Wildfires

It's been an exhausting two days. Which is weird, considering that I haven't done anything much at all, other than watching the news. It's all so surreal. I woke up yesterday morning, preparing for work as usual. I groggily check my mail, and saw an email from my boss that told me to be careful, and to protect my data. My initial reaction was WTF. And then, I realize something was amiss. I turned on the tv, and almost every channel reported the wildfires taking place here. All the places I went to the night before, and got lost in (was trying to find this buffet place) are burnt up! The news told everyone to prepare to evacuate, and I found myself at a complete loss. I don't know where to start packing. Finally, I bunked up my car with my clothes, shoes, bags, and belongings. Jenn came over and we watched the news together. We saw the fires coming closer and closer, and Jenn's area became under mandatory evacuation. It was unreal. We heard news that they were out of gas up north, cuz everyone was pumping gas like no tomorrow, and when I went to the grocery store to get rations, the cashier got annoyed at me for getting cashback, because apparently everyone was doing it, and they have no cash for change. The air outside was stinky, and smelly, and everytime I ventured outside, there was a layer of soot on me. When night falls, I was pretty nervous, as the evacuation areas became closer and closer. My friend Eveline came over, and we watched the news in silence. I tried to sleep, but it was eluding me. I was just so tense. I never had to deal with any form of catastrophe in Singapore. A slight tremor of a faraway earthquake in Indonesia will hit the headlines of local news for two weeks. It was just so bizarre, being stuck with the situation that you would think: This might be it.

Today, the winds died down a little. The humidity is still like crap, like 9%, but at least the winds are not blowing that strongly anymore. That, and aircrafts are dropping water bombs on the fires today (They couldn't fly due to the strong winds yday). Hopefully, this will pass and leave us in relative peace. A lot of my friends are leaving town though, which is pretty ruthless. School is out for the rest of the week, but I have to go to lab on Thursday. Oh well. Better than no school to go to.

What if...

Today we had the usual Thursday happy hour at my lab. Every Thursday, we'll go to the cookout pit overlooking the La Jolla cliffs, and cook steak/chicken, lay out different sorts of cheeses, and eat them with copious amounts of bread and wine and beer. So today, Jerold (my professor/boss) came to happy hour, after flying a 20 plus hour flight back from Prague. It's been a long time since he's joined us, as he's been traveling around for the last 5 weeks attending various conferences. So we were talking about random stuff, and he said this to me: I'm glad you're doing something with your life, like getting a Ph.D, instead of relying only on your looks. And that got me thinking. First of all, I never thought I was hot enough to be one of those money-laundering bitches who suck the money off their rich-ass-soon-to-die hubbies. Secondly, I was just thinking in general, what if? It dawned on me that my life, till this point, was just a very natural progression. I grew up in a city that emphasized greatly on grades - hell, they even segregate the students to Special, Express and NORMAL? I cannot think of a more deprecating word than NORMAL to describe a young promising kid. But anyways, so I grew up big on grades. And it's convenient that I did well in school. And so I studied hard 'cuz it was "important" and I was good at it. And then the chance for a scholarship came by, and at that point, I was more like "why not?", and it was only during the second round of interview that I realized that my scholarship was for studying overseas. I took the plunge, and managed to make the cut to progress to graduate school, and so here I am. I mean, don't get me wrong. It's not that I'm not interested in the subject I'm doing right now. It intrigues me in ways I can't even put in words. But it's just such a wonder that I never broke off from the norm, or what I'm supposed to do. What if I didn't study hard, and I wanted to take up uh culinary school rather than college? What will I be doing now? Will I be happier than how I am right now? There's just so many possibilities in life, you can never know for sure which path is the one that guarantees the optimal level of happiness. Well, I'd never know now, will I?

Piano! And pole!

So it's been a crazy weekend. I didn't plan it to be this way, but it turned out somehow to be as such. Went with a couple of my Singaporean guy friends to PBBG on Thursday. Clint wanted to be comfy with socializing with random people, so he wanted me to bring him there. Two seconds into the bar, he successfully disappeared into the crowded, leaving Jason and I trying to find him. Finally found him at this table of girls, where the girls were giving him odd looks and him rambling away. I dragged him away, but somehow the next time he went out of our sight, we observed him from a distance, and it's pretty remarkable. Talking about the literal definition of a social butterfly. He went through ten tables in like five minutes. We can't pick up what he was saying, but he was gesturing wilding and exchanging high fives with the people. Seems like he doesn't need any practice after all. -___- One of the tables were actually seated by my friends, so I went by to say hi. Ended up bumping into a few groups of friends so it was pretty fun. And I FINALLY FOUND OUT WHO SONYA IS? So I have this girl in my phonebook that's called Sonya. I cannot remember, for the love of God, where I know her from, and how I got her number. Renee thinks that I got drunk and just gave my number to some random girl.... but anyways, Renee and I have been trying to lure her out (which is pretty easy, cuz she calls me to ask me out to a bar all the time), so that we can know who she is. I tried baiting her to let out more info over the phone, but somehow, her comments are super non-descriptive, leaving me with no clue who she was. So, she came to PBBG on thu! I pretended that I couldn't see her in the crowd, and she patted me on the shoulder. Turns out that I met her a few weeks ago in PBBG in the bathroom, and I complimented her on her hair. Hohoho, end of mystery! That was completely random, but anyways... back to my weekend. I went out with my classmates to Dave and Busters on friday, cuz a bunch of us have never been there before, and it seems like fun. I got so engrossed in the shooting games, and had a pretty good time watching the guys play, but Jenn got so bored. Jenn and I were the queen of skeeball though, hohoho. We completely trashed the guys. It was funny, cuz we didn't wanted to go on the bikes cuz we were wearing matching denim miniskirts, but Tom said he'll take off his jeans to go on the bikes with us. So we did, and he took his jeans off! We had to wait for the security guards to walk by, but tsk tsk. Not very becoming of a graduate student. And yes, his boxers were intact. It was still fun though, cuz I saw this girl's eyes pop out when she was walking by. Heh. I got my pole in the mail today, so I installed it. Actually Mike did (thanks Mike! but if I die from some instability of the pole. it's all your fault. Haha.). Haven't been able to practise on it cuz my roommate's bf is over for a visit... will get to it when he's gone. On a sidenote, I went with Jenn to get an electric guitar and I got a digital piano too. Heh. Totally unintended but... it's so pretty! And it sounds like a real piano. The weight of the keys is exactly that like a piano too. I managed to get a massive discount on the piano cuz the guy helping me was really helpful. And when I couldn't fit it in my car, he told me that he'll take care of it, and ended up driving up to my house in his car with my piano! And spent an hour assembling it for me. Hehe. Such service. Jenn was grumbling why she never get service like that ever... lol....

http://www.casio.com/products/Musical_Instruments/Privia_Digital_Pianos/PX-700/

Tadaaa, anyways it's sitting pretty in my room, and I've been practising the whole day. Trying to get my basics back, and familiarize myself with the scales. My intention is to learn all my favorite classical pieces before I die. I'll prolly have to put off the massive piano playing till my minor presentation is over tho... though it's so tempting though... My original plan was to take 3 months off after I graduate and go into seclusion and do nothing but play the piano. Guess I'm bringing forward the plan... :)

Minor oh minor

So it's crunch time for us right now, given that we have to submit the written proposal this Friday. Being the ever-hardworking and constantly motivated person I am (hoho), I have already done that three weeks ago, and have been meeting up with my professors to get their opinions on it, and work towards getting their approval on my minor. Actually, it's more like I'm perpetually stressed over work. I'm kinda happy cuz my committee members have given positive feedbacks, and the professor I met up today said that I'm perhaps the most efficient student he's ever been on the committee for. Yay! Anywho, I'm writing this blog because I'm fairly amused by all the gmail nicks my classmates are putting up.

John: Just about to start on my minor!
Mike: Writing it all tonight.
Tom: Minoring
Diego: Minor??.. MAJOR BS RATHER!

Ya, I love my classmates. Always there to keep me amused. Ha.

Shopping teams!

So I came across this comic, and for some reason, bad team reminds me of Jenn and me, and the good team reminds me of Renee and me. Heehee.

Must not drop the soap!

Okay this post is going to be the whole of five lines, but my friend Mike just cracks me up constantly. This latest comment he made, I thought was pretty hilarious. We were talking about whether guys have to worry about safety, and he goes...

mikesong02: i don't think guys generally have to worry about these kind of safety issues
mikesong02: unless they're in prison
mikesong02:in which case, must not drop the soap
SeRrA212: HAHAHAHA

Ya, I thought that was funny. And pretty true. End of post. :P

Food blog reprise

Hey all,

So I am bored on a Saturday night, and just got back from this fabulous French restaurant. It's located in Rancho Bernado, one of the millionaire spots in San Diego. Went to this place called "El Bizcocho", which boasts of a very young and accomplished French chef. Apparently he represented US in one of the esteemed French culinary competitions in France early this year, and walked away with an award, making him the youngest awardee ever. The restaurant is situated in this golf resort called the Bernado Inn, which is a very fancy resort indeed. But anyways, back to the food. It was pretty good. We started off with a complimentary taster. It's a small vial of chilled leek and potato soup, and it was REALLY flavorful.
Next up, I had the walnut crusted foie gras. It was really good, albeit the small portion. The mango and microgreens really brought out the sweetness of the foie gras, and the foie gras was moist enough and melts in your mouth. The sweet toasted white nectarine brought a very sweet finish to the whole dish. My only complaint is that the foie gras could be a little warmer.
The second course I had was the lobster "not so bisque" consommé. The stock was flavorful, but what really got me was the mould of onions, celery and carrots in the middle. The consistency was like that of tofu, but the sweetness of the onions made up for the lack of that in the lobster stock, and complimented it to perfection.
The main course I had was a medley of lamb, made up of braised lamb leg on a bed of spinach, goat cheese croquette, and lamb au ve vide (poached) in capellini. It was reeeally good, though I felt that the lamb was not seasoned enough, and rather bland. I have to say I prefer Jenn's maple leaf seared duck breast a lot more.
We finished off with freshly baked Grand Marnier souffle, topped with vallina bean sauce. It was nothing short of heavenly- the crust was light and fluffy, and the Grand Marnier at the bottom wasn't overwhelming, and paired really well with the vanilla bean sauce. In short, a goooood meal. :P

On a sidenote, I was at W hotel downtown (was partying), and I saw this sign, which I think, only Singaporeans get the joke. :POn another note, I went to the Fish Market at Del Mar the other day, and it was really heavenly. Fish lovers should really try this place. The oysters are really fresh and meaty, and the fish is superb. I had the swordfish, and I swear to God, that thing melts in your mouth. The grilling was done to perfection, and the potatoes and tossed cherry tomatoes with basil were pretty good as well. Go there if you want a good and hearty meal. I'm definitely going back for more of that succulent fish meat. :P