Just joking

Today I happened to be deleting a message from my phone (one of those advertisements) when a colleague passed by. He suddenly said to me, "I'm just joking, just joking yeah..."

I braced myself for some comment about my phone... but instead he asked, "Are you going for interview?"

I had forgotten that I had chosen to wear a shirt today...

You see, I sometimes take one of my formal shirts out to wear, because otherwise they would just stay in the closet forever. Seeing as our office dress code is "free dressing", and most people wear a t-shirt and jeans. And this particular colleague has always commented every time he sees me wearing something other than a t-shirt and jeans.

Sometimes I just give him an exasperated look, or a heavy sigh... which is why it started with the "just joking" comment.

Anyway... the conclusion here is that I get more comments on my phone than on my clothes. Since that was the first thing that came to mind... :P

The helmeted bears

A few days ago, I say two bears sitting on top of a lorry cab.

One bear was wearing a motorcycle helmet, and the other was wearing a hard construction hat. (Not sure whether that particular hat was hard, or a soft version made for a soft toy to wear :P ) I believe at least one of them was wearing clothes as well.

As with most teddy bears on lorries (some lorries have a tiny bear hanging on its rear bumper, or below the chassis, between the rear wheels), they were well worn (should I say weather-beaten?). I wish I could have gotten a photo, but since I was driving (I was on my way to work in the morning), the lorry passed way too quickly for me to capture the moment.

A new kind of meditation?

This morning I went to the market, and I saw a group of people doing some new kind of activity.

I usually park my car and then cross a small park to go to the market. In that park, there are sometimes people doing taichi/aerobics, and people playing games (a group of foreigners playing cricket, if not mistaken). Today when I reached the park, there was a group of middle-aged men and women doing some stretching.

On my way back, they had formed a row facing the bushes. (a zig-zaggy one, since the bushes were a  bit zig-zaggy) Each had their hands in front of them, palms together. The bushes were a bit taller than the average human, so they were each fully facing the bush, and fully blocked by the bush (if you're on the other side, of course)

As I walked past, I heard one of them (presumably the leader) saying, "Not just here, but people all over the world are doing this now!" And then, "Some people do this for at least half an hour!"

So does that mean that they are supposed to hold this pose for as long as they can? Strange activity... but if it's being done all over the world, maybe I'll hear about it some day...

Of pillows and keropok

The other day, my father bought a huge pack of Snek Ku pillow biscuits. You know, the ones that are puffed up like a pillow, and empty inside? (Just take a look at the bottom-right part of the photo if you don't get it.)

Click on the pic to see it bigger.

Anyway, what's interesting here is that the package has so many different snack names on it. Usually when you see this kind of printing on a package, they are for different languages. But all these were in Malay!

I know the pic isn't clear enough to see all the words, so here are the different kinds of snacks listed on it:
Keropok berperisa ayam
Keropok berperisa bercili
Keropok berperisa biji cili
Keropok 3 in 1 
Keropok berperisa ketam
Keropok berperisa udang
Keropok berperisa udang biji

And at the very bottom, just above the bar code, we see:
Keropok berperisa ketam

Why put all the descriptions/ingredients of different snacks on one packet that only contains one kind of snack? At first I thought they were using the same packaging for all the snacks, and this would allow them to do one-time printing for everything. But if the bar code and snack name is different at the bottom... it means they have to print the packaging separately too!

This is beyond my comprehension.

By the way, I really wonder... what is keropok berperisa udang biji?? Keropok berperisa biji cili is weird too... but at least you could assume that they use chilli seeds to give an extra "kick". Udang biji, on the other hand....

P.S.: I took additional photos of the packaging, actually... because I wasn't writing this immediately and I needed this for reference. I wasn't going to post them, but if my readers are curious enough and want more information... the ingredients can be checked below! :P

Pokemon round table

I mentioned in a previous post that I was going to make more cube Pokemon. But before that, I made some non-Pokemon first.

Cookie Monster
Even comes with cookies!

Winnie the Pooh
Looks a little strange... maybe because it isn't fat enough.
Time to eat more, to become more like big bro on the left. ;)

Now on to the Pokemon!

Charmander

Eevee
This one came with legs, like the Charmander above. But since Eevee is four-legged, I felt it looked better without standing on a "stool".

To have a better view of the tail.
This Pokemon was not well designed; the fur is different from the real Eevee's, and there is no actual place to slot the tail. Too bad, I made do with what I had.

Pikachu!
Another not-so-good design. The head's too big... The feet are nice enough for the body size, but with the huge head it just looks lopsided (can we say lopsided if it is a comparison between the top and bottom?).

A look at the tail

Another Pikachu!
This one has got better proportions :)

Also, a look at the tail!
I also like how they made the ears properly so that even the back of the ear is drawn! (and not blank like Eevee's)

Together with Jigglypuff
One of each Pokemon. Jigglypuff looks the best because it's just a balloon anyway...

Can't stop the other Pikachu from joining the party either...

Birthday decorations

Some time back I wrote about a birthday calendar in the office. What I didn't mention was that they were going around decorating the cubicles of those whose birthday it was.

They were recycling a row of triangular flags spelling out "Happy Birthday", a cardboard sign saying "It's My Birthday!" and some balloons (they probably had some extra stock of balloons... since those shrink or pop :P ). Some more hardworking people would do some extra stuff.

Before my birthday, I sketched out a couple of prohibition signs.

Those "triangular flags" that I mentioned are pictured on the right... each triangle holds a letter of the greeting.

Because I have no wish to have a bunch of banners and balloons at my cubicle... trop criard! Too eye-catching... More subtle decorations I wouldn't mind.

And what's more, a few weeks earlier a neighbour's cubicle had been decorated... and he was told later that he was supposed to do the decorations for the next person. Er... I don't really want to have that obligation...

But on the day itself, all the banners and balloons still came.

I actually like how my pets are all around; it's like they came out to play! :P

My Jigglypuff and Totoro were on my docking station, you can see Cowboy clearly, and Amy Rose is on my Frodo (the black thingy, which is actually a radio, the kind police cars have). Even the koalas are hanging around! (literally)

It's just a little unfortunate how my Pikachu's arms got "broken" in the process. You can't really see it in the picture, but one arm is gone and the other got longer instead. But no matter, it could be easily put back into place.

(The banners are not in the photo because they were higher up.)

It seems that my sketches were noticed after all... there was a little note appended.

I guess those balloons do look like scissors... Sorry, I can't draw!

Just to clarify though... I do appreciate the decorations... and I did thank the person who did them (I found from someone else who was "responsible"). But I do have mixed feelings about this "obligatory" stuff. Oh well...

A "hot" story

Today I had yong tau foo in the Technoplex cafeteria. After getting my yong tau foo, I went to the condiments area to get chillies (they have cut chilli padi there, and soy sauce too, besides chilli sauce and sambal). There was none. I asked one of the cafeteria workers nearby, are there no more chillies? She said no, but then later she called to me and brought out a bowl. After she had scooped me a spoonful, she told me "this is chargeable". I went "What? How much?" I didn't really catch her reply but I think she said fifty sen. Then she asked me whether I wanted more.

I didn't think that the quantity she had given me would be enough, so I said yes (surely I wouldn't be charged based on number of pieces of chilli, right?). Then I went to the counter to pay. But turns out I wasn't charged for the chilli padi after all. I just passed the slip of paper with the yong tau foo price on it to the cashier, and he keyed in the same price. No addition for the chilli. I'm not sure whether the cashier knew that he should charge for the chilli. I'm not even sure whether the lady who gave me the chilli was pulling my leg. I kind of believed her because usually the chilli is already there, swimming in soy sauce... and usually if it runs out, the bowl containing the soy sauce would still be there. Today I was given dry chillies and I added my own soy sauce.

At first I was thinking maybe too many people took the chillies and they felt they were making a loss or something... Now I wonder. I will need to see whether they have chillies next time...

The cake, the photo, and the flash

Yesterday WW bought me a slice of cake. He activated the camera on his phone and passed it to me so that I could take a photo to send to the parents.

I asked, is the flash on?

He said "Let me do for you" and took the phone from me. After fiddling with the settings a bit, he passed it back to me.

It turned out he had just turned the flash off. But I wanted it to be on!

I said as much, and he groaned, what exactly do you want?

But I hadn't asked him to switch the flash on or off, I had merely asked whether the flash was on!

And this, folks, is a classic example of people making assumptions too early, causing them to hear what they thought was said, instead of hearing what was actually said. -_-

Poached egg

When I was still in France, a friend told me how to make poached egg. She said, just crack an egg into very hot boiling water, and it's done! I tried it out, but wasn't successful... I can't remember how it turned out, but the egg definitely did not manage to stick together.

Today I wanted to make grilled orange fish (or fish à l'orange if you want it to sound more classy). I had a wholemeal loaf too, so I thought, let's try making poached egg again. I searched online for tips, and found this video by Jamie Oliver.

The tips I got were:

1. Crack the egg into a bowl first.
I guess this makes it easier to put the egg into water in one go.

2. Make a whirlpool!
I saw this tip in several other recipes. Jamie Oliver says that poached eggs should be made with fresh eggs, and that the whirlpool method is only necessary for less-than-absolutely-fresh eggs. Anyway, my eggs are definitely in the latter category, so whirlpool it is! The swirling water created by the whirlpool is supposed to help push the egg white to wrap around the yolk. Though in my case, the water didn't seem to swirl for a long enough time after the egg got into it. (I'm thinking maybe my pot wasn't big - read: wide - enough) So the egg white didn't really wrap around the yolk... as you will see.

He also said that the water should be simmering, not boiling... but I don't think I got that temperature right. Maybe next time...

Now for photos!

Like I said, my egg white didn't really wrap around the yolk. It sort of fell off.

The second one fared even worse on the egg-white-loves-and-protects-egg-yolk part.

They are actually still stuck together... but by only a small amount of white. :P

But when we cut the yolk...

Lovely. And so is the second one!

So, I consider it a pass. Not with flying colours, since presentation fails. But the taste is what's important! And... I also hope to lose less egg white in future... some were left in the pot. :(

Rudolph the red-nosed... Viva?

This morning I saw a Viva with antlers. Yes... brown antlers coming out the side of the car, somewhere between the front and back doors. Close to the roof.

My Viva wants antlers too!! :P