the babies

just about the only thing i'm missing about home (besides prata).

and heck, i've never physically met them (does skype count?)

want my doggies now :(

but missing my hunk of a handsome even more.

bra(g) bra(g)

our ever-enthusiastic caretaker came by to spotcheck our little kitchen and the week before i was on duty, he'd marked us down for being dirty. but when he came to check when it was my turn, he reversed his prior condemnation and declared us clean!

there's also a funny story behind this that was somewhat lost in translation. when i saw the checklist on the dining table with two 'bra's, i was absolutely horrified and took it literally. having just cleaned up the night before, i was appalled that someone had not only partaken in a wild, racy night in my kitchen but also had the audacity to leave her knickers behind. i ran to K (the corridor dad) and asked if he knew of it, and where the aforementioned offensive articles had disappeared to. to my puzzlement, he said, 'good!' and i thought *gasps* maybe he was the culprit! and there he was, equally puzzled at how worked up i was. after much gesticulation and elaborate explaination, i eventually figured out that 'bra' is swedish for 'good'. and we'd actually been given a clean bill of kitchen health. so much for my theory that there was drunken fun happening at night after i'd painstakingly tidied up.

(i'd definitely be more wary of the mop in future if i'd turned out to be right...)

vaxholm

swedish inefficiency at its finest - 12h to fix some smoke in the tunnel and central station was closed for a good part of the day. naturally, when the central station is closed, the entire subway network goes bonkers. and i ended up waiting almost 40minutes for a train at my home station. thankfully i was only headed two stops south and the train i was on was terminated four stops south, i.e. before central which's the fifth stop.

vaxholm's a sleepy island settlement. was too cheap to take the ferry sgd30 for a return ticket and 40minute ride each way because the bus ride there is included on my student pass. nevertheless i enjoyed the ramble and picturesque tea on the main street just overlooking the harbour. the day flew by and i caught the last of the summer sunrays from a bench under a winter (?) lime tree before heading back home.

whipped up a quick dinner while my japanese corridormate had 30 nippon-philes over for a party. practiced my thimble of japanese with them before retreating to the quiet of my room. back out downtown to f12 with the greeks and the german. was admitedly a bit of a downer because i was too tired to pretend i was having fun. plus they played house, which isn't on mylist of likes. do feel a little guilty for not making an effort to be more enthused but elbowing drunk swedes isn't my idea of fun. J got us on the guest list though, so maybe i'd complain more if i'd to pay. but i didn't :) left the club for an australian's birthday party at lappis. got there late and didn't stay long, pleaded a long day and sheer exhaustion before slipping off soon after arrival.

am too old for this.

this just in

i've the most terrible terrible terrible prata craving. it's so terrible it's not funny. i want prata so bad right now that i'd even consider taking over kitchen cleaning for a week if my indian corridormate or corridor squatter (who's back for the weekend!) makes me some. i.e. i'd swap kitchen cleaning for prata. that's how much i want prata because that's how much i hate kitchen cleaning.

but i can't possibly knock on their door and demand prata now but mhmmmmm. prataaaaa. with eggggggg. and mushrooms. and onion. and cheeseeeee. and curry. and sugar. ooooooooh :) i'd go home for prata right now. or i could ask my mother to bring me some frozen prata when she comes. but then we'll have to lug frozen prata around norway for a few days. and it won't be frozen anymore. sigh.

the absolute irony of this mega craving is that i don't even like prata back home. it's not something i eat often, if at all. WHY OH WHY DO I WANT PRATA SO BADLY NOW I FAIL TO COMPREHEND.

in other news, i've given up booking a laundry slot because i inevitably forget / oversleep / do something more happening than laundry so i've crossed over to the dark side and have become one of those disgusting machine hyenas hovering like awaiting carrion and swooping down all vulture-like on the unsuspecting empty machine on the half-hour. which means i now have to retrieve my laundry from the dryer.

autumn

is fast approaching and i'm enjoying 'the sublime chill that creeps inside my pjs in the morning'. although i might have misremembered the poetry. it's been a long day, classes then djurgarden (?) and then rushed back to tcentralen for a kebab before heading to J's housewarming. back home for a corridor party in the neighbouring block then made egg noodles with sesame oil in lieu of the drunken revelry that was supposed to be the party.

off to vaxholm tomorrow :) photos and commentary to come.

europe on a shoestring

when i left for stockholm, i told myself that i absolutely had to go to paris, portugal and spain.

three weeks on, i'm headed to portugal in a fortnight and paris in two months.

doesn't portugal look stunning?

will be in lisbon,

then porto.

(images from google images)

tag!

looks like i'm it :)

excuse me

don't snipe my biceps!

instant answers

party vegetables

penne with aubergines, tomatoes, greek cheese, onions and pesto

luxe egg / egg-on-egg action

with runny centre :)

thanks M, i think your prayer's the secret behind my sudden desire to embark on culinary competence. am relatively less worried for my fast-disappearing belly now. if i keep this up, it just might hang around and do cameos for the nonce.

pancake politics

the friendly capitalist pancakes bring home the bacon (and blueberries!)

while the antisocial, socialist social democratic pancakes refuse to pose for a photo.

(mine tasted better.)

almost-perfect day

slept in, skyped grandma and called porpor (already recipe for happy morning) then i left for brunch in town.

been meaning to find this pancake place that lily minus wong had been raving about. turns out it was right next to where i had brunch a few sundays ago. who'd have guessed!

i'd pancakes with blueberries and bacon, my two favourite things on earth and black coffee.

then i strolled down sveavagen and moseyed my way to gamla stan, stopping at every imaginable art gallery along and the way. and interior design shop. because i want to transform my room into a bourdoir.

finally made it to the food hall which reminded me of the harrod's basement but not as fancy schmancy. it had a great selection of fresh produce though and i think sometime before that i bought a pair of silver hoop earrings, hoping against hope that my ears don't throw a temper tantrum at the cheap metal in them haha.

after gamla stan i went to the grocer's to buy the eggs i dreamt of yesterday, tomotoes, avocadoes, cheese and caviar. teehee :) so i'm kind of set food-wise for the next two weeks till the parentals arrive with reinforcements.

and then i came home and tidied my room and organised my little shelf in the fridge.

going to make penne with pesto, bits of greek salad cheese, chopped tomatoes and avocado. mmmmm :)

the usual

wednesday night is now a customary pub crawl. began the night with drinks and deep meaningful conversation at A's where we stared at the world map and pointed out our home countries. i'm a little miffed that i'm the only person whose country isn't instantly noticeable. in fact, there wasn't even a distinguishable speck where singers was supposed to be. and then i'd to geykiang and pretend to know where bali was. when actually it was sulawesi (?) i was pointing at. much to the amusement of the german who knows everything. i was pretty appalled at my lack of awareness of where the different countries are - we were looking at a national geographic map taken with satelite cameras so there were no lines dividing the countries. and it made me realise how far away i am from home and how small my home is. but size doesn't matter. and i'm increasingly proud to be singaporean. even when my friends mock our lack of human rights, a burst of pride rises up within me and i think that they're just being presumptuous europeans who know next to nothing about my island in the sun :)

and after a rousing game of fridge poetry in swedish (yes, i too always want a beautiful, sexy prince. for free.) we headed to the yellow house for more drink and conversation.

"in case of need, i will pick you off the floor and send you home." thanks for the vote of confidence over there!

eggs

i realise i've not had egg since coming to stockholm. it's been exactly 3 weeks since i landed and i've yet to eat egg. part of me is intimidated by their limited shelf-life and i'm wary of feeling pressured to eat in and finish my fresh produce before it goes bad. i'm still ploughing through my first sack of onions, whatever possessed me to buy 2kg of onion that time has long been exorcised but i'm stuck with too many onions and too few ideas. i miss my dutch oven. if i'd my dutch oven, i'd have made some french onion soup by now but my lack of semi-decent crockery over here has been institutionalised as an eternal excuse to justify my culinary sloth. that said, i've been having onions with everything: stir fried pork - also purchased in bulk, soup, porridge, and i was so desperate i even almost had it with my muesli in the morning. basically, i'm about to hit my onion limit but the bag is magical and the supply unending.

if i'd eggs, i could make an onion omelette. if i'd cheese, i could make an onion omelette with cheese. if i'd tomatoes, i'd make a spanish omelette. and my onions can aspire to greater things other than being the token fibre complementing my microwaved dinner (babies, don't you dare tell the parentals that i'm using the microwave.) but for the nonce, they remain onions condemned to gastronomic mediocrity in a bag with a few sprouting potatoes masquerading as onions. i need to do something about my potatoes, too. see what i mean by being pressured to cook and engage in fruitful activity other than sleep?

to assuage my guilty conscience, i think i'm going to hunt down sirap and its legendary pancakes tomorrow. even though i spent a week at a hotel just a stone's throw from sirap, i didn't manage to haul my lazy behind there before and there's no better time than tomorrow morning because unlike my conscientious friends who signed up for swedish, i'm absolutely free.

while we're talking about god...

12:18 AM me: hey

i need to wash up

just made instant miso soup haha

it's quite nonsense

Mag: haha gogo!

me: that's the extent of my domestication

sorry!

Mag: pls cook healthier stuff though!

me: yesss. it's been microwaved dinners and pasta so far

Mag: haha

no good!!

me: quite pathetic

12:19 AM Mag: i'll pray for ur dietary needs

supernatural cooking skills

i think u need that babe

or at least, supernatural discipline

me: yes

and eradication of my equally supernatural sloth

joke of the day

my italian friend, ask-me-where-i'm-staying-M, is finally moving into his room. while some of us got lucky in the housing lottery, poor M has been a bit of a squatter, bunking with various friends while waiting to strike gold. and strike he did, with a room at lappis no less. so today i asked him where his things were.

"some at R's, some at the other R's, some with me, some with my other friend..."

"oh my you're everywhere!"

"yes, yes i am. i'm like the holy spirit."

and i don't know why but that really tickled my funny bone and i was doubled over in laughter for a good few minutes. yay for the irreverent italians :)

responsibility

is currently such a foreign concept and i'm thrilled that i just need to take care of myself over here. and there's no emotional baggage, my family is more than self-sufficient. i just call home every other day or so to remind them that i'm alive but other than that they really don't expect very much. and i have 3000 free texts anywhere in the world because i've the most amazing mobile simcard (all for sgd40/month!!!) and i've been texting home with alarming frequency. the craziest thing happened last month when i first signed up with the telco. i had 3000 free texts that were expiring 31 august so i frantically used up as many as i could. i think i was even offering my mobile to my friends at some point and letting them knock themselves out too. and as the clock struck midnight at the end of august, my free texts magically replenished themselves and i suddenly have 3000 more free texts that expire on 30 september so in effect i think my sgd40 got me 6000 free international texts. talk about trigger happy! but back to responsibility, it's a great place to be - with minimal responsibilities. i'm not shirking, i'm just not laden with much to begin with. am very very blessed and very very grateful to not have a care in the world beyond booking that hotel for the portugese getaway to recover from 5days with my parents. haha. i kid. i love my parents. they're coming with mooncakes! snowskinned and without eggyolk. yummy.

piqued interest

this is a good read. am neither a purveyor nor supporter of the porn industry but i thought it's a novel approach.

"Is there a female sexuality that can be differentiated from its male counterpart and, if so, what does it look like? Is it possible to be subject and object at the same time? How can we liberate our own sexual imagination from the commercial images we see every day and that seep into our subconscious minds?" (excerpt from above article)

the hit list

much as i'm growing to love stockholm, i'm getting a little itchy and decided to let my fingers scratch the itch by booking my airtickets.

so it's off to norway to see the fjords in september with the parentals, then straight after they leave, to portugal with secret travel buddies!

psyched :)

OHMYWORD IT'S ALREADY SEPTEMBER.

denial

so deep in denial am i that autumn is encroaching that i've been defiantly wearing my flipflops everywhere, despite it screaming 'tasteless singaporean' and prancing around in my summer dresses. much to the bewilderment of my more seasoned (haha) friends.

c'est si bon

Je vais à Paris en Novembre et je suis tellement excité que je viens pouvait passer à ce moment.

summer friends

i've had the privilege of meeting some truly wonderful people and i'm so excited that it's only just beginning. and whilst we all just found ourselves on the same orbit for the next few months, i'm already getting nostalgic at how quickly time's passing. like, i'm pre-emptively missing the people i've only just met but might never see again after exchange. i don't like the word 'never'. there's an ominous finality about it but then again i'm not going to be over-optimistic. i'm blessed with a brand new circle of friends who i genuinely like and respect. it's strange but it's so much easier to make friends over here. friends in both the loose and tight meanings of the word. sounds preposterous now but before i left i was absolutely certain i'd remain friendless here in stocks. in part because i'm too lazy to get out there because i sleep too much for my own good, and in part because i'm told i'm not very likeable. but i guess the swedish summer got the better of everybody and suddenly i'm surrounded by people who fascinate me with their intelligence and emotional depth.

something i really respect about my friends is their knowledge and interest in their home countries. it sounds almost cliched to say that singers youth are generally apathetic but it's somethng that i'm guilty of myself. but the people i've met so far know so much and a little about everything which's impressive and enviable. and they're such a fun bunch! it's been one continuous party and i appreciate the work/life balance i've established over here. school's been good, challenging, even. but everything in moderation ;)

i used to think (erroneously) that friendship was a culturally relative thing and was under the misconception that there'd be a limit to how close you can get to people from a different culture, narrow-minded and xenophobic as that sounds. and while there's definitely a limit to a shared understanding (if there's even an understanding in the first place), i'm fast finding out that you don't need to be from the same background as someone to understand and appreciate them. i've discovered that humour is universal, and so is sarcasm. and the two go very nicely together when you meet people with similar wavelengths from a world away.

now i just need to stop thinking about having to leave these lovely summer friends and enjoy the moment while it lasts. and if it lasts beyond, then that's a bonus.

castle hunting

apparently there is not only a lake but also a castle near where i'm staying! so i figured i'd capitalise on the perfect summer afternoon and do some exploring after having to go to school to buy the textbook i railed against buying. it's sad really, that my protests end up so anti-climatic. maybe i'm a closet conformist at heart. but back to this exciting castle hunt! i went by S' birthday party last night after J's housewarming BBQ and the bunch of them went to find the castle at 3am. would've joined them if i'd more energy but i sold out and went home to sleep, determined to find the castle myself soon.

so armed with a bag full of food (apples, crackers, liver pate, chocolate digestives, pear cider, a tumbler of earl grey and even more chocolate) i set off feeling a little like red riding hood in the dark dark woods. or robert frost, whichever you prefer. the lake was scenic but the castle not so much a castle but a grand manor. which, somehow, qualifies for 'castle' over here in scandinavia. and northern germany too, i'm told.

i love summer. and castles. and picnics by the water.

parliament house

it's been a while since i last went on a field trip but it's always fun to get out of the classroom!

oh who am i trying to kid, i extremely reluctantly went to the parliament house because i'm not interested in parliaments. or houses. but F guilt-tripped me into going because 'you're already burden enough to your group' after i subjected him to my lengthy tirade about why i refused to buy a textbook. and after the guilt-trip came more emotional blackmail in the form of threatening to tell on me to my groupmates (who're all extremely enthusiastic and on task. boo.) so after much arm-twisting and peer pressure, i succumbed and went on the excursion.

(view from the west wing)

the prime minister's office is the rectangular window on the left of the rounded balcony near on the second highest floor! he's housed across the water from the parliament house.

initial reluctance aside, stockholm is beautiful. i keep repeating myself, but she really is.

singapore noodles

was on the menu when these two dropped by for lunch. and they were the most perfect guests, finishing every drop of soup (very important!) and helping wash up after. plus, the tub of ben&jerry's they left me was most thoughtful. am always impressed by chivalry and good manners, and they have it in spades.

(the conspicious booze is from system bolarget the swedish alcohol monopoly where one goes to to buy alcohol with >3.5% content)

gorgeous sunday afternoons

eager to be part of a music video shoot, we made our way across the city to a big amphitheatre in a park where a rap group was filming a video with souped up cars that went up and down and a bunch of bikies going round in circles. we calafared on the grass, sipping what was meant to look like wine out of plastic cups. and, while we missed most of the action because we were a few hours late, we did catch some lovely evening weather before going to the italian restaurant on the corner of the italian girls' street for my first italian dinner in stockholm.

this is what sundays are supposed to be like :)

the super mario station

thorildsplan is officially V's favourite subway stop now :)

swedish humour

(thanks fredo!)

lamp post

snapped this while waiting to enter the parliament house this morning.