Once bitten, twice shy?

“好”事成双。>.<

 

Broccoli-less Pasta

The Pirates is a new restaurant around my neighborhood. It looks very decent and well-decorated from outside that outshines the others. I had thought of giving it a try some time ago so I decided to have my lunch there.

Most of the food in the restaurant are of Italian style and they are not cheap, as in comparing with the typical food price here. After skimming through the menu, I ordered a set of Italian pasta called Aglio Olio. 

It took a rather long time to get the food served. Just when I was about to eat, I realized something was wrong with the pasta. It looked a little too plain, something was missing. Oh yes, there was no broccoli on the pasta. I remembered I read about it in the menu. Feeling unsatisfied, I called the waiter and asked him where had the broccoli gone. He was rather surprised that he thought he had served up the wrong order. He took a menu to me and verified. I pointed the description of the pasta to him, which stated that the food was to be served with broccoli. He apologized to me and took the pasta back to the kitchen.

After a while, the food arrived. I saw no broccoli but only cauliflower. I looked at the waiter and said: “This is not broccoli. This is cauliflower and it’s different.” The waiter apologized and told me, ” I’m sorry, Miss. We only have this. Hope you don’t mind.” Lucky him that I was in a good mood and was pretty hungry then. I just let it be and didn’t push ahead.

Later, the waiter approached me with a serving of chocolate dessert and told me it was offered for free by the restaurant as an apology. Not bad. At least some degrees of sincerity was shown. I accepted. 

While paying the bill, I said to the waiter, “Just an advice for you. Broccoli and cauliflower are two different things. They are of different values in term of price and nutrition. If you continue to serve your customers like replacing the broccoli with cauliflower, you’ll get into troubles very soon. Cauliflower is much cheaper than broccoli. I know that.” He apologized to me again and told me their broccoli was currently “out of stock”. What a lame pretext but I didn’t bother to argue with him. 

That’s it. This will be the last time I pay patronage to this restaurant. The chef of this restaurant has no etiquette at all. First, he was trying to fool me by quietly serving the broccoli-less pasta, thinking that me as a first-time customer wouldn’t have realized it. Unfortunately, I did. Second, he was trying to fool me again by replacing the broccoli with cauliflower, thinking that I must be an idiot for not being able to differentiate between these two vegetables. Unfortunately, I did it again. I don’t know if I’m the first victim, but I suppose they will do the same thing to others during their “broccoli-short” period. Yet, I don’t think the others, especially youngsters will respond the same as me. Probably they won’t even realize it.

Anyway, I know someone who will definitely bang the table, give them a hell then cancel the order and leave. >.< I think I shall learn from him and scold like him next time, but it’s not easy at all. It’s not just barking like those typical obnoxious boors do, without brain.

Ouch!

Got sandwich?

Blood Donation

 I had blood donation at a GH blood drive set in my campus this late morning. Surprisingly I was the only donor then, so the entire process from registration to the end of the donation was pretty fluent without the need to queue.

I enjoy blood donation but there is one necessary step of it I never like – the finger-prick blood sampling, which the capillary blood is collected by lancing a finger. Typically, the medical assistant will cleanse the area to be pricked with an alcohol swab and then prick with a blood lancet. Ouch! I recall I was shocked by pain for the first time I did finger-prick because I was unprepared for the trigger mechanism of the blood lancet (I didn’t know how it works). Since then I have a little fear whenever dealing with it.

I proceeded to blood drawing after going through some examinations. The medical assistant first pressed on my elbow pit searching for my vein location. When it was found, she cleansed the skin on top with antiseptic and used a large needle to pierce it. My blood spurted out through the needle instantly.

I was given a rod to hold and squeeze repeatedly to increase the blood flow.

 

The drawing completed in less than 10 minutes and a pack of 450ml warm blood is ready to serve.

A Must-score Test

Diana and I had just registered for the GRE paper-based test which will be held at Penang MACEE, in February 2009. The test registration fee costs US$170, an equivalent of RM570. Some people might think we’re “crazy” for spending this much for just a test, but for us, that’s our stake that would determine our destiny – a passport to the US universities. So we just can’t afford bad or so-so performance in the test. Our ultimate aim is to score with flying colors. 

The GRE or Graduate Record Examination is a multiple-choice admission tests intended for applicants to graduate schools particularly in US. It consists of three sections: 

• One 75-minutes “Analytical Writing” (essay) section that contains 2 essay questions
• One 30-minutes “Verbal Reasoning” (vocabulary and reading) section that contains 30 questions
• One 45-minutes “Quantitative Reasoning” (math) section that contains 28 questions

The first 2 sections are pretty challenging for me because:

1. My english command is not strong; my vocabulary is very limited.
2. I have poor writing skill, especially in the analytical and critical sense (just like what my teacher always says, a lack of critical mind).

So I have two difficulties to overcome in order to meet my target. 

I talked to Diana about the GRE test preparation this afternoon and she suggested to memorize a number of vocabulary and their meanings for every week, then set a test in the weekend. Sounds like a brute-force and “artificial” (quoted from an article) approach but I believe it will help. After all, all we need for the verbal test is to know more words. In fact I myself have a more “organic” way of picking up new words, which is by reading more standard english writings (such as The New York Times) and take notes of the new vocabs I learned from the writings.

6 months to prepare, 1 goal to achieve, 0 failure allowed – that’s the only thing in our mind. I think we have made a good start by investing in some expensive reference books and started to read more. Hopefully the spirit will continue to burn, higher and higher. Wish us luck. Oh no, wish us determination.

On A Rough Track

I love running. So long as my legs are functioning, I will not quit from running. That’s a lifetime passion.

I’m a little bit unlucky, my running track is pretty rough and rocky. Sometimes I stumbled over some stones and fell down on the track out of balance. I bled and I was upset. I sat there staring at my wound, the more I stared the more I felt painful and lousy. Whenever I looked up, my partner would stand far ahead me, waving to me. A simple act but gives great support and encouragement. Each time I stood up from the place I fell and moved on, I learned to bear the pain better and be able to avoid more obstacles. Those are what you can hardly learn when you’re on a smooth track, it’s easy but lack challenges.

Now, I’ve learned not to care about the ranking anymore, it’s just a title to acknowledge my achievement, nothing else. Which race I’m in is no longer important to me, to reach the finish line I still have to make my own effort. I just want to run, keep running…

I enjoy the moment I’m running. I listen to every step I make. I can feel my performance is progressing, slow and steady. I become stronger each time, physically and mentally. And I’m glad I’ve found an excellent partner, who guides me on the track and motivates me to achieve higher from time to time.

Those are what simply satisfy me on the track.

Back to The Track

After losing in touch with running for almost a month (I got my toe injured for the past weeks), this morning I’m back to the track again. Due to the whole night raining, the weather is chilly, it’s just nice to have a morning jog!

However I can feel my performance is dropping AGAIN, obviously I am not as fit as last time. *sigh*~ Funny is… while I was jogging I couldn’t stop thinking of kata, felt like doing the hand techniques like wauke and boshiken but I controlled myself of course, I don’t want to look like an idiot on the track. (=.=)

Now I want to make myself commit more in this workout, I have a plan of joining the Penang Bridge Marathon in 2oo9. Wonder if I will be fit enough to participate the full marathon (42.2km), if not, I will aim for half marathon, at least maintain or surpass my previous (and the first) half marathon record (21.1km, 1:54:25, 25th in Women Open) in the Malacca International Marathon. Oh, now recalling, that’s really a memorable achievement.

A Little Seed, A Little Love

The ancient Chinese often related Red Bean (红豆) to love and romance. This red bean is not the adzuki bean used to prepare the sweet dessert – red bean soup, but it is the heart-shaped scarlet seed of a plant scientifically termed Adenanthera pavonina (海红豆). Chinese name it as “xiang-si dou” (相思豆), the love bean (pea) or the romantic bean (pea). The seed is poisonous in raw, but edible when cooked. Due to its charming color and appearance, it is used to make necklace and ornament as a love emblem for the valentine.

When I was a little girl, my father always brought me some seed pods after his work. And I would love to split the pods, collect the seeds inside and store them in a basket. I did not know its story nor its meaning, I just enjoyed collecting them and admired the full basket of shiny scarlet seeds as if they are gems. Later, my father no longer brought the pods back, he told me the love bean tree had been chopped down, no more pods he could find. I was very unhappy then but soon these love beans were put behind me and replaced by other toys.

Last year while my mother was tidying up the study room, she dug out the love bean basket covered by a thick layer of dust and asked if I still want to keep them. Poor little things, they were abandoned at the corner for so many years! I wanted to keep them as they are a memento of my father but most of them were already moldy and faded. So I had no choice but to tell my mother to throw them away. I am quite regretful for not taking good care of them.

After that I’ve tried to search around for the love bean tree but failed. I couldn’t even find any around my residential area in Malacca. I did see some gift shops selling the love beans in delicate glass bottles but I have no interest in buying them, I prefer to collect the seeds myself. If my “significant other” were to present me such gift, I would appreciate more if he gave me the pods rather than a ready bottle of seeds, unless he made the gift on his own.

I believe this love bean plays a role in my father’s young past too. He led a very harsh life when he was young. Being the eldest in his family, he was forced to quit from his school at the age of 12 and became the breadwinner of his family of 4. He was a very talented man especially in art, just that he was less fortunate in his life. Although he was low-educated, he never gave up in seeking knowledge on his own. He was someone who appreciated every single thing he gained very much. I’m sure he knew the story and meaning of the love bean, too bad I missed the chance to learn them from him.

If only he were still alive, I would ask him what love bean means to him, I believe it would be a great story to share with.

Today, I miss him so much.

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