Mummy's plastic mango cake

Last Saturday, we celebrated Mummy's birthday with a mango covered vanilla sponge cake. Sigh, the mango cake looks amazing before cutting, like the ones you see in cookbooks. However, when Mummy tried to slice it, the mango layer peels off like a kind of plastic. It adheres stubbornly to the knife. After desperate attempts to save the mango layer, we have to be contented eating the sponge cake part only. Oh well, so much for a mango cake.

To Mum,
You are my invisible strength. Like an Ethiopian jewel, your beauty and grace inspires me each day. Thank you for persisting through the difficult moments, you are an epitome of a perfect mother. I am blessed because of you.

Hoey Lit

Anime: Air Gear

Imagine extreme roller blading sport going up a new notch where riders can fly in the sky. In a sense, not exactly fly like a bird, just way better cuz you get to flip and twist and make 360 degrees turns while in the air. Air Gear starts with Ikki-kun discovering AT (air treks = roller blades with motor, cool eh) after watching Simca (a pink hair babe who got all the guys drooling). His learning process and obvious flying talent were chronicled in this manga. While Ikki-kun's stunts and childish character will keep you glued to the pages, there are many more unusual characters that will pique your interest e.g. Akito/Agito (shown in the above pic) is ultra kawaii when he swears (don't imitate him though), Bukka-kun (keeps a pool of blood in his stomach, huh???), Crossaint Mask (she is an original, haha). Ringo, the spectacled girl is in love with Ikki-kun is very good with AT too. You go, girl! There are roads and 8 kings in the world of AT. As you can guess, Ikki-kun is destined to be one of the kings. The question is will he be the ultimate Sky King beating all the rest of Fang King, Thunder King, Thorn Queen etc?

Continuous Assessments (aka Tests) Festival

I am pretty much stressed right now and blogging to relieve it. So, bear with me.

Precedent to the Nobel Laureates exhibition later this month, NUS is having its unofficial Continuous Assessments Festival this month. All students, including me, are experiencing a new level of high with its programme line up. For some of my peers, it is the multiple projects mixed with a few tests. For me (and majority of the NUS population), we are struggling with 1-3 tests weekly. Last week, I had Jap test. This week, I had FNA test and now I will burn midnight oil for the tough Immunobiology tomorrow. To add the fun, I have my weekly Jap and FNA tutorials, Technoprenuership readings, Microbiology reports to be finished. Adding to that, I must do my TR project (completed last week, thankfully) and FNA project on Creative financial statement. Next week, it will be Microbiology test and after that, Pharmacology test. I am positive that my Jap oral test will be next.

Good thing, there are also three marriages and many birthdays this month. Good occasions for releasing tension. Congrats, Willie and Wen Ci, Victor and Pey Pey, and Kaya and err...hubbie.
October is a happening month, I must say so.

Taman Negara getaway

Buddhima, Bala, Aravind, Lyd, Michael, Ayla and I had a hilarious trip in Taman Negara. Despite our rather diverse group (with people from Sri Lanka, Singapore , Australia, Malaysia and India), we had a lot of fun due to the happenings and mishappenings during the trip. What did we do? We started by strolling the canopy walkway, pretty much walking on extremely long bridges with nothing to see but green leaves beneath us. We caved the Gua Telinga. Since it was rainy season, the cave was slippery, half the time we were crawling on wet and guano-coated rocks. The bats above us keep dropping guano on us in true nuclear bombing style. When we got out of the cave, Bala concluded that "We are full of shit". An apt description of our emotion and physical states then.

Aravind is the most comical being that i know, who manages to be funny while retaining a cool composition (Coming up close after him is my dear Pharmaco lecturer, Prof Moore). I just can't capture the funniness in words, but trust me, if you were there, you would have laughed til your ribs hurt.

In our overnight stay in Bumbung Kumbang (the animal hide), we saw nothing but civet cats, jungle rats and heard barking of invinsible dogs. So much for sighting JUNGLE animals e.g. tiger. Buddhi poured beef curry on strategic spots below our hide, hopping to attract carnivores. Well, he successfully attracted a few civet cats that apparently like Indian food. Lyd, who is a self professed city person, proven her statement by mistakenly identifying flying fireflies in the sky as stars and said "hey, the stars here twinkles more the ones in the city". That sleepless night peaked with a jungle rat biting Bala's toe, probably out of frustation because it can't find any food on his wooden bed.

We also hiked to a nearby isolated waterfall. OOh, beautiful, calm waters. Everyone had enormous thrills when they jumped from a higher rock into the extremely deep water including Bala who couldn't swim except me :( I regretted that I let my fear of deep waters got the better of me then. Too late now. Sigh, I should have jumped. Still, the waterfall spot is a first class area for gamboling and lazing around.

Michael, the monkey of the group, had his first Nasi Lemak. Once again, the humble Nasi Lemak has found another fan cuz Michael describe it "The weirdest dish with fish eyes staring back at you and peanuts eaten with rice that taste very good".

I love this trip. I'll be back, Taman Negara ...next time, it'll be for Gunung Tahan (probably with my mountain-crazy sister).