Here I am. This is me.
Define blue.
havent been back to farnham for quite sometime. today on the way back from work i stopped by the old diagonal hang-out pub "hog's head" (now slugs and lettuce) for a fellow colleague's leaving do. this place is a traditional spot for diagonal's veteran farewell events, the old office is just across the street.
Smiley's finally decided to move on after 6 years being with diagonal, and heading to cap gemini... he's not entirely excited bout it, but morse's way of running things have driven his patience paper thin. they wrote him a card "to sniffer" scribbled with loads of "interesting lines and symbols", and attached an envelope full of useless stuffs like sticky notes, train ticket, receipts, coins, pebbles, buttons, pen cap, screwdriver etc... :D. infact, we've lost a truckload of good people recently... new management pulled a stupid move which pisses most of everyone off, so now everyone in the market knows it's open season for diagonal-morse employee. roger and tms went to sap, pete w. went contracting, asigbetse had enough and decided to stop working and go travel, mureli and squirrel gone contract... and most recently pete "god" deverx, daz and skeats... and so is barry, bill, pete l., fiona, brian, tadj for the support side (and jamie, mark, anna sometime back). we're lost almost all the top-notch ppl we had, all whom has been with diagonal for 7 year or more, and all whom i enjoyed so much working with.
also turned up was victoria (ironicly her farewell was at the same place 2 and a half years ago), got it from her that Mark is now a trainer in SAP (just as he always wanted)... good for the guy. what's surprising today is that half the ppl who turned up were those who've already left, resigned, or going to resigned. some asked me to jump onto the recent resigning spree, onto the cool-gang bandwagon... or why not apply for a seperate green card and join other companies. well, in due time my friends, all in due time. :)
office will be much more quiet now. wishing everyone the very best in the roads ahead!
note to self : if i'm to go long term here, may want to look up for the guys at bluefin. which operates like diagonal used to, before morse came into picture.
recently i've been taking interests in cooking seafood. i bought a seafood cooking encyclopedia which introduced hundreds (if not all) of sea produce, on how to prepare them and to cook them. which is very interesting indeed.
so i was hunting for fish on my weekly groccery run today. at the fresh fish counter, i spot numerous type of fish... and also something which closely resembles, what i would best describe as- "white cow liver", i think i remember those being fish roe from the book, hence i ask the employee handling the counter, "yes, these are fish roes. clean them under running water, dip them into flour and deep fry em. tasty" she said. she packed me 300grams of it, along with the piece of skate wing i chose. am gonna do "deep fry fish roe with chillies, shallots and lime", and "sambal belacan okra grilled ikan pari" tonight.
back to the "fish roe", the label she sticks on the bag says "canadian herring milt". hmmm "milt"? hence i came back, did some google and here's what wiki says of "milt"...
* Milt is the seminal fluid of fish, mollusks, and certain other water-dwelling animals who reproduce by spraying this fluid onto roe (fish eggs).
* The term also refers to the male genitalia of fish when they contain sperm. Herring milt, in particular, is used in Russian cuisine. it is pickled the same way as the rest of the fish, but eaten separately, sometimes combined with pickled herring roe.
* As a verb it means the action of the male fish when impregnating the female.
* Milt is also a term used to describe a student or alumni of Milton Hershey School
i dun fucking care what the crazy communists eat and i dun care what gay alumni calls themselves... these are fucking fish sperms here!!! %^^%&^%&^%&^&*&*. the employee at the counter didnt really lie to me to be fair with, coz milt are also called "soft roe" and "white roe". anyway, i've done deep frying them, dipped in eggs then flour... and i have to say- they taste great! now i'll have to do some dressing with fresh shallots and chopped chillies, sugar and lime.
so along with my grill pari pari, i'll be having mouthfuls of "fish sperms" tonight, the thoughts of consuming billions of male sperm aint exactly inviting... maybe i wont buy them again in a short while. :|
note : here's another online entry of others' experiences with the "roe"
milt recipes (extract from the link above)
============
Recipe 1: Miso soup - soft roe with sake-kasu [ Shirako no kasujiru ]
3 oz soft roe "shirako"
1 welsh onion
3 or 4 tablespoons sake-kasu
1 cups soup stock
1 tablespoon soybean paste
Wash shirako by salty water and take aawy black string. Cut into a bite pieces with be careful not tear. Chop long onin into 1/4 inch. Pour soup stock into pan and heat. When soup stock comes to boil, brend in dissolved sakekasu. When boil again, put shirako. Add soybean paste and long onion and turn off heat.
Recipe 2: Shirako To Kyuri No Sunomono (for braver souls than I)
Soft roe (shirako - 白子)
Cucumber
Rice vinegar
Salt
Vinegar dressing (1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon soup stock, a pinch of sugar and salt, a little soy sauce)
Wash the roe gently and remove any black string. Cut it into a bite-sized pieces, being careful not to tear it. Slice the cucumber into thin discs and sprinkle them with salt. Allow them to stand for about ten minutes, by which time the cucumber should become limp. Now it can be soaked in rice vinegar and squeezed dry. The roe and cucumber can now be arranged on a plate, and the vinegar dressing can be poured over the top.
first read the wiki entry here.
i've heard loads of such acclaims since highschool, when friends gathered around in classes after exam awaiting the holiday, sharing haunted stories. most common of these stories involved friends (or friend's friends) first handledly experiencing the so-called "ghost pressed", and somehow the setting always doesnt run far from 1. being on the bed, 2. seeing/feeling some apparation/pressence, 3. pressence of folk-lore related creatures objects around, such as cats, spiders or mirrors, or 4. on a certain date/occasion.
it seems skeptical no doubt (coz i for one, although do believe in ghosts, choose to believe science over bunch of supersitious asian friends :D) much because there's a publicly accepted scientific explaination- the waking of the brain before the neuron on the body is being able to fully catch-up, hence the "paralyze" effect. and on top of a temporary neuron disfunction, scientist also claims the body chemical compound call "Melatonin"... which was claimed to be the reasons of the paralyzing effect (and hallucinations?). the entry in wiki contains such explainations :
Some reports read that various factors increase the likelihood of both paralysis and hallucinations. These include: [2]
1. Sleeping in a supine position (facing upwards)
2. Irregular sleeping schedules; naps, sleeping in, sleep deprivation
3. Increased stress
4. Sudden environmental/lifestyle changes
5. A lucid dream that immediately precedes the episode. Also conscious induction of sleep paralysis is a common technique to enter a state of lucid dreams, also known as WILD[1] .
6. Artificial sleeping aids, ADD medications and/or antihistamines
well...
1. nope. i was facing downwards
2. well, was kinda tired after an early morning start and a long night-out.
3. not so much to be honest.
4. yeah, it's a hotel room.
5. quite. i dreamt of lotsa cute dogs and taking pictures of them (fking strange i know).
6. no sleeping aids (beside 2 bottles of cider, 3 glass of wine, and a bottle of lager).
yeah, i got abit freak-out after what happened this morning. as mentioned, last night had a night out with the colleagues in portsmouth and after some drinks i dropped into my bed falling unconscious soon after. i was having the weirdest dreams throughout the night (of me taking photos of some cutest dogs) and suddenly i woke up (or i thought i had, in a half-dreaming state) feeling someone was in my room and was walking along my bed towards the other end, like when playing hide a seek and you feel like someone is right outside the closet/door (i slept on one big double bed lying on my chest and head turned to one side), i swear at the end of my eyes i could see a glimpse of shadow on the other side of the bed (but how my head could turn that direction allowing myself making that view, i dunno. it could have been an view i dreamt of seeing myself made) then i felt the pressence sat down on the other side of the bed, i lay stone cold pretending nothing happened hoping it would soon wears out. then suddenly, i felt something laid ontop of me and i felt my whole body being pressed into the bed (i was thinking, "awww fk")... and then to my surprise, right after the thoughts- i was pressed again, this time deeper into the bed. then for some reasons, i thought out "oh fk, now that this has happened, i'll be late for work", so i reached out for my cellphone on the side of the bed just to check how much time i have left to leave for work (signs of hyper tension on work?)... and it was this instance when everything seems to be back to normal, and i was left lying on the same position wondering "WTF has just happened?!).
now it seems like every other stories which you might have heard many thousands of times. and i would like to believe this being a hallucination as well (by fact i couldnt have turned my head to look at the other end of the bed)... but having said that, i swear i heard, the creaking of the bed spring, twice, when i was being pressed onto the bed each time. maybe i could have hallucinate that as well. not sure. maybe ghosts are all hallucinations, or these are ghosts and scientist just classify ghosts as hallucinations... it doesnt matter if it's a supernatural experience or just some signal my brains mis-intepreted- as far as im concerned, what my brains perceive is what i'll be experiencing. and that was freaking scary.
ok, writing this sends chills down my spine (i'll still need to travel all over uk and sleep in many strange places and most probably back to that same hotel). maybe i should stop drinking. fk.
不知是天氣變了，還是眼光放擴了，倫敦最近可是美女如云。
天使般的面孔帶著個誠懇地微笑，毫無私慾的為世界添些陽光。碰上了心情也自然好了些。
春天的空氣讓每個人顯得特別年輕美麗。
some day you woke up on a bad dream. feeling tired and lost. and from that moment you step out of the bed, everything went wrong.
i need some days off.
***
just finish advance xi training this week. met up with the big boys (now technical architect/specialist) back in Fleet. Darren's still in Orange, Mark's in GE Healthcare, Karl's in Elyo, Higgy and Pete is still in SSL, Ian still managing Leed's office, Simon flew all the way from the states, Spike's taking a break from the support lead and Martin is in Anheuser-Bush... it's in off-days like this we get to sit around and drink/joke bout everything.
DTC for another week (Steve has come back from Botswana), hope the warlord didnt give him a hard time there. then off to Transport for London (TFL) on another XI assignment... might stumble across big bro's Axonian colleagues. hmmmmm.
***
this time of year, the sakura's should be starting to bloom. wasnt having much luck locating the parks until the nice lady from "The Crown Estate" drop me some info on the best time and pointed me to some competition they holding.
so paintball on 31st, more sakura on april fool.
***
oh btw.
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***
the annual Crufts show and all-england 2007 badminton tournament is in Birmingham last month. didn't bother to go either (reason being. /me points above).
***
hokkaido beef* (cut in chunks and marinated overnight in sake)
shallots (deep fried)
sweet onions
garlic (stir fried)
assorted wild mushrooms** (picked from nearby woods).
oyster souce
spring onion
cooking oil (from frying shallots)
sugar / salt to taste
corn flour (helps thickens if lacks gelatin)
(last but not least...)
choya sake (蝶矢） (alternatively, red wine).
everything in a pot (except for sake and spring onion which goes in last few min before serving), slow cook for an hour or so until stew thickens.
voilà~!
* : i just use sainsbury's beef.
** : to avoid killing your guests, use sainsbury's assorted mushrooms (shitake and other strange looking fungi).
I just realized when talking to the brits it's easy to get the words out but when it comes to pronouncing the alphabets, it becomes much much harder! :D (example, 'Z' being 'Zek' or 'Zee'?)
Called the national insurance to make a booking for an interview few days ago, I got my surname written "FIM", wtf?? And the most common one I usually get is "SIN".
And when it comes to spelling it out with words (as per E for England and L for liu lian) I find it really hard to think of the words upon sudden enquiry (what ever happened to the kindergarden alphabets reading??).
I was like dumb folded for a few seconds then "errrr… S for Socks?"
I thought of a clever one today though. "S for Singapore, I for India, M for Malaysia"? (it's a good chance ppl who doesn't catch the dialect will never heard of these countries). dem asian. :D
Sow says I'm racist coz i only check-out asian chicks. He also suggest that I am racist coz I hate them so much I wanna bang em all. (such were the words of the fat monk).
I was there last year. but this year being away, the bros went instead. and these pictures are the proof that big bro is always the better photographer. :)
one day i'll have my own furry kids. two golden retriever, one call "Luke" and the other "Leia". a husky call "Han". and a big fat black cat call "Vader"...
(the pics. courtesy from the Big Sim.)
heard there's quite a few huskies going around this year.
Ewoks.
he has to take it behind a pole summore. :D
i think i saw this kid last year.
ahh. i love the spaniels.
celebrity.
happy dog.
bro said this one kept sticking its tougue in out.
"oh arent you adorable... *guchi guchi*" (grrrrr...)
YAIKKKSSS~~!! BIG LENS!!
more shih tzu.
all time favorite. (ling ling's friend)
dumb and adorable.
oi oi oi. ze germans...
Miniature schnauzer.
oooo big basset hound (aka hush puppies). again bro keeps his distance. ahaahahah
this is last year's.
p/s : notice that the pictures of the bigger dogs are always smaller/further. the fucker scare to go near big dogs. hahahahahaha.
今天De Beers人事部發出的員工應徵郵件。
De Beers human resource sent out a recruitment email today.
月籌部分是空的（可能收入以卡拉計算）。
the salary column is empty... maybe they pay in carats.
還有管理部發出的老鼠軀滅通告， 多重的鐳磁掃射、銅門鉄壁- 果然防不過米老鼠 & friends。
there was also this "mice infestation" email... so much for the super security they're no match for mickey and friends.
***
Apple's next push.
guess everyone have seen Steve's presentation (case not, go here). Now having Apple joining forces with Google, Yahoo! and Cingular... i wonder how's the rest of the mobile players gonna stand against their onslaught (starting with Motorola and Nokia).
now that they have everything integrated, they've also upgraded iTunes, and ipod's software to support all the new devices/features.
sweet.
