Iron chef!

The last time I lived alone was in my university days in the US. The interesting bit about US is that no matter how poor you are, you will still have a car. Why? Well the closest supermarket to my apartment was a good 10 minute drive away, thats why. Work was a good 45+ minutes drive and movie theaters were another good 20+ minutes away... well big cities like NYC are obviously exceptions but you get the point.

I must say one of the things I like the most about my living conditions in London is that the supermarket is only a 5 minute walk away! Then again... I do travel 20+ minutes to get some nice food also but the main point is that through these 5 months, I can "somewhat" confidently say that I have gone from hobby cooking to semi-skillful cooking.

I started with only grilling meat in september and I am now making orange sauce duck, seafood pasta, bacon wrapped scallops, etc etc. I am truly, truly enjoying this. I guess the scientist inside me never quite went away. Why? To start... it takes a great amount of courage to cook day after day when I was cooking was just horrible.

Take my seafood pasta for example, it has been too spicy, salty, tasteless, watery... everything that could have went wrong happened at least once. But the hkbomber is persistent. Time after time and I cook and cook. Now? I am giving myself a B-. Pretty good improvement from D and F in 5 months.

To further proof my confidence, I have already sent audition tapes to gordon ramsey's show, top chef, american idol (who said idol can only sing?) just in case my career after MBA doesnt work out. Yes I can!

The Pursuit of HappYness - part 2

I wrote about this exact topic almost half a year ago. Needless to say, I feel like writing about it again today.

Last time my point focused around smiling more and focus more on the positive aspects of life. The key word this time is "accepting". Whining and feeling like shit doesnt make our problems or issues go away. We live in a time when everyone is brought up to say no.

Some studies have shown that 80+% of the people find no a lot easier to say than yes. Of course! Dissecting and criticizing is far easier than appreciating.

Statement 1: "My boss is giving me more work again, seems like I wont leave work on time tonight."
Statement 2: "My boss is giving me more work again, its my opportunity to show what i can do!"

Much easier to think of statement 1 than 2. Much easier. What i am suggesting is that, everyone needs to start accepting the fact that things we dont like happens. We can go onto the internet forum or to your friends and bitch all you want, but the problem is still going to be here, so? Accept it. We might not solve the negative issues with a positive attitude, but at least we are happy in the process.

Slowly then... we can all learn how to ignore (accept) the negatives and focus on our positive energy.

...now if only I can source my positive energy to finish my 40+ pages of reading...

Been trying to scavenge something to write about all week but when all that is happening over the week was jetlag and coughing a lot, there really isnt much worth writing about. The quality of my blog shouldnt be lowered just because I feel the need to update.

Here are some quick album recommendation if you are bored"
Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
TV on the radio - Dear Science
Metronomy - Nights Out

Until next time

Kind of old news by now but I twisted my ankle fairly badly 2 weeks ago. Once again, it wasnt until I was limping badly until I realized how important my legs are.

How many times have we go through "no cherishish something until its not there" (is there an actual phrase for that?), we still do it. Taking things for granted is the default thing we do.

Here is a homework for everyone. Start showing more love.

Happy New Year?!

another year has passed and its time for everyone to get a fresh start in 2009.

i am obviously the minority here but aside from the crazy partying, i am not a huge fan of new years, why? i can honestly say that i have had some quality times for the past 4-5 years. for those of you follow my blog, this is because I prefer focusing on the positive aspects of life and dont let the negatives affect me. with that said, every new year still has the potential to ruin my string of consecutive good years.

the probably is low but the chance of a lot of crap happening within 1 year is bound to happen sometime for everyone, who is to say it wont be 2009?

Happy new year~

catching up

just in case if you are wondering how i spent my xmas week, here is a short summary:

Dec 23 - Sake sake sake. Finished a bottle of 1.8L sake between hkgirl and I
Dec 24 - drinking at a friend's till 4am
Dec 25 - 2 bottles of red wine between me and hkgirl, but we slept from 10pm till 11am the next day
Dec 26 - Beer'ing (i just invented this word) from 3pm till 1am, passed out immediately after i get home
Dec 27 - whiskey soda till 4am
Dec 28 - Just beer. sake. and some more beer from 7-midnight. I was playing it safe.
Dec 29 - White Wine. Sake. 1/2 Bottle o gin, some beer.

umm... x'mas week = hangover week

Happiness in financial crisis

By now if you are reading this blog, you should know that the world is in a financial crisis. So in other words, you probably also find out during your christmas shopping that everything is so much cheaper this year. Why? because all the shops are doing insane discounts cos of the "financial crisis" wooooooooooooo

while i know a lot of people have lost their jobs, the majority still have their monthly salary in tact. You are still getting paid...say... $10000 a month. But everything else in the world is cheaper. For example, I bought 4 shirts yesterday for the same price I would have bought 2 shirts last year in Christmas. Stores are doing never seen before level discounts and its up to us to take advantage of it

Shopaholic Heaven~