Today's lunch was chicken rice. The way they chopped and sliced the chicken was remarkable. It was only a small piece of chicken but it could cover the whole rice bowl.
In the evening, an old friend from "Program Analysis" class, WT, invited me to use Google's latest collaboration tool, Google Wave.
I accepted the invitation but I was too busy to learn what it is. Here is a youtube video about it.
Good Morning West-Coast ! I greeted. I am now in West-Coast area (according to the post office, it is the same as Clementi). The good thing is it is within working distance to my lab. The bad thing ? Yeah, there was a lot of things to unpack.
Knowing I have nothing to eat in the morning, before she went back, my Onee Chan bought me a pack of bread containing four loafs. The breads are spread with some meat floss (chicken I guess) and sugar coated. Those breads became my breakfast and lunch.
I realized I shouldn't buy many things - like shoes, furniture and cloths etc. I packed up half of my cloths (both new and PJs) into my luggage. Yet, I still have lots of cloths to iron (and wear). I decided I won't buy new cloths until someone gives me a coin - mistaking me as a begger. :P
Around 1630 hour, after shopping for grocery, I located the roasted pork resturant - where various parts of pig is available. I regarded it as my linner (lunch + dinner)
Today's chicken rice - again - with fried cabbage. I don't like Chicken Rice that much. But why ? The canteen was so crowded.
It was 1400 hours, I was hungry to the point where I was starting to get angry. Middle Eastern stall has a wonderful queue - they never had that long queue. Pasta guy, too, has his usual long long queue. Chinese stalls are also with longest queue in their life.
The only answer left - Chicken rice.
In fact, I had some problem going to the toilet this morning. Chicken rice alone would :P kill me. That's why there was fried cabbage.
One of my dearest friends' birthday was on October 16th. I only remembered today. I sent a belated birthday wish using G-talk off line message. He was one of the five of us who have the same word (meaning "Victory" or "Victorious" in Burmese) in our names. We were attending same mathematics tuition in our university days. Happy Birthday M* M* !!!
Today's Sunday, therefore, before I set off to school, I had KFC fried chicken (2 pieces) with coleslaw and root beer as my lunch. I've got some KFC discount coupon (through postage) thus, enjoying the discount. Root beer is a non-alcoholic beverage - which tastes a little bit bitter due to some Caffeine elements just like coffee - similar to ginger beer. At first, I don't like it but later on, its taste is, to me, becomes coffee and chocolate and I started to like it.
If you haven't tried root beer before, you really should try it. It's very famous in the States (at least the sellers claim).
Eeee ! I don't even have enough strength to blog. But a tiny voice in my head kept saying "Law Shay, duty is duty. Plus, blogging would relieve your suffering." Therefore, I am writing this. Is it something they call a depression ?
I stayed late last night. To counter my dizziness, I decided to take the soup-based meal again. In the canteen - which is quite close to school's clinic - I found "Wine Chicken Noodle". It contains some vegetables - probably cabbage, chicken soaked in wine and noodle in a clear delicious but smelly soup. In some restaurants, I found it is named "Drunken Chicken Noodle" or alike and charged much. However, school canteen is just school canteen and it was just $2.00.
Umm ? The wine ? No, not that expensive wine. It was cooking wine just $3.00 a bottle. :P
It may be due to prolonged sleeplessness - I prone to fall sick if I am sleepless - the stress built-up. This evening, the experiments gave me mixed results. My new work is a hybrid of a simple one and a complex one and, like many hybrid works, its performance is in the middle to those two. Now, I am very afraid - not afraid about being scolded (my supervisor would never do that) but about having wasted nearly a year working on this good-for-nothing algorithm.
I wanna cry but tears won't come out. I noticed that I have some stress fatigue as well as some depression. It was a good thing that I noticed - rather than going unnoticed. I rang two of my Onee Chans to talk out. Luckily, R* - remember who's some problem with the loan sharks - rang me too. I spoke out and felt a little relieve. I decided to keep talking out - hence writing this post.
After this, I'd e-mail my findings (the mixed results) to my supervisor and go to bed. I am quite ok now. (Sorry, my reader, for unloading my stress onto you)
Today's a long day. I had two visitors at school.
The first one is my new - sworn - younger sister. She's really like a child - yet she's just 3 years younger than me. She asked me if it is possible to visit me during my work-hour. I don't want to resist this poor kid. However, I can't help but ask her sit (and read some magazines) at the lobby while I was sweating in my lab. She obeyed ! How cute !
I bought her some special rice from middle-eastern outlet. It is so similar to so-called "butter-rice" from Burma (but the Burmese version has dried grapes, many nuts etc). It went very well with vegetable salad and chicken curry. So yummy - except you feel a little bit sleepy after consuming it. After another hour of sitting in the lobby, she started to complain about being so bored and she went back home.
Another guest was R* (it is not his real name in his passport). He's a genuine friend of mine - and a good friend of my brother. It has been like at least 20 months since I had met him last time. He's now in big trouble - with losing jobs again and again consecutively in last year. He's also dealt with some loan sharks - Singapore loan sharks are terrible people if you owe them money. He has to hide at his friend's place for the sake of his life - here, I had to censor his story a little bit as well as conceal his hiding place etc.
I felt bad for him yet I am just a student who's always struggling to meet ends. Good luck my friend.
Finally, the new episode of coding - re-write - has eventually done. Now, it is time to see when - under which circumstances - the performance of my proposed algorithm is better than previously developed two.
I am also wishing my program good luck !
Yesterday, the problem took longer than I expected to solve. I got back home by taxi very very late last night (or should I say very very early this morning.) I got up at around 1000 and my lunch is fused with my breakfast - becoming brunch.
My brunch was rice with fried chicken and some vegetables. After that, I headed down to my lab.
Today's lunch is Chicken Rice. It tasted awful.
Now I found myself with nothing to eat in Singapore. All Chicken Rice taste the same; Nasi Lemak makes me sleepy; items from all economical rice taste similar; European food makes me fat; Prata - and Indian food - is banned by Onee Chan as they would make me fat. What the hell should I eat ?
The root of the problem is oil-phobia that Singapore Chinese girls have. That prompt the food outlet to use less and less oil - to the point where all dishes have "I put some oil, I swear" amount of oil. The use of salt is also sparse because they want their dishes - one size fit all. Those who want salty food can take the fish paste. For me, fish paste is a bad choice so ... I AM EATING NO SALT FOR DAYS !!!
Today's (yesterday's) lunch is Malay noodle (Burmese version) at my aunt's place. It is good - for it is cater to our taste bud in contrast to authentic Malay's. :P The whole afternoon afterwards is coding and coding. Nothing interesting, let's pass this part.
Take a look at it :
It is in America - the United States of America ! There was a G20 summit around September 25th and there was demonstration. The D.A (I think he/she is the one who's responsible in such cases) decided to use force (read riot police). The riot police was trying to crack down the mass. You know, riot polices worldwide are similar. They don't make decision and it is unwise to reason with them, argue with them or try to win a favor from them (by doing whatever you want).
My advice (actually my dad's) is when you see some trace of riot police, leave that area immediately. They don't make decision. Thus, never ever try to talk with them. If you must do/talk something, D.A or the Judge in charge (it varies from country to country) is the one you want to talk.
In short, riot police are always deaf - no matter what you do (even if you pay them homage as if they are your religious symbol).
Today's (sorry) Yesterday's lunch was Hokkien Mee at 1630 hour. So late. It is all because of that damn Visual Studio 2008.
I installed VS2008 - as my Mr. Microsoft-Attorney roommate told me its Intellisense is way much improved - into my Vista powered laptop only to find I can neither debug my applications nor the Project Properties came up. I had to remove it and re-install my good old VS 2005 which took my whole afternoon. (I also had to patch VS 2005 for Vista, geez)
That's why my lunch was at 1630 hour.
I learn that $3.00 Hokkien Mee is with chicken while $4.00 Hokkien Mee is with seafood. I thought the noodle amount is different but it turns out to be false (yet, the shape of the plate is different - round for $3.00 and oval for $4.00). Since I can get food-poisoning when I consumed seafood, $3.00 Hokkien Mee is both economical and healthier choice for me. Yummy !
Today's lunch is Lemon Chicken Rice with salted egg. There are a lot flavors of Chicken Rice here in Singapore, Roasted Chicken Rice (which seemed to be the original), Steamed Chicken Rice (the healthy version I guess) and Lemon Chicken Rice. In Malacca, I have found Chicken Rice Ball - which replace the rice part of Chicken Rice with processed rice ball - finer than Shan Rice Ball. Lemon Chicken Rice is in fact, Fried Chicken - just like KFC - spread with Lemon Juice. It is yummy given the hot weather here.
Having my lunch, I was thinking if I can make Burmese Fried Chicken and rice mixed with oil used for it - it is so delicious and healthy choice (especially for those weak recovering patients) - a signature dish. Normal chicken rice makes the rice sticky with the fat from the chicken and hence, is hard to digest. In Burmese version, the chicken would be fried until it is dry so the fat will not be in the Chicken. Instead, the fat will get into the oil. However, the resulting oil that we used to mix with the rice won't be as thick (we will use healthy vegetable oil). Bingo !
It is possible to make a signature dish I think, how do you think ? Huh ?
Take a look at this. On September 22, it will be the half-way of the Sun's journey to northern to southern hemisphere. Guess what ? We are, in Singapore, which is a little bit north of Equator, damn hot here like hell ! I lost some appetite.
Today's lunch is rice, black pepper chicken with mushroom, fried cabbage and some vegetables. The taste is not as good as usual. May be it is because of the bad weather.
Update : it rained in the evening. What a relief !
Today's lunch is Chinese food - rice with fried chicken, tofu and vegetables (I couldn't name it again). Having my lunch I was thinking about the ATM and cash deposit machine.
Yesterday, my land lady told me about her experience in DBS - she couldn't open an account using her driver licenses. I remembered that I used to withdraw my money from KBZ bank (in Myanamr) using driver licenses, student card and all other identity cards with/without photos you can name. At least DBS should be more flexible in depositing the money - anyway, it's no harm as they are given the money.
The cash deposit machines too (also OCBC). You need to be their card holder to deposit money into one of their accounts. Let's say, I have a son who has an account with DBS and I'd like to give pocket money to him. If I don't have my ATM card, I can't deposit money into his account as all deposit machine need the user to enter his/her card and PIN before any transaction. This is partly to protect the customers but the bank should give some liberty and responsibility to the users sometimes.
Again, NUTS.
Today's lunch is, with J.M, Japanese food at the only Japanese cafe on campus. I had Kutsu Curry (Chicken cutlet is given a Japanese name Kutsu). It is a fusion dish with Malay curry paste. But the soup, the rice etc are purely Japanese. I feel upset while having the meal. The truth is "I Hate Japanese Food ! "
That Japanese Stall implement a new style of self-service dining, in which you need to tick the order form and present it to the cashier whom print you a receipt by which you can redeem your food a little bit later from the queue. The advantage of this system is many people can see the menu and make their decisions simultaneously. In older system, the diners need to queue wasting some time.
However, I decided never to take Japanese food again. It's simply not my type. I regret every time I have it, yet I tried on and on. I only like wasabe - but it is not essential for me.
Today's lunch is two part, a bowl of instant noodle with chicken ham at home, before my shower, and KFC fillet burger meal on my way to my senior's home. My instant noodle is curry flavor and I decided not to buy curry flavor anymore as I choked once eating the noodle.
In Singapore, the hosts asked "Are you kidding ?" after seeing our meal. The ratio of our curry/rice consumption is way too low for them as we have lots of rice with a small amount of curry. We, Burmese, also would like to ask "Are you kidding ?" to those Burger outlets as the standard burger size here is way too small - just four bites and it's gone!
I believe burgers should be large - large enough for at least 6-7 bites - and it should contain cucumber, tomatoes and mayonnaise. Here, burgers are buns with some meat in it. You are way too lucky if you have some sause in it. So ridiculous. I really miss Rangoon Burgers.
Since today's Michael Jackson's birthday, radio DJs played his songs as a tribute. Tonight, we'll have a TV broadcast of his show and a film length performance in cinemas. R.I.P MJ!
