Flyin' Early

So I'm returning home... eight days earlier than initially planned. The situation is kind of a double-edged sword as it brings both happy and sad effects. I'm leaving due to another family matter (this year is really an unfortunate year) but I get to meet my family just when I'm started to miss them, Hong Kong and its delicious  西多士. Ah wellz.

I admit I'm having mixed feelings right now. Though I've been through this whole journey from UK to Hong Kong (and back again) for many times, I'm particularly nervous today. Probably because I'm actually going on my own or because I don't know what to  expect when I arrive home. (I just hope all is well there...)

'Til then!

My poor computer

So I've recently mentioned my broken Mac and how it would be rare to go on this blog for many days - oh how ironic it is that I've already done three new posts in the course of two weeks! - but I never mentioned how 'broken' it is. Turns out only the internal hardware (ie keyboard and trackpad) would sometimes fail to work but all would be perfectly fine if I used USB ones instead. Of course, i happily complied to the suggestion as now I can go on the 'interwebs' as frequent as I used to. That is... with the cost of this:

 omg, the clutter with fudging macbook brings... (yet again it's already five years old... time for a new one?)

Clutter. Not only am I faced with weird looks from the whole awkward composition of out-of-proportions keyboard and millions of wires all tangled on my desk (note how 80% percent is used up by this monstrosity), I'm limited to the number of USB ports my poor laptop can provide. So that's one ethernet cord for internet access, one charger cord for well, charging, two USB ports used for just the school's keyboard and the mouse I borrowed (I say 'borrowed' but it's really the keyboard of a broken computer I stole off) and the earphone port for my ear buds.

That's a total of five cords coming out of this machine. I can't tell if this is considered humorous or plain stupid.

And that's only the temporary solution while I'm in the UK. Who know how I'll solve it in Hong Kong. Buy them in the Apple store? Buy a new laptop entirely??? Dear god think of the price of that. It's a pity I'm not a college student - that would give me extra student sales :D ah wellz. I guess I'll just continue typing on this oversized keyboard for now.

'til then!

Pancakes, Hotcakes, whatever

So you've seen me say this:

"... I need to stop pancaking around..."

What the fuck FUDGE is 'pancaking'? (heh, that line already shows how my love of sweet stuff affects my use of language.) Well... you know the term 'waffle'? As in when one waffles but doesn't give any useful information? One day - when I was bored - I decided I should 'personalize' my words, if you will, and swap 'waffles' to something I much prefer: PANCAKES! :D So, from then on, I would use the word 'pancake' in the context of 'waffle' to show everyone my love for then over the pesky hard frames of batter. (yes, shockingly, I don't like waffles.) 

Oh... how I love pancakes. All soft and fluffy, thick and squelching with syrup - though not too much. You could decorate it with bright berries and fruits or Pollock some masterpiece with chocolate sauce. You could go for the traditional and spread butter - 100% veggie oil! - and watch it soak all the goodness like a sponge. ah, how I long to make pancakes again.  

'But couldn't you go and make them now?' unfortunately, no. Being a boarder I have no access to a frying pan nor do I have the skills to master the fluffy pancakes my mother used to make. I COULD eat them back in Hong Kong but I promised myself to go and take the time to strip off some cookie rolls. (Hah, another term to do with food! 'Cookie roll' means 'fat', FYI.) However, I've recently come across a few recipes that may help me indulge without any guilt: Chocolate Avocado Banana Pudds. (Ashley in Edible Perspective have some really good stuff, you should check it out!) I may have to go find the elusive avocado and dig up the dusty blender but I'm sure the work would surely make up for it. Oh how I long to try it! 

I think I already have laidbactus (again...) and I still have two more weeks before the exams have ended. Premature case?

'Til then!  

Hannibal the Cannibal

So I've recently go hold of my own wifi access (about time!) so I can freely go about the 'inter webs' without the school's horrible filter, but only at an agonizingly slow pace. I swear every site needs four minutes to load- two, if it's in a good mood.

But yea... Whilst I was online, I came across a new TV show that I'm now dying to watch back in HK: Hannibal.

Will Graham from Hannibal

It's based on Thomas Harris' Red Dragon, hence the story is before the movie The Silence of the Lambs - as it was in the books. I saw a few trailers and I'm loving the artsy feel that resonates BBC's Sherlock style but with the under layer of horror. I know it'll be gory but that's I like about the show. It has gore but not to a certain extent it turns cheesy and full of crap. Plus, it really plays well with the fact the viewers are aware of Hannibal's cannibalism and so plays with us on whether he has eaten someone or not. It throws in subtle suggestions yet never fully reveals it all. The real horror lies in the fact Hannibal can hide his secret so well even we don't know what he intends to do. Aww... I'm getting filled with squee and pancaking again.

'till then!

EDIT: oh carp I forgot about going through my use of 'pancake'. :S whoops. that'll have to be next time then!

...

Heart thumping, lungs crushing, her world spun round as she desperately clawed for the top. Wave after wave, water tipped her off balance before she could swim away. Sucked back into the abyss, pictures flashed through her head; a computer screen, an abandoned blog, her several posts of her life. 

*gasps*

she reaches the surface and scrambles for the nearest ledge. She grabs to one and slowly heaves herself up. She looks out to the keyboard and enters 'Mind of a Mundane Girl'. The screen flashes to a empty page. Her fingers rest of the keys and she begins to type the first words since the Crash...

Hello dearies! Yes, I just called my horrible GCSEs as 'the Crash' like some cheesy name for an apocalypse. This is actually a rare time for me to just sit down and type down what ever is left of my mind. Not only because of my great efforts to preparing for the exams - I admit there are some times where I don't use our given study leave with more practicality - but because my Mac decided to crash and burn. Apparently the logic board decided its time for it to stop working during the most essential time of this year - when I need it for past papers and mark schemes. So... in a sense, 'The Crash' goes not only to my current living under notes and papers but also the bloody crash of my precious computer. I could go on moping about losing one big part of my life but I think you wouldn't really want to hear about it.

So, life has gone preeetty fast. I'm already done my first six exams and now simultaneously revising Chemistry and English Lit. Before you know it I would probably think 'euphoria' is somehow related to ammonia... or something of the like. Furthermore, I'm dangerously close to that awful week where almost every contiguous day included one or more exams.

But while I am living under the rock I still try to keep my 'geek' up. I just recently finished the LOTR trilogy at an agonizingly slow rate and I'm still working on the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (whilst half-crying to the fact there are still 18 months before BBC finally showcases series 3 of 'Sherlock' ). Oh, I should probably mention that two months ago, I've read and still am in love with Pratchett and Gaiman's baby: Good Omens. Omg, how the very first page won my heart! If I was some Shakespeare prodigy, I probably would've written two or three odes and sonnets for that book of gold (not saying the other books mentioned aren't as good). So shite, need to stop pancaking* about... already a whole wall of text! 'Til then!

*to those wondering, I will (hopefully) explain this term in the next post... :P

Revising with OCs

being someone who has to undergo masses of GCSE exams in the following next two months (fudge.), I naturally would panic about revision and such. One on the most annoying things I cannot put my head around is the ion tests in Chemistry. So I decided to find a way to remember all the elements and their corresponding colours (to certain chemicals or to a flame)... by creating OCs.
 

So... from left to right: Casper (Calcium), Lilith (Lithium), Nate (Sodium), Polly (Potassium) and Barry (Barium).

They're the pyrotechnics of their P.L.U.S. team - possibly of a military group. (I have a feeling I should change them to some aspiring pyrotechnics as they seem too young.) 

The colours from the flame test corresponds to different aspects of the character  - ie Lilith is a redhead and Barry has a apple green hoodie. I haven't developed further more than I've just shown so... yeah. first draft... 

It's possible not the most efficient way to revise but definitely the most fun. I can't guarantee I will fully remember all of them (apple green, dirty green, bright red, brick red... ARGH) but at least I would be looking forward to revising chemistry!

hem.

While I was going through a episode of random hyper-ness after a binge of dark chocolate and teas (CAFFEINE.) I dawned on something like sudden clarity clarence: I may be getting ever so slightly gerontophiliac...
... as in the opposite of pedophilia .________.

i-is-is this me??? (^ Jiji from Kuragehime.)

Ever since I came to the UK - no, a few months before that - I have been exposed to more British culture than ever. And with that I've been more... um, interested in people like Stephen Fry and Jeremy Brett... and Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Hugh Laurie, Ed Hardwicke and possibly even Gary Oldman. Of course a few are only at the brink of the mid-forties or fifties but seriously, think of the age gap we're talking here.

Apart from those listed, I'm perfectly fine and drooling over the faces that many others would die to marry - Hiddles for an example. I guess I could just be going a bit too far on the statement and maybe I just don't know how to differ... that with real respect to their work. At least I hope so...