Hey IE users (or anyone else), does my sidebar appear down at the bottom for you guys? Or do my two columns appear side-by-side? Let me know!

P.S. And while we're at that, you really should be using Firefox. ;-P

OK, it's time for a new post before Perr and SY steal my limelight and take the birthday entry out of control. Gosh, you guys are good.

You know when you live away from your parents, it's not going to be one big party house. Of course there is the idea of the unmade bed, overdue laundry, microwave meals, floor so dirty you can't see the carpet, you get the idea. But (ahemanalahem) people like me think about things like eating my vegetables, getting the required intake of calcium and fibre, making my bed every morning, I do almost everything except vacuum the floor. I really am the responsible type, you know. Mum would be proud.

Ever been in those situations where you don't really want to do something but you do it anyway because you know it's good for you? Sort of like attending classes religiously. Or, for my case, buying apples when I really really hate apples. When I lived at home I would avoid eating apples if I could. Mum can take care of the health bit for me. But now, see, there are these moments at the supermarket when I think I really should stop eating pears and mandarins all the time (there aren't really other alternatives because it's wintertime). After futile attempts to trade my apples with my housemates - what do you know, they hate apples too - I found a recipe for apples that I liked. :-)

And yes, I'm going to share it with you. You don't even need to ask.

Ingredients!
- Four apples
- Cinnamon sugar
- Sugar
- Lemon juice
- Butter or margarine

Steps!
- Quarter the apples, marinade with 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Heat a non-stick frying pan with margarine. Cook the apples over medium heat
- Sprinkle 1 tsp cinnamon sugar, and 1 tsp sugar
- Cook till apples are soft, or to your liking
- Apples can be eaten warm or cold, served with ice cream

Enjoy! No pictures because I ate too fast.

And stop commenting on my previous entry!

Two friends share their birthday today. :-) And yes, I baked that. It's a carrot cake btw, and I forgot the icing. But the thought counts!

Fact: I like cookbooks.

Ok go ahead, laugh, snigger, act shocked, give me that "you're fucking kidding!" look. I'm being serious here. I do try out recipes I deem easy or interesting enough, and today was salmon.

I have a love-love relationship with salmon and will eat any form of it - cooked, or raw. Same goes with cod, though I've never actually seen cod eaten raw. Anyhow. This recipe I got from the book "French Women Don't Get Fat". It's sort of a diet-cum-cookbook where it teaches you how to have your (triple chocolate) pie, eat every last spoonful, enjoy it trememdously, and feel nary a bite of guilt. Obviously based on the notion that we hardly see pudgy french ladies around (not very true, but that's not the point).



So I got a medium-sized slice of salmon from Kailis Bros Fish Market along Oxford St in Leederville. Seafood lovers will go crazy in there. The place is divided into two halves: one side's one of those upmarket fish markets, the other is a seafood restaurant. Prices are of course higher than the supermarket's deli counter but since I was only buying a slice, it didn't make much difference.

Ok, so, ingredients:

4 pieces of salmon, about 100g each
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp salt

• Heat nonstick frying pan. Place salmon skin-side down, pour lemon juice, sprinkle salt, and cook for about six minutes over medium heat or until skin is crispy. Cut a slice to determine degree of cooking you want. Medium rare is best as it preserves most of the taste.


• Season with extra-virgin olive oil and a sprig of fresh thyme.

I skipped the thyme part but it was deeeeeeeelicious nonetheless. My fish turned out more cooked than I had intended but yeah, deeeeeeeelicious nonetheless. :-P

This is some "cool bananas". Haha. Image links to the story. Check it out!

Kids, knowing that you are consciously boarding the wrong bus and then catching sight of the correct bus an hour into your journey just totally and completely sucks.

Okay, bad analogy. So I should just explain my situation in plain English.

This semester, the one that's just over, I wanted to move out. I looked at four houses - three great ones, one not so great but liveable nonetheless - but decided to stay put because the houses were either out of my budget, or that I was the only female housemate. Being the only female bothered my mum, so for her peace of mind, I declined two houses.

Now I've paid my rental for the next semester and today my colleague, who is going off down south for a bit of fruit picking, tells me her room is available and it only costs $70 a week with everything included. The house is within walking distance of my campus, workplace, and shopping mart. A great house was sitting right under my nose and all I had to do was ask. Did I ask? Nooooo. I didn't even thought of asking. Sigh. Just kill me now.

I wish we could see such stuff in Singapore, it'd actually be pretty cool. Via AdNews (30 June issue):

Eat large

Health-conscious food outlet SumoSalad undertook some pretty clever marketing in Melbourne last week, staging a "protest" at the launch of a well-known US doughnut establishment. SumoSalad activists delivered a passionate message to all those queuing in line - don't become an obesity statistic by eating fatty junk food treats - eat a health balanced diet instead. Their message was delivered to hundreds of devoted doughnut fans that camped overnight outside Krispy Kreme. The stunt was coordinated by Sydney marketing agency Big River Creative.

It's attention-grabbing, bold, and entirely amusing. What's not to like? Even their website gives you full nutritional info of their salads and dressing, definitely scores some points there.

If you hadn't already noticed, the title "Romanticizing years ago" comes from one of John Mayer's songs. I have just about almost every CD or concert DVD this muso has released (seriously). The Beatles rank second but we're not talking about the Beatles now.

Call me slow but I recently discovered John's MySpace. Some fan huh. And just because I wanted to see his photos I went and made a MySpace space so I could log in and see John Mayer's photos. Some fan huh. Photos were disappointing, but hell, I could be John Mayer's friend on MySpace!

See, in real life, John is not even going to know I exist. But on MySpace, all I have to do is request to be John's friend and all he has to do is to say "yes"! No one says "no" to friend requests on MySpace, so why would John not want me to be his friend? MySpace is the coolest thing evar. :-) :-) :-)

On a slightly different note, yes, new album "Continuum" is soon-to-be released, and new single "Waiting on the world to change" is sooner-to-be released. You can hear it on his website, and of course, I love the new single. :-)

P.S. The title of this post is a reference to one of those (incredible) things John said in Any Given Thursday:

When you first meet somebody, you find out they like you, a friend of a friend of theirs say, he or she really really likes you, and it kills you, floors you, sends you to the ground, you've got to pick yourself up off the ground.

Then you get their phone number and you call them up, and you say "Yeah, that's a really great phone conversation, can I see you some time?" and then they say this, "I'd like that." Nothing feels better than "I'd like that".

So now, your blood pressure's goin', you're six feet off the ground, you can't sleep because of "I'd like that".

So then you hang out for a while, and you call and you talk on the phone all the time, and then you drop the bomb, or what feels like the bomb, you say, "You know what, I've been thinkin about you a lot." And she goes, "Ahhhhhhh!" And you go "What happened?" and she goes, "I'm sorry, I just, I just, I just, that's, I've been thinking about you too."

Bam. Higher into the sky. But now "I'd like that." Done. Now you're up to "I'm thinkin about you."

Then number of months pass, it makes you feel comfortable saying it, you say "I gotta tell you something." They go "What?", you go "I'm in love with you." And nothing in the world sounds better than "I'm in love with you." And then maybe she starts crying, or maybe he goes "*gasp*". And all the sudden you're like "I'm in."

But now what doesn't work? "I'd like that." and "I've been thinkin about you." Now we're at "I'm in love with you." Then maybe some day it'll move up to "I love you." Fast forward, now you're like "I love you a lot. I love you more than anything in life." Now "I love you." doesn't work. It's a threshold that keeps movin up.

Fast forward, like six months, six weeks, whatever the case may be, now you're on like, "I want to marry you." "I want to impregnate you with my love." "I wanna, I wanna just send my love to you." "Damn it, words don't work anymore." And then you say this line, and you know, you know you've used this line before, "I just wish they'd put a new word in the dictionary bigger than love because love just doesn't describe what I feel."

And so now he or she starts askin, "Do you love me?" and you start goin, "Of course I love you." "Well say it." And then it becomes "Say it twice." And it goes "Say it three times." And then, you cross a really interesting point, where all the sudden it becomes "I hate you, I hate you." And you go, "Oh my god she hates me." And now it's like "I hate you more than anything." And then it's like "We're over." And then they go "No we're not." And you go "Yes we are." Now the words completely do not work at all, you're left with nothing. You're throwing punches under water. You're done. You know what the moral of that story is, if there is one. Never, ever, ever, ever underestimate the power of "I'd like that."

The Art Gallery shop was having a 20% discount and like the typical Singaporean I just had to grab a Moleskine then. What is a sale for if not to buy on impulse? Anyhow I got the 2006/07 academic planner, 18 months of Moleskine goodness. :)

It wasn't til yesterday that I started penciling in the important dates, otherwise known as school holidays. Oh, and some birthdays as well, primarily mine. Not too happy about the age though. Not too long ago I was writing about turning 20 and now we're turning 20-something. And someone just turned 24 on 1st July too! Talk about old! :P

Birthdays aside, 22 June 2007 is the date for me. It's the day uni ends! If all goes well that is, and no last minute surprises like "Mum, I've decided to do an honours year". I don't reckon Mum will be able to handle it too well after she was dealt with a "Mum, will we be able to afford a degree in Australia?"