I couldn't mount half of my tongue sections because they had all died, after I went through like 6hrs of cryostating) MallyMoodle had to rush to the Phd room and get me some of her port. So there I was, going out of my mind and drinking port in the ACB tea room at 1pm (haha....funny now that I look back), so I guess I know understand why so many Phd students and researchers can really "take their alcohol"!

One thing that I do remember is that My comfy new bed got delivered on Saturday! I was so excited! After sleeping in a 15yr old bed, that doubled as a trampoline for my sisters I for say bout 10 yrs or so, I was stoked to be sleeping in my new "Presidential" class queen size mattress. The bed is nicely padded and springy but at the same time it's very firm, so good for my back! It was so so comfy and I slept like a baby!
Meanwhile, I was going through my mobile phone files and found some old photos that I had taken...a couple of them were obviously taken when me and Markdot were in one of our ridiculous silly states:

I don't even remember when this happened....but probably after a couple of last semester's Friday seminar drinks (lol)! I also found a nice one of me, Markdot & Annie at PAs from I don't know when...

YAY! Finding random old photos is good :)

Anyhoo.....what else did I do on Sat....oh yeah....had another one of those deep tissue massage thingos with the Chinese physio dude so felt super relaxed although a bit tender afterwards. Sunday was crusiy....slept in heaps (this seems to be my new trend) then ventured up to the Doncaster East area to visit cousin's family and my little kawaii cousin Masato.
Man..one of the down sides about trying to write a blog for something that happened a while ago is that you never try hard enough coz all I want to do now is write about what happened last weekend instead of trying to remember what happened 2 weekends ago! So I'm just gona give up now...

Mukie's House Party (14.7.07)

YAY! It was about time that Mukie had another one of his infamous house parties. Taba, SeBear & I rocked up around 9:30pmish (loaded with our wine/vodka/Mint Chocolate Baileys) after our yummy dinner and also laughing at the fob in leg warmers earlier. Most people had already arrived and the party had started by the time we got there. It was super duper to see everyone together, in the same place at the same time! It's really been a long while....too long (Thanx Muks)!
There were lots of catching up, drinking (of course), soccer playing on the PS2 (or was it the Xbox?) and just general HAPPINESS :)
But wait...there's more..............As the night went on...we suddenly all found Ed or should i say KED standing up in front of everyone....clearing their throats...ready to make "the announcement of their lives". YES, that's right....after three and a half years of "going steady", they have decided to get engaged...OMG yes, that's right ENGAGED (I thought I should just repeat myself there for the effect) and are planning to be wedded by June next year. I seriously can not tell you how many gasps...and omgs...and cuties noises were being made while this was going on...but yes...basically every single chick at least was making a noise of some kind...out of happiness, joy and also probably the surprise. The really gay thing that happened afterwards, was that...the goys (NB. this is not a typo) all formed a circles around Ed and the girls all formed a circle around Kys...and just stayed that way for a while....don't know about Ed...but Kys started to get really really embarrassed and self-conscious because we were all staring at her for...hm..oh..say 20 mins straight (but it's only coz we are so so happy for you Kys xox)!

So after everyone got over the initial OMG....drinking resumed and the party carried on..........I'M SO SO HAPPY FOR YOU KED! As for the party, let's just let the photos do all the talking:

For more photos from Mukie's HP visit:
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/dancinghula/MukieSHouseParty14707

A Super Duper Saturday

I had such a good Saturday this weekend! There was good company (Yay!...go Kazza, Taba & SeBear), lots of eating nice food and also a Mukie house party to top the night!

So it all begun with a nice little work out with Kazza at the gym, bright and early. I am ashamed at my gym effort last week as I only went for one day...but i did have yoga Monday and Tuesday though......After a really nice gym session, I got home.....cleaned myself up and just bummed around a bit...just so nice and relax...exactly what I needed after a stressful week.

SeBear popped over after her work and after she ravaged an apple (coz she had a massive apple craving) we cooked dumplings and my homemade wantons for lunch with some heated up frozen veggies! Meanwhile, I had a huge olives and hummus dip craving so i downed lots of olives and lots of crackers with hummus dip while we were cooking! So no need to say we were so so so so so so so so full after our lunch and very extremely content.

We eventually made our way to Taba's place (Soz taba for the wait!) and then we went bed & mattress shopping...as I have had a sore and pretty screwed up back for most of this year, mostly from bad posture at work and also probably coz my mattress is like over 15 yrs old! So our first stop was Harvey Norman on Warrigal Rd. It was actually kinda fun hopping onto all these beds and just testing them out....I so should've brought my camera...but totally forgot. Otherwise we could've captured images of us three wiggling on the beds and laughing our heads off and "testing" the springs and firmness of the beds...lol it was funny. The most disturbing things were these latex foam beds...they were so so weird...it was like when you lie down, you just keep sinking...and sinking...and sinking.....and it was really impossible to get back up coz you kept sinking when you tried. We saw this brand...think it was called "Rendezvous Latex", and we were all like...hm...that should be a condom brand lol!

Anyhow.....we then ventured down to the Monash Home maker's centre and I swear...it's been such a long time since i drove so far out...it was so whoop whoop for me...i think it's because I haven't driven for a while...let alone anywhere over 30mins from my house. So we get there....and half the shops were shut down or something...so we were like...hm....dodgyville! We checked out Forty Winks there....but it was a really small shop so nothing impressive....and we also checked out this other store that was really really cold inside....and as Taba puts it "the $2 shop for beds" (lol), so no luck there!

By this time we were all pretty sick of bed & mattress shopping so we headed home and had afternoon tea! After lounging around for a couple of hours...we headed to Noodle Kingdom in Box Hill for dinner. I swear, they have the best noodles there...and bonus......HAND MADE NOODLES! So going back there every weekend to try something different coz everything on the menu look bloody fantastic! After our very fragrant and satisfying soup noodles I bought 2 bottles of wine and then we headed to Mukie's bash! But not before we laughed ourselves to death coz we saw this Asian dude in tight ass jeans with ...check this out "LEG WARMERS"!

A disapointing bake off

So I rocked up to work last Friday with 3 loafs of my special "Oaty Banana Loaf" coz it was my turn to bring morning tea for everyone involved in this year's ACB departmental bake off. They were bloody heavy to lug around and also took me over 3 hours to make the night before because I only had one loaf tin and thus had to bake it 3 times (*gay*)!

Unfortunately, it just turned out that I'd signed myself up for the week that the IBRO (international brain research organization) conference was on, so work was pretty much completely deserted :( No need to say, less than half of the bake off crowd rocked up for morning tea so i was utterly disappointed! So we went through one and a half loafs, and kept what was left of the 2nd loaf in the fridge for people.

I decided to keep the last loaf so that i can share it with family and friends as they hadn't even tried my special recipe. So in the afternoon I saw Taba, SeBear, Little Sarah & Shirley and had some of the loaf with them as afternoon tea (yum)! After I got home, I gave mum and June some loaf too and they loved it....then i wrapped up the rest and gave them to Kazza!

I must say, i think this recipe is quite a success because everyone seemed to like it, so here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
*450g ripe bananas, mashed
*50g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped (weighed before chopping)
*115g mixture of raisins & dried apricots, roughly chopped (weighed before chopping)
* 115g muesli/ rolled oats
*1/4 cup brown sugar
*1/3 cup Olive oil
*1 table spoon of honey dissolved in 1/4 cup water
*1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:
1) Mix all ingredients together (consistency should be soft and moist).
2) Spoon into a greased and lined loaf tin.
3)Bake on 190°C (fan forced oven) for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
4) Cool for 10 minutes before turning out.
5) Serve warm.

The Burlesque Hour (8.7.07)

Wow...I'm no longer a burlesque virgin! Went to my first ever burlesque "The Burlesque Hour" at 45 Downstairs last Sunday and it was bloody fantastic! It was not what I expected but rather a nice surprise. I guess i expected nudity (which there was) but I also expected the whole show to more like a cabaret in terms of corsets, feathers and lots of dancing chorus girls kicking their legs in the air. Instead "The Burlesque Hour" featured three unreal performers: Moira Finucane, Azaria Universe and Yumi Umiumare, with guest artiste Angus Cerini.

Burlesques usually have a saucy & sleazy reputation. It often features strippers & carnival performers, and for many people there is the misconception that burlesques are "just something strippers do". However, what "The Burlesque Hour" did so well was that it subverted all of those expectations and took you into territory that was not only sexy & provocative but something that was extremely funny and sometimes grotesque, verging on horrific! Each performer had their turn filling the stage with their individual type of burlesque, ranging from monologues, acrobatic shows to dances and miming.

It was a wonderful feeling not knowing what to expect next as the whole show was surprisingly random, which made it that much extra fun and enjoyable! Just to mention a couple of the acts: there was the stripping yobbo man who turned out to be a woman, the amazing hula girl with the moustache, the psycho Hello Kitty and the electric Kiss Kiss robot dance. Apart from superb acting skills and facial expression, the music that was in sync with each performance was magnificent and really suited each act.

Here's what was on the menu:
* Kiss Kiss Looks for Love
* Valeshka, Queen of the Carnival
* Soup
* Hellooo! It's Kitys World!
* Victoriana - a gothic revival!
* Confection
* Argentina Gina Catalin
* Eve of the Night
* Hebi Onna - the Kiss of the serpent warrior
* Perals
* The Queen of Hearts

It was a fantastic show, thumbs up! Also, being able to enjoy it with a glass of Hanging rock merlot made the night that much more special! Can't wait till I go to another one :)

My weekend of Gyming & Baking (30.6.07 - 1.7.07)

Well...I'm ashamed to say...YES...I'm now officially a member of the evil FF (or aka. Fitness First) Empire that is slowing taking over the world *sigh*. Why?? Why have I betrayed even my own self beliefs?? Well...simply because....this whole full time work thingy m'jigy has reduced what little I had of a metabolism to ---> what metabolism...?? Seriously....in high school there were inter-school competitions and also PE classes. In undergrad. and honours there was lots of moving around between lectures, shopping between lectures....and just more activities in general. Now...there is 8 hours worth of sitting in front of a microscope, a cryostat, a computer or just sitting in the tea room (and sometimes the Phd room)! So, apart from the bad posture that i've picked up. I'm definitely feeling like a complete utter BUM. However, thanks to my good buddie Kazza..who is already a member of the evil FF empire...I have now found my place in the gym.

Apart from being a computer retard...surprise surprise...that's right! I'm also a complete gym retard. I went for the first time last Saturday...and couldn't really figure out how to program the treadmill or the cross trainer. For those people that know how these things work...it's actually really difficult to be running and at the same time trying to be co-ordinated, whether it's for changing your speed settings, getting your water bottle or simply your towel to wipe your disgusting sweaty face! But not to worry, I have booked myself in for an orientation session this Thursday...so I can be educated (this'll be totally interesting lol).

Regardless of my cluelessness this Sat, Kazza and I still had a good time at the gym! We then went to Replete, which is a really really cute, cozy cafe on Barkers Road for brunch. I got the Omelette and Kazza got the Corn relish! Must say...best food ever! After quickly dropping Kazza back home I rushed to my first ever physio session for my back. This deep tissue message thing is so brutal...and OUCHY! The physio also does this pressure point thing...by pressing on certain areas of certain bones....and it felt like he was literally going to crack me open! Anywayz, quick summary...lotsa pain...but afterwards..felt a little better...but at the same time totally bruised...hm....should i be going back for more???

After a quick shower when i got home....SeBear & Taba showed up at my door step and it was time for some scone making and afternoon tea! I've never made scones before...but they taste so so good and were surprisingly easy to make! (wah....i'm getting so tired now...but no bed time till I finish this blog entry otherwise it'll never happen, lol) How about we let the pictures do the talking:

fruit scones "before"

fruit scones "after"

fruit scones "cooling"

YAY! Afternoon tea time!

Oh, and Sunday was just a quiet relaxing day...nothing much happened..except I tried to make Apple & Blueberry Friands....that didn't turn out quite right. The texture was wrong..tasted more like muffins...even though i did a muffin tray but with lotsa almond meal...hm.....maybe I've gotta find a better recipe??