Flavours of South America

With samba music playing in the background and the deliciously marinated beef melting in our mouths, it was truly a dinner to remember.

Part of the 'Around the World in 7 Dinners' series continued with us *visiting* Latin America, where Jonathan and Les had arranged a good spread of dishes from that continent.

There was the Caraotas Negras from Venezuala and Brazilian style rice:-

Papas Chorreandas (Colombia):-

Aji Meatball (Uruguay):-

Chorizo stuffed roast beef (Argentina):-

There was also chicken in grape juice (Argentina) while for dessert there was Brazilian Creme de Papaya, which was tasted like papaya mixed with milkshake. Everyone agreed it was one of the best meals we'd eaten, although even this carnivore admits there was too much meat (not a single veggie dish!). Even as I write this, my stomach is struggling to digest the huge amount of protein ingested.

On a more serious note...

Yes, the IHMA Assasination Game is in progress, although yours truly was *killed* in the early hours of this morning (circa 1.00 am) thanks to Jason Wu. He cleverly enlisted my entire floor as his *spies*, who duly tipped him off when I went to brush my teeth at 1 am. Upon my exiting the toilets, he sprinted towards me and pounced on me with his knife. I had no choice but to surrender. I later found out that he had *eliminated* my original killer, Yu Ting an hour earlier. Two kills in one hour, that's pretty good!

A few hours earlier, my quarry had escaped me by an inch. I had chanced upon Daniel van der Merwe standing alone near the mail area, and deciding to use the element of surprise to my advantage; I jumped up on him with my knife. Unfortunately, the blade of my plastic knife failed to touch him; as he jumped about ten feet in the air hence my kill was not valid. What a shame.

Still, maybe Jason did me a favour (I thanked him after he *killed* me lol) as I don't have to walk around in fear anymore, and to me it's way more fun to play bodyguard to Sherry than to play murderer.

7th Heaven Part II

Chelsea 7 Aston Villa 1

What can I say? It was an irresistible performance by the Blues...My only regret is that I could not watch it live at home, but I'll probably stay up late and watch what could potentially be the title decider at Old Trafford next week.

The night was all Chelsea's, but the personal honours went to who else...FRANK :)

15'-Lamps opens the scoring with a low drive past Friedel, right-footed into the far post. 1-0 to the home side.

Frank draws first blood for Chelsea

29'- Carew smashes one past Cech. 1-1

44'- Zhirkov tripped by Collins in penalty area. Peter Walton points to the spot and Frank smashes it into the net to restore Chelsea's lead.

57'- Malouda scores to make it 3-1

62'- Zhirkov fouled again, by Dunne this time. Lamps converts the resulting penalty to complete his hat-trick, 4-1 Chelsea.

Hat-trick against Villa!

68'-Malouda's second goal. 5-1 to the hosts and Chelsea are running riot.

82'- Kalou drills one past Friedel from 18 yards out, 6-1

90+4'- Frank finds time to add insult to injury with his fourth of the game, it finishes 7-1 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Frank scores goal no. 7

MOTM: Frank (duh). Just this week, he was being criticized for not putting in enough effort in recent games and basically being made a scapegoat for our failure to reach the quarters of the CL. He's answered his critics in style, with today's rout bringing his season tally to 21 goals in all competitions and 151 goals for Chelsea, making him the club's 3rd highest leading all-time goalscorer.

Verdict: A job well done; 12 goals in 4 days is definitely a good way to bounce back from a difficult week.

Moving aside from Frank, yesterday was Earth Hour. Me, Daphne, Yu Ning and Mandy went to the Quad for star-gazing but unfortunately, it was an extremely cloudy night and we only managed to see 2 stars :(. So we went for our 3rd floor party where we had pizza and played Wii (sp?) WITH THE LIGHTS ON. Not a very good way to spend Earth Hour I'm afraid lol.

Beautiful Dreamer

Beautiful Dreamer (Stephen Foster, 1865)

Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me

Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee

Sounds of the rude world heard unto the day

Lulled by the moonlight have all passed away

Beautiful dreamer queen of my song

Lie while I woo thee with sweet melody

Gone are the cares of life's busy throng

Beautiful dreamer, awake unto me!

Yesterday was the first home BS of the semester, and we had ours at Peypey's place at Kingsford. Awesome food and company :) We cooked okonomiyaki which are basically Jap pancakes with toppings; and Jap steamboat with mushroom, radish, cabbage, tofu and beef as well. The soup from the steamboat was super tasty as they put loads of sake inside hehe. (Unfortunately), we took a little too long cooking the okonomiyaki and ended up only having 30 minutes to look at Luke 12 instead of the usual 1 hour!

How to cook okonomiyaki (Clain's recipe):-

One cup of flour

One cup of water

One egg

One cup grated/shredded cabbage

As much chicken/octopus/prawn as you wish

1. Mix everything together in a bowl

2. Add spring onion

3. Pour onto teppanyaki grill

4. Put bacon on top

5. Grill until brown

6. Put HP sauce and fried onions on top (mayo is optional)

And you're done! Simple and delicious. I am deffo trying it myself someday.

BPL:-

Saturday 20/3 Chelsea 1 Rovers 1

Wednesday 24/3 Chelsea 5 Pompey 0

(Chelsea go within 1 point of Man Utd with 7 more games to play)

Manly Again!

Today was our Bible Study group's *social* ie outing to encourage fellowship among our BS group members. Clain (who I suspect is default organizer of such social events) had planned a trip to Northead Santuary up north in Manly and I must say, good choice!

There were 11 of us: me, Mike, Andrew, Vivi, Su Faye, Jessica, Clain, Richard, Peypey, Jeff and Rachel. Unfortunately, Jack, Yilyn and Su Yi couldn't make it today.

(A/N: I know what you're thinking at this point in time, looking at the list of names- that's a whole lot of "Su-s!" 3 of us in 1 group lol)

7.30 am- Slept at nearly 2 am yesterday so this was an extremely ungodly time to wake up

8.10 am- Managed to catch 428 to Circular Quay. No traffic this early in the morning so the journey only took 10 minutes instead of the usual 25.

8.25 am- Almost walk past Mike, Rachel and Richard at Wharf 3 (to Manly)

8.37 am- Others still not here yet.

8.40 am- Somehow, they managed to arrive in time and we're right on schedule boarding the 8.40 am ferry to Manly.

9.30 am- Reach Manly. Head to Coles to buy snacks and supplies

10.00 am- Walk along Manly and Shelly Beach. Played weird version of netball called captainball (sp?). Snack on Doritos and have a good ole "getting-to-know-you" session.

12.00 pm- Peypey and Mike have to go back :(

12.30 pm- Long long LONG trek to Northead begins.

Taking a picture next to the 'Hole in the Wall'. From L to R: Andrew, Richard, Clain, Jeff, Jessica, me, Su Faye, Rachel and Vivi

1.oo pm- Reach cliff with beautiful scenery. Don't believe me? Take a look :)

1.30 pm- Reach WWI bunker

2.30 pm- Reach Northead Sanctuary visitor centre, also visited site of filming for "The Biggest Loser-Australia!"

Inside the Tourist Centre, with a giant map of Manly

2.45 pm- Reach Northead Point, the highest point of Manly which is on top of a cliff. Fantastic scenery of northern Sydney

The lovely ladies of Jack's BS group (from L to R): Jessica, Rachel, Vivi, Su Faye and yours truly

3.00 pm- Reach Quarantine Station to board bus back to Manly Wharf

3.15 pm- Go to McD's to buy ice-cream cones. Wait for Rachel to buy Ben and Jerry's.

3.45 pm- Rachel still not back yet. We're kinda pissed because we missed the 3.45 pm ferry

4.05 pm- Rachel finally returns and we board the 4.15 ferry back to CQ.

5.04 pm- Caught 426 back to IH

So that's what happened today in a nutshell. This little account however cannot describe the beauty of the scenery we saw today, the excitement of hiking 10km along a nature reserve, that anticipation of experiencing the unknown and of the suffering endured in the hot sun! But the view at Northead was definitely worth the walk (and climb!); and best of all was just getting to spend time with a group of such wonderful people.

CHELSEA OUT!!!!

OMG CHELSEA ARE OUT OF THE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!

Absolutely unbelievable! Damn Eto'o scores for Inter AT THE BRIDGE to make it 1-0 to Inter, and 3-1 on aggregate.

Jose Mourinho, we won't forgive you for this.

Carlo Ancelotti, we won't forgive you for making it the first time we have failed to qualify for the quarters in something like 5 or 6 seasons. Well, we might forgive you a little if you bring the PL trophy back to Stamford Bridge now that we don't have UCL commitments towards the title-run in.

Still in shock here. Oh the shame of it all.

Update

Omg finishing that O-Week post was a KILLER. So glad I've got it done so far.

There are lots of things happening at the moment but I'll keep it short and succinct because I really should be doing research for my MKTG 1001 Group Project.

Main Points of Interest:-

Subjects: Introductory Microeconomics (ECON1001), Digital Business Innovation (INFS1000), Accounting 1A (ACCT10011) and Marketing Principles (MKTG1001)

Most people are taking Econs and Business Statistics A (ECMT1001) this semester instead of INFS. Am quite pissed because at enrolment, they asked me to change from ECMT to INFS because the Dean "recommended doing INFS first". I suspect because ECMT was oversubscribed and they were trying to push some poor innocents to INFS. The plus points are that since they are so few people in INFS (approx only 300), the lectures are very small so it's more personal than normal ones; I'd probably rather *suffer* during the first term when the workload is still manageable and lastly, there will be loads of ECMT textbooks on sale next sem :3. Don't get me started on the negatives though hehe.

Timetable:-

Monday: There's Econs lecture (10-12 pm), Marketing lecture (2-4 pm) and INFS lecture (4-6pm). 3/4 lectures in one day so it's not difficult to see why the Monday Blues really affect me.

Tuesday: Mktg tute (10-11am), INFS Lab (2-3pm) and Acctg tute (4-5pm)

Wednesday: Econs tute (2-3pm), INFS Pass (4-5pm) then SUMS Rehearsal from 6.30-9.30 pm

Thursday: Acctg lecture (11-1pm) and Econs PASS (2-3pm)

Friday: Acctg PASS (11-12pm) and Bible Studies at UNSW (7-10pm)

Not really a full schedule, it's a well known fact Commerce students are the laziest on campus with only 12 hours. However, it is an equally well known fact that we have tons of reading to do outside lecture hours so we more than make up for this apparent deficiency. My lecturers are Elina Gilbourd (Econs), Dr. Kai Riemer for INFS, Geoff Fripp for Mktg and no fixed lecturer for Acctg; apparently they all take turns lol. My tutors are Nicholas (Mktg), Chris (Econs) and James (Acctg). I pretty much love them all, but my fav lecturer has got to be for Marketing; because Mr. Geoff really knows how to keep his audience captivated.

Interesting Trivia:-

1. The International Women's Day and Disco was last last Friday. I missed the dinner due to Bible Studies but returned in time for the disco. It was...interesting (?). I have no intention of turning into an alcoholic so I only had two cups of Coke and Vodka. The vodka didn't even get to my head, so we were beginning to suspect that they'd scammed us. There's a Flag Dinner and Disco again this Friday. The same thing is going to happen: Miss dinner due to church and come back for disco. Only difference is that I can't drink this week because of my horrendous cough (At this point in time, the author is currently stricken with a bad touch of 'IH Cough'). Sometimes I do feel extremely regretful that I'm missing so many formal dinners (I'll be missing two more next semester and one more in June) but I feel that Bible Studies is something of a commitment to God; and you can't just walk out of a commitment with God for material pleasures. God is merciful as well; I'm not missing every event; the IH Ball and the International Food Fair are on Saturdays, so cheers!

2. Last Tuesday was the first installment of 'Around the World in 7 Dinners- Pacific Region' and they served us kangaroo meat. I was horrified at first, but I must say, it was pretty tasty. It tastes like a spicier version of beef.

3. We're singing Mozart's Grand Mass in C Minor this term for SUMS

4. PASS sessions are pretty cool, they're a great way to meet new people

That's all for the moment, feeling quite lazy to blog now. GET BACK TO STUDYING!

Oh last note on Chelsea of course:-

Since losing to Man City, we've beaten Wolves 2-0 away, lost to Inter 2-1 at the San Siro and beaten West Ham 4-1 at home. Return leg for CL is tomorrow night I think. We're currently sitting second, a point behind Man Utd with a game in hand and level on points with Arsenal; ahead only on goal difference. Only 8 or 9 more games to go.

Okay so it wasn't that short or succinct. But yea, whatever haha.

O-Week

Starting backwards, since the photos were uploaded that way haha. Forgive me, the writing's a little haphazard as well because of the order of the photos.

Sunday 28th February

Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade at Oxford Street and CBD. Due to download limit, I've only uploaded three pictures...but you get the *picture* I hope.

Some of the floats on display

The only reason I managed to get such a good view was that Marian and I managed to squeeze our way to the front. It was so noisy and crowded; our hands got really tired from holding up our cameras to take pics. Thankfully, the crowd eased a little soon after and we managed to get to the second row; where we had a fantastic close-up. It wasn't all gay pride though; many groups took the opportunity to make their stands on certain issues clear: Taronga Zoo were advertising their "Save the Tiger" campaigns, there were demonstrations on marriage equality etc. But the parts of the parade with the transsexuals and gay men dancing (and almost baring all) were a little disturbing.

(Disclaimer: Please remember that just because I went for this festival does not mean I condone/support these kind of relationships. I just went for the experience. Period)

Saturday 27th February

Duck-Feeding at Victoria Park and Glebe Markets

There are no pictures of the ducks because there weren't any.

But here's Glebe market, a more localized version of Paddy's. It sells some pretty cute trinkets/souvenirs and stuff like second-hand books and clothes. After that, we adjourned to the IH Rooftop for ice-cream :)

Friday 26th March

AMAZING RACE!!!!!

That's all of us! Too small to label though... :(

Basic Stats:-

Team: BLU(E)

Group Leader: Jalal

Others: Lisa, John, Pawel, Edward and Aki

Finished: Second (Team Yellow won)

Distance Ran: 10 KILOMETRES!!!!

OMG. The Amazing Race was so much fun, but it was mega-tiring. I thought I was quite fit, but evidently not fit enough to run 10km!

There was about 30 of us, so we got divided into 5 groups of six: Teams Red, Blue, Yellow, Green and Orange.

The rules were quite simple: Cross the finish line first, complete the most number of tasks, finish all the extra challenges and you win. Marks out of a 1000. The IH organizers offered the team that could get a score of 1000/1000 a thousand bucks. Of course they dared to, the possibility of that happening was like 1/1000.

Oh God, things are NEVER that simple.

First stop, we had to run to Sydney Morning Herald stall in the Quad to get a look at today's headlines (additional challenge, more on that later)

1st station: Graffiti Tunnel, University

Task: Spray paint map of Australia, done by Lisa. Unfortunately, our water balloon got popped by Team Yellow meaning that we got marks deducted for that, so the 1000 bucks was out of the question (told you!)

Next stop: Victoria Park

Task: To feed bread to the eels with photographic evidence required. We managed to eventually coax the eels to the surface but the water was super murky, so we only managed a blurry shot.

Along the way, we stopped to take a pic with guards in uniform (additional challenge)

2nd station: BI-LO, Broadway Shopping Centre

Task: Put a condom on a banana to promote safe sex LOL

Walking to UTS

Next stop: UTS

Task: Find out what floor Vertigo newsletter office is located at. Damn UTS people all gave us the wrong answer (they were trying to sabo us!!!!) . Unfortunately, we misunderstood the task a little and thought they were asking us where Vertigo newsletters could be found. Thinking we would sabotage the other teams, we *smartly* stole away the entire stash of Vertigo at one booth and hid the rest.

3rd station: Central Bus Station

Task: Sing Ke$ha's "Tik-Tok". The Chinese tourists there must have thought we were escaped mental patients from the nearby Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.

Team Blu on their way to Paddy's Market

From back to front clockwise: Pawel, John, Aki, Lisa, Jalal and me :)

Next Stop: Central Rail

Task: Find out the price of an adult economy class ticket to some God-forsaken place. Photographic evidence required.

Next Stop: Paddy's Market

Task: Take a picture of Jalal with a wig. Since we were shoo-ed out of the first shop, we planned a smash and grab raid for the second wig shop. Luckily, we didn't have to do that, we just let Jalal *try* on the wig..unnoticed of course.

Next Station: Chinatown

Task: Yell out "Wo ai dian xin" at the top of our voices

Next Stop: National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour

Task: Decipher the coded flags (they spelt out Australian Maritime Museum)

Next Station: Darling Harbour

Task: Complete a quiz

Next Station: Pitt Street Mall

We actually took the monorail to Pitt Street instead of Pitt Street Mall, meaning we had to charge all the way up a few blocks to Pitt Street Mall; wasting a lot of time and which probably cost us first place. Due to our carelessness in solving the quiz at Darling Harbour and assuming it was Pitt Street, not PSM.

Task: Busk for songs. We sang "Tik-tok" again and the workers showered us with coins to get rid of us

Task: Find out the number of pedestrians crossing Pitt Street everyday (65000)

Next Station: Hyde Park

Task: Do the wheelbarrow around the fountain (bloody tiring)

Next Stop: Martin Place

Task: Find out the sculptor of the statue at the Reserve Bank of Australia

Next station: Circular Quay

Task: Walk to the glass elevators while being tied up with one-leg to each other. Seriously painful.

Last station: Opera House/Finish line. We were a few minutes behind Team Yellow. We had to wait half an hour for Teams Red, Green and Orange to finally show up! Since we came second, we were 100 points behind TY and since we roughly completed the same amount of tasks, we had mathematically no chance to usurp them and had to settle for second.

Additional Challenges:-

1. Take a picture with a bride and groom- Success. We did. Just that they were in a bridal magazine hehe.

2. Finish the crossword in the SMH - Failure. Edward and I got stuck halfway.

3. Stick the headline of the SMH on the forehead of 5 group members - Success

4. Take a picture with someone in uniform - Failure. Josh deducted points because someone's body was incomplete in the photo

5. Take a photo with someone in dreadlocks- Success. Taken at Central.

6. Take a photo with someone playing a musical instrument- Success. The first busker we approached at Paddy's was pretty horrible, but we managed to take a pic with some lady playing the violin in the city.

7. Take a photo with 5 of our group members soaking wet- Success

8. Take a photo of the group doing a human pyramid- Success

9. Take a photo of a glass staircase- Failure. We had no idea where to find glass staircases, apparently there was one at the huge Apple store on George Street.

10. Two members of the opposite sex in the group must swap shirts. - Success. I had smartly brought along a spare shirt, so I gave Jalal my shirt, and he wore Lisa's. Clever huh haha.

11. Keep water balloon intact- As aforementioned, failure.

12. Take a cheesy group photo, winner gets extra 50 points- Failure. Evidently, we weren't la-la enough.

Thursday 25th February

Went for some seminars in the morning I think, and the Coogee to Bondi beach walk was cancelled.

Max Brenner's at Newtown

8 pm- Went to Max Brenner's in Newtown with a whole bunch of IH people. Well, actually only a few of us (Yu Ning, Jenny, Renee, Esther and Marian) ended up at MB's as the majority went to the Irish pub Kelly's to sing karaoke!

That's the chocolate banana frappe up there, which costs $7.60. But well worth it.

Wednesday 24th March

The interior of the pub

Can you spot the crabs? They're really small!

Outside the pub :)

From L to R: Neil, Andy, me and Yu Ning

7 pm- Crab Racing at the 'Friend in Hand' pub at Glebe! It was a little bit stupid because we had to wait like 2 hours just to see 60 hermit crabs race the length of a round table, but it was still pretty good fun just soaking up the atmosphere of a neighbourhood pub. Oh and me and Yu Ning got soaked because they targeted us (we were hiding under the table to avoid getting splashed by the hose. I think they spotted us, and aimed the nozzle at us sheesh)

USU Stalls at the Quad

12-4 pm- USU Stalls at the Quad. There are over 200 clubs here, it's unbelievable. You've got the usual suspects like Commerce Society, Tennis Club, Engineering Society etc to the really unusual such as the Knitting Society, Rubix Square and Puzzles Society to even the Mr. Darcy Appreciation Society. I signed up for the AIME Mentoring Program, Debate Society, SUMS (Sydney Uni Musical Society ie the choir), and Co-op Bookshop membership. There was also SUMSA (Sydney Uni Malaysian Students Society) but I didn't sign up because I wanted to try something different. In between we had a welcome lunch at the Holme Building with all the other residential college freshers.

The Great Hall at St. Andrews

As you can see, St. Andrews has got an awesome campus!

9pm- *Breakfast* at St. Andrews, which was like a total dud. We were given to understand that we were going to have breakfast there, so we trekked ALL THE WAY there, only to listen to a thousand boring speeches by the heads of colleges; and to be told that breakfast, had in fact been cleared away at 8.30 pm. We ended up going to Hoochie Mama's in Newtown for brekkie, and then mana tahu we were locked out of the Great Hall where the Dean was giving a speech because we were too late. But I guess it was pretty cool taking a trip down to see what the other residential colleges are like. St. Andrews' grounds are beautiful, and everything there is so ancient and steeped in tradition. As you can see, the freshies even wear black robes.

Monday was my Faculty Orientation, can't remember what I did on Tuesday haha.

Saturday 20th March

Mardi Gras fair at Victoria Park, a precursor to the parade next week

Sunday 21st March

Day Trip! Went to Manly Beach with some of the peeps from IH. It was pretty cool, well worth the ferry trip and bus fare to go there. We mainly walked the beaches and or just flopped down in the shade, enjoying the sea breeze. Lunch however was stale fish and chips lol.

Aboard the ferry, from L to R: Esther, me, Nori, Anne and Tanya. Axel wasn't in the photo.

Manning Beach. It's beautiful isn't it :)

Sydney's coastline from the ferry. Picture postcard perfecto.

Note the different shades of blue..stunning