Joyeux Noel Monday, 25 December, 2006
Posted by paperdoll in places, prance.4 comments
Merry Christmas, darlings! It was very very cold in Venice. Pretty sight though. And I’ve fallen in love with squid ink pasta. Details and photos up later. I spent the whole of yesterday travelling (and waiting) from Venice to London. It’s Christmas Day, and nothing’s open, so I’m indulging in down time in the comfort of friends’ dorm room. Got to build up energy for the Boxing Day sales. Toodles! Enjoy the holidays(:
Yoghurt Outside My Window Friday, 15 December, 2006
Posted by paperdoll in places, ponder.4 comments
I have just completed a 4000-word paper in french. Hollywood entre Les Deux Guerres Mondiales: L’Influence sur Le Public Américain. Yes I did my research with books written in english (at the American Library in Paris near the Eiffel Tower) and yes I did my thinking and my draft in english too… but the paper in its final form is in french. Which means I spent the better part of yesterday and some of today translating it into french. It adheres to the famous unfailing format that ALL FRENCH use in presentations and papers. A plan that consists of an introduction and a conclusion, and in between, (and this is crucial,) 3 big parts each with 3 small parts. That is how it’s structured. Always. Isn’t it interesting how everything manages to fit this strict mould? Since this is my first very serious French dissertation for a very important history module (Media, Information and Telecommunications in France and the United States), I have decided to adopt the structure obediently. DONE! Ready to be printed and handed in Tuesday morning.
Right now, I have to continue revising for the very scary test I have Monday evening on France of the Belle Epoque. Essentially need to read/know everything about France between the years of 1896 and 1914. A lot of important things happened in those years, so there’s much to take in. Mad… but I’ll be okay\: And whether it turns out to be really okay or not, I’m off to Venice on Wednesday! Then onward to London! Then back to Paris to prepare for final examinations, which seem very far away, but really aren’t. I’ll enjoy myself thoroughly in Venice and London though! (And then for a while in Paris.) Then I’ll put off studying some more. And then I’ll panic and finally sit my butt down to revise for the finals. It’s a tried and tested process(: Procrastinate, then go psycho. Works.
It has turned very cold. 1 degree celcius today, with the sun shining. Marvelous weather for strolling, which is what I did for a bit after my morning class before coming back to cook FISHBALLS! With noodles (mee tai mak!) and beansprouts and bits of eggs and beancurd and gloriously pungent garlic. And then I had yoghurt. Yoghurt’s very good. Danone makes yummy non-fat no-added-sugar yoghurt. (Flavours: prune, peach, green apple, cherry, strawberry. All yum!) Now that the weather is so cold, I can leave my yoghurt outside my window (there’s a flat surface of substantial surface area right there). That means I don’t have to walk down the long corridor and down the stairs and to the kitchen where my shelf in the refrigerator is if I feel like having yoghurt. I find it funny that I can keep them little containers outside my window. I like that I can do that.
Tang Brothers Sunday, 10 December, 2006
Posted by paperdoll in places, possessions.4 comments
Has it been more than three months already? It’s December! The ninth to be exact. Which means that I have a scary test in nine days and a paper due in ten. Man I need to feel more antsy.
This morning, I set off for the Tang Freres (Tang Brothers or tang shiong!) Supermarket. It is the Asian products place in Paris, situated in the 13th arrondissement. I bought many make-me-happy things. It was time to stock up on the I-miss-these-from-home things, you see. My groceries were starting to look distinctly non-Asian. Once my supplies from the previous trip to tang shiong had run out, I’d been a lazyass and contented myself with buying groceries from the supermarket (Ed) that is five minutes on foot from where I stay.
So! In tang shiong, I laden my red plastic basket with dried guo tiao, dried mee sua, soya bean milk (Yeo’s!), firm tofu, silken tofu, beansprouts, salted soy beans, oyster sauce (Lee Kum Kee!), light soya sauce, black fungus, cinnamon cap mushrooms, abalone cap mushrooms, fishballs, garlic chilli sauce (Yeo’s!) and dried shrimp. And Asian fruits! Big big Chinese pears mmm.
Tonight, I’m cooking with/for a Singaporean friend and an Austrian friend who live down the corridor from me. Thinking chicken chinese-style! With abalone cap mushrooms and black fungus and carrots and maybe potatoes, with the chicken marinated in sesame oil and light soya sauce and lots of white pepper. Perhaps another dish. My two shelves (one in the fridge and one in my room) are filled with yum-yums after all- many possibilities!
Morphing Mug Saturday, 2 December, 2006
Posted by paperdoll in prance.12 comments
I love love love Grey’s Anatomy, but seriously, who doesn’t? Who can not love it? Seriously. (Get it get it? Grey’s Anatomy lovers will get it. Oh I am in love with the show.)
I didn’t like episode 9 (season 3) much. Did you? I think episode 10 will be better… it seems like it from the writer’s write-up on it on Grey Matter. Speaking of not liking, I really enjoyed the scene of Callie dancing in episode 2! It’s my favourite scene so far in season 3.
Like it usually happens when I’m supposed to be doing work, I procrastinate. Just a little… sometimes a lot. And procrastination involves watching Grey’s Anatomy. And reading the Grey’s Anatomy writers’ blog a.k.a Grey Matter. And guess what I read! That there’s a cup that reads McDreamy when cold and the lettering changes to McSteamy when hot! Too cool. And I went to check the product out, but the product description reads that it’s the other way round… that the cup reads McSteamy when cold and McDreamy when hot. I think the former makes more sense than the latter, don’t you? I mean, steam=hot!
And then I went to look at the other things available on the website, and I like the red Seriously. bistro mug and the red Seriously. thermos flask. Both very nice to look at.
Hmm maybe I’ll buy one of them. There’s nothing like online shopping (and watching shows and writing letters and reading magazines and wandering around and doing grocery shopping and cooking and rearranging things in my room and writing posts like I’m doing now) to while the time away instead of researching for my big essay or revising for my big exams.
