Musings on Scrabulous

I'm playing a few Scrabulous games on Facebook at the moment, and one of them is in French. For some reason it's much harder thinking of French words to place on the board. One of the reasons is lack of practice, of course (if we don't take the words I don't know into consideration) But I think another reason is the way French verbs are conjugated.

You see, in English you think of a verb. And most of the time, only one letter changes when the verb is put in another form (most often, we add an "s") But in French the conjugated verb can be so different from the root form that when we (or I, in this case) think of the root form, we don't think of the other forms at all.

But then, that could also be due to lack of practice :P

So, anyone want to play? ;)

Edit: Argh...no more Scrabulous! (on Facebook at least)

Seeing old and not-so-old friends

When I was in Penang, I met up with Hai Liang. He taught me how to roller-skate. (um, no, actually he didn't...he tried, but I was too lousy :P)

Then I went to KL...the problem was that most people were studying or working, not on holiday like me...so it wasn't that easy finding a moment to meet up.

So first I met Alvin, who was on holiday, like me. Seeing as there are quite a few Alvins, here's a photo to rid you of any doubts ;P

We had lunch together...

...and this is my plate, sans me :P
(you might recognise the dish from Nando's)

Then meeting with two of my Form 5 classmates...the last time we saw each other was when we were still classmates :| (five years ago!!)

with Xin Hui

with Cheng Fong (or David, as he calls himself now...I keep flitting between the two)

I ordered a drink and a waffle in the restaurant we went into...it was nothing special but the presentation was nice, so here are photos:

my drink...chocolate "something" (as you can see)

waffles with ice-cream

I'm still hoping to see some other people...mostly in Kuantan now, since I'm not sure whether I'll be going anywhere until I go back to France in September. So, anyone else want to meet up? :)

Variety, the spice of life...and fritters

My time in Penang was mostly spent eating :P Amongst others, there was the famous goreng pisang (banana fritters) only found in Penang.

the packet of banana (and other) fritters

On the East Coast, we are used to the banana fritters using slices of bananas, costing 10 sen each. This goreng pisang, on the other hand, uses one whole banana (pisang raja, so I was told). And of course, it costs several times more.

whole banana fritter

after biting in

And then there are cempedak (jackfruit) fritters, which are basically the same as what we find on the East Coast, except for the fried batter.

yum...the cempedak is a nice golden colour, a sign of ripeness (and sweetness)

Then a green bean fritter (the green beans are mashed into a paste):

Don't ask me why the filling is not green but yellow, it's a mystery to me too! :P

We find green bean fritters (let me know if there's a better name for it) in Kuantan (on the East Coast) as well, but they're really different; for one thing the paste is more "packed" and less fluffy, the paste is also more green-grey, which lives up to the name "green beans". And of course, again, the batter is different (I shall stop mentioning that!)

Now lastly, this is something we don't find on the East Coast. Ti kuey fritters (I believe ti kuey is called kuih bakul in Malay)

the whole fritter

In fact, the ti kuey is sliced and sandwiched between a slice of sweet potato and a slice of yam. Then the whole thing is dipped into batter and fried. However, if you get unlucky (or lucky, depending on your tastes) you can stumble upon a piece with the ti kuey between two slices of yam and no potato (or two slices of potato and no yam). I guess that happens when there are more slices of yam than potato or vice versa...

There you go...from top to bottom: sweet potato, ti kuey and yam.
Sorry about the photo quality, the colours aren't that clear...

Just to end this post, here's a "signboard" outside my uncle's car repair shop, where we took the fritters to eat them. (they're sold by a roadside stall)

Oops...I did it again!

Last night we went to Parkson in Megamall. I didn't even see it at first, it was WW who told me "There's a Winnie the Pooh!" So I went to take a look.

love at first sight :P

It's soooo cute and good to hug! (even WW said so, when I asked him to hold it while I took out my phone for the photo) Unfortunately it was priced at RM140 :/ (and WW said he was too poor to buy it for me lol) *sigh* Well, at least I have a photo.

I just came back from a visit to Penang and KL, I'll write a little about that later.

Motto sekolah

This has got to be the lousiest error I've ever seen. How could they not proofread this?

noticed on my little brother's exercise book

What's more, their "mission" is to have "pencapaian cemerlang dalam bidang kurikulum". Is teaching their students the wrong way to spell "succeed" the way to do that?

And this exercise book comes from my secondary school...I'm not naming it here but some of you know!

My most beautiful scrabble rack ever

I've been playing Scrabble (Scrabulous, to be exact) on Facebook, and I just got this "lovely" rack.


Thankfully it wasn't the starting rack, so I could make use of the consonants already on the board!

The things people do...

...for a contest.



LYRICS:

(Chorus)
Twistin Lickin Dunkin in the milk so sweet, gonna indulge myself in this chocolate cream treat, I can think it I can feel it I can be it I can own it, cuz I know that this is an Oreo moment.

Sittin at home just watchin the telly, I felt like there was something missing in my belly, I got up I looked around for food I was itchin, traipsing through the cupboards and lookin round the kitchen, then in a certain nook there was something I found, that was chocolatey and creamy and crispy and round, yes it caught my eye I thought I'd give it a try, and it tasted so good it almost made me cry.

(Chorus)

Movin along mowin the lawn, in the hot summer heat gotta get the job done, doin hard work my stomach's in debt, buildin up an appetite and working up a sweat, it was time to take a break for goodness sake, I was hungry had a stomach ache, but for filling my belly no more was I a rookie, I knew just what to do I'd eat my favorite kind of cookie.

(Chorus)

(Crazy Guitar Solo)

Cleanin out my ears so my hearin ain't so whack, so I'll hear if my homie's talkin smack behind my back, with a clean ear canal I can clearly hear a mumblin, this rumblin and a grumblin says my stomach is a hungerin, you can go get a chicken you can go get a steak, you can go grill some veggies and then pile em on your plate, there's no need for worry I've a plan of attack, this Oreo cookie is my kinda snack.

(Chorus 2X)



I found out about these two videos from Cheeserland. I really like the rap!

Of sms-es and cups

Recently, I discovered how to skip to a new line while writing sms. Usually I use the predictive input (or T9) of my phone, so that I only press a key once for each character. But the other day I happened to be using "normal" input, and I pressed the zero key once too many (three times) and an arrow appeared on the screen, and the next thing I knew I was on the next line. So...that's interesting :P It means I can now try "drawing" with symbols, something which I couldn't understand how to do before. (I mean, how many spaces do you need to type in before you get to the next line?)

Besides, I have a new cup :D

What the...heart?!

I've been seeing this a lot lately.

"I heart something something"

And I really don't like it!! What's with this using "heart" as a verb? When did it turn into one? My guess is it stemmed from using <3 to symbolise a heart, and to replace the word "love"...and people used "I <3" instead of "I love"...and then some idiot came along and read it "I heart" instead. And then everyone started following the example and made the same mistake. And now it is so darn widely accepted. Gah!

A few things about Lyon

I just learned a few things about Lyon. All thanks to a Facebook quiz. (if you want to take the quiz properly without cheating, go take it before reading any further)

1. Qui est le personnage se trouvant au centre de la place Bellecour ?
Who is the person in the statue?

Louis XIV

2. Qu'est-ce qu'un gone?
What is a gone?
un enfant (a child)

3. Combien y a-t-il de lignes de métro?
How many metro lines are there?
4

4. Qu'est-ce qu'une traboule?
What is a traboule?
un passage entre deux immeubles (a passageway between two buildings)

5. Quel est le surnom du funiculaire qui conduit à la colline de Fourvière?
What's the nickname for the funiculaire to Fourvière?
la ficelle

6. Les canuts étaient...
(sorry, I have no idea how to translate "canuts")
des tisserands

7. Un bouchon lyonnais est...
What is a bouchon lyonnais?
un restaurant

8. Comment s'appelle la place située devant l'hôtel de ville?
What's the name of this square?

Place des Terreaux

9. Si la colline de Fourvière est la colline qui prie, la colline de la Croix-Rousse est celle qui...
(this is a local saying...I think!)
travaille

10. Quand a lieu la fête de la lumière?
When is the Lyon light festival?
le 8 décembre

I scored 100% on this quiz, something I really didn't expect since I guessed half the answers (some were "educated" guesses, others were plain one-in-five chance guesses like the first one; I had no idea who that person was!)

(All translations are only for comprehension purposes, they aren't exact translations.)

So did any of you "Lyonnais" learn anything new? :P