I find it especially hilarious that Earth Hour this year coincides with the annual Tomb-Sweeping Day for the Chinese people. On one hand, folks are trying to create awareness by asking everyone to switch off all the NON-ESSENTIAL lights but on the other hand, for Qing Ming, since the economy is so bad, everyone seems to be asking more help from their ancestors and as a bribe, they burn more paper money for them!!

So Which is your choice?

… especially when I have lots of assignments due!

I’ve have 3 group presentations up and the slides are still no where near the finished one and I have two individual assignments due with 2500 words each. Truth be told, I am really feeling the strain of this post graduate. Cannot imagine the time when I need to write my thesis. That will be a killer.

But anyway, from the distraction I found a really cool video about speed knitting. Take a look see. She holds the Guiness record for fastest knitter in the world! Enjoy!

Thus far, I have been very lucky when it comes to group assignment. I’ve had great member to work with and it has always been a pleasure despite all the hard work and long hours put in. But this semester, seems that my luck has ran out. Now, this is how I look like.

I’ve got international full time students on my team and these fellas culturally is very different and somehow they seem to want to just off load all the work to the Malaysians! Pfft!!!

The dilemma of young and not-so-young. (more…)

MIS : Management of Information System. That is the future of business (more…)

It is just so hard to resist the temptation of just picking up items!!! We have sales for everything; clothes, shoes, even FURNITURE!

Malaysia is really a unique country when it comes to this word: SALES.  Previously, under dunno-who-dunno-what-ministry, that fella decided that we need a little boost in economy, therefore we should have this MEGA -SALEs three times a year. So everybody was happily shopping and spending money to spur the economy. Then again, under the same party but dunno-who-in-a-dunno-what-ministry decided that that policy was not applicable anymore. He decided to orchestra a SUPER-DUPER-MEGA sale only ONE time a year! In a bid to make this a ‘pretigious’ shopping period?

Now, the world is again suffering its worst depression in this century, you can sale those little placards with words like SALES 50%, best buys, lowest price sprouting like little mushrooms after a drizzle. Although I do still see the malls being filled with people but somehow folks with shopping bags walking around seem to have reduced.

Ok. I think I am amongst the last few people who have not watched this fantastic epic. The movie, of course, is about Down Under set during the time of World War II. The story is told in a narrative format by a litlte creamy (A derogatory slang to refer to people who are of mix Aboriginal & Caucasian  parentage), Nullah.

The story begins when Lady Sarah Ashley (played by the gorgeous Nicole Kidman) insisted that she flies from England to Darwin, Australia where her husband, Lord Maitland Ashley is breeding cows to win the contract to supply beef to the Australian army. She, of course, thought that the cows are not the only reason that is keeping her husband Down Under, at least not the animal variety! ( this is a line from the move, I am not that brilliant to quote that! )

So there she sets off in a flying boat to Darwin but to her horror, she found that her husband has already been murdered. Allegedly by King George, an Aboriginal witch doctor. While mourning for her dead husband, she met little Nullah; who is a little intrigued by this strange Caucasian aristocrat. I’ve got to agree with this. I do not entire understand the way they do things! To cut the long story short, she founds out that her late husband’s foreman, a Mr. Fletcher (played by Faramir of LOTR, can’t rmbr the actor’s name) has been doing some hanky panky business i.e. letting some fat cheeky bulls across the Billabong into King Carney’s land. Without a moment’s hesitation, she fires him and is left with a monstrous task of herding 1500 cows from Faraday Downs to the wharf over at Darwin City.

Therefore, the first person she thought of was The Drover( played by the very yummilicious Hugh Jackman) to help her with this herculean task. The rest of the story here becomes quite predictable. From hate turns into love, yaadaa, yaadaa. Of course, there is a scene doing the wrong-side of Business! Like the rest of great epics, the hero and heroine always gets back together in the end.

The brilliant thing about the movie is definitely not the storyline because that is rather cliché. The cinematography fantastic; however was second only to the superb acting by Nicole, Hugh and little Nullah! These three actors certainly brought star quality to the whole production. Nicole has always been the regal, no-nonsense, won’t buckle under pressure kind of damsel-in-distress, while Hugh… What can I say? He’s definitely the eye-candy! Unshaven and full of manliness!

Another point to stress is that, this is based on a true story and I particularly liked the fact the producers included a little note at the end of the film that Kevin Rudd, the current premier of Australia offered the Aborigines an apology for the wrong that they did in the past.

Overall rating for this movie is a resplendent 8/10!!!

p/s: Nicole Kidman looks sooooo totally right with Wolverine rather than Mr. Minority Report!

That is, if you’re the hardworking ant type who has been saving all summer! (more…)

The world is divided when it comes to insurance. (more…)

Lately, I am in the mood for cooking. So besides the usual ‘roasting’ I attempted to make ravioli in cream sauce. Before this, all the pasta sauce that is cream-based, all come out of some bottle. After watching a cooking programme on TV, I thought I was game enough to try it.

First up was shopping for the ingredients. I had no issues. Found all the necessary ingredients in Mercato, the supermarket in Pavillion. Surprisingly, it was not too expensive.

Clockwise from bottom Left: Bacon strips - shoulder not streaky , Italian Parsley, Frozen Ravioli, whipping cream and lemon.

And of course, lots of garlic.

The tomatoes are not really part of the pasta attempt rather they were the side dish to complement it. I think eating cream based pasta often a bit too much without something sour to enhance the appetite.

I sauted the garlic with some olive oil and added in the sliced bacon and fry till fragrant. Added in the parsley and lemon zest.

Added in the whipping cream and some white wine to add to the flavour.

Taadaa! The final dish with the baby tomatoes as side.

Another view of the dish to make it look more appetizing.

Sadly, the verdict for this dish is that, it isn’t too great and I won’t be attempting it in near future. I am not sure what went wrong, but I will try to figure out and then only try again. Sigh!