Monday, December 29, 2008

Winter Wonderland

Christmas arrived and went…This year we decided to do a joint Xmas lunch roast turkey with all the trimmings, wild rice salad, roast lamb and bread and butter pudding for dessert.
The No.53 crew had seen Jamie Oliver in action in his Xmas special and we were attempting to recreate the Jamie Oliver Christmas taste….


I stayed over at No 53 over Xmas Eve to help with the preparation, however, I don’t think I did much since Fazly had already prepared the roast lamb and Ninie and Najla were already preparing the stuffing for the turkey.

The Jamie Oliver Xmas show was interesting because there were a few things we didn’t realise in roasting a turkey. Firstly, the stuffing is made of bacon which is mashed up with lots of herbs and sage. We replaced this with mince meat instead.

In addition goose fat is also used….we replaced this again with our halal meat fat. The turkey feast is actually quite fattening if you think about it…even the roast vegetables is cooked using the turkey fat produced during the roasting process. The turkey fat is then used to make the gravy along with mashed vegetables and chicken stock.
Since most of the preparation was already done, we ended playing Rockband2 for the rest of the night. Previously we had an issue with the drum pedal (due to over playing perhaps??!!) which broke halfway during our session. This was replaced by a wooden pedal which Bob the Builder had made for our group.

The next morning, the roast lamb had been cooked overnight and the turkey was ready to go in….all 7kg of it! It was massive and with the stuffing it looked even bigger….
Whilst waiting for the turkey to cook, we chatted upstairs and there was a good atmosphere all round….i think probably more relaxed than Hari Raya (obviously!...we weren’t heading out to go for Mass/Church kan?!)

After about three and a half hours , the turkey was ready along with the lamb, wild rice and pudding. It was time for the carving to begin! Jamie Oliver made it look so easy but well done to Fazly, Ninie and Azril for carving the meat because it was a hard job to do…especially when we do not have the sharp carving knives like Jamie…..

We finally sat down for our lunch …and it was absolutely delicious especially the gravy which was amazing with the meat! And pudding with custard to end the meal was a great ending to a great feast…everyone helped out which was fun and enjoyable.
Once all the clearing had finished mainly consisted of Areel who did most of the dishwashing (bless him for volunteering) it was time to have fun….

We started out with Lips (karaoke game) and one of the kids who came to the house beat us all with her rendition of Bleeding Love –Leona Lewis where she scored over 1m points…..We comforted ourselves by thinking that the only reason she won was because her voices has not yet broken…(hehe u can tell we are all bad losers…hahah!)

We then moved onto the party game Cranium. Cranium is a game of various tasks which the team has to perform: it can range from game of charades, humming/whistling a tune, brainteaser questions or word puzzles.

My team (Jiden, Farhan and me) came last but we were just unlucky on the night with our dice throws, difficult tasks ( how is anyone expected to sculpt a california sushi roll using purple plastecine?!).

Areel, Najla and Aliza’s team were just lucky on the night and good guesswork by the girls. The highlight of the night is Areel performing Shakira’s song using the lyrics “Whatever…whatever…” and the girls still managed to guess correctly.
The last game of the night …was of course Rockband2….everyone had a go at playing it which was fun……Overall it was a fun night with good food and of course good company!


Will put up pics later...

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Twilight weekend

Work has finally quieten down and I can finally breathe again but I haven't got any extra holidays so it's gonna be a quiet time in the office next week..

This weekend, I managed to catch up on proper sleep-time which I didn't have in the last few weeks.

After doing spring cleaning this weekend I met up with Ivy for our movie dinner night. We went to Sakura's for some Japanese: I like the fast service and the sushi's ain't bad for the price we pay. I forgot how rude the waiters/waitresses are though-it took us four times to get refills on our green tea and there were several times the waitress tried to take our sushi assuming we finished our food when we clearly haven't!
Despite that, the sushis are good and reasonable so we just bear with the lack of service...

Then it was off to Leicester Square for our movie night-Twilight the movie. The movie is based on Stephanie Meyer book which has been successful especially in America.
People in Malaysia have been raving about this movie especially the guy who plays Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). I was intrigued how this pale guy who played Cedric in Harry Potter could be such a big star especially amongst teenage girls within a short space of time.

I was expecting a Buffy Vampire Slayer type film and expecting someone like the character of Angel.
Unfortunately, Robert Pattinson didn't bring out the character of Edward Cullen as readers of the book would have liked and imagined....The chemistry between Edward and Bella in the movie appeared sub zero at times and the inexperience of the young cast was apparent at times as Edward (Robert Pattinson) awkwardly having conversations and displaying his affections to Bella.

Some scenes appear disjointed at times e.g. Edward turned from Bella's biology lab partner into someone Bella fell in love with overnight yet we couldn't see their relationship develop in the movie.


Yet, it wasn't a bad movie like the baseball scene partly because it had "SuperMassive Black Hole"-Muse playing in the background, the scene where he introduced her to his family and the prom scene.

Robert Pattinson may look good in a black suit but if only he could act -the movie could have been awesome rather than being another teenage romance movie...

However, due to the popularity of its book I think we should expect a sequel to this movie in the near future....

Let's hope the acting is better in the next one....


Thursday, December 04, 2008

Weekend

It has been a cold week in London.....my health hasn't been too good lately-this cold weather does not suit me at all :P

My iPod nano gift arrived this week: to some people it may seem like a small thing.. but to me the gift represents six months of hard work, late nights, travelling and to the future so thank you!

Luckily my manager and team have been supportive and let me work from home couple of days this week although it has meant I haven't been able to attend the EY Tower of London Xmas Party...-would have loved to go and see the Queen's Crown Jewels and catch up with everyone from the office...
Takpe maybe next year if I'm still here....

I'm still not feeling 100% but the weekend is here...and it's gonna be an interesting one...

a) meeting the Whittaker's : it's been too long since I saw them so it would be nice to see them before the xmas period starts...

b) brunch with the bayswater crew...and Rockband 2 session at No.53! For those who haven't heard of rockband or guitar hero it's a music game where people can just have fun and rock out...
I love the guy who came up with this game....rock music is a fun way to get everyone together and just play good music...
My favourite instrument is the drums....I never had the privilege to own my own set of drums plus I didn't have a soundproof basement so Rockband is a perfect substitute....


Raya haji is approaching -so those in Malaysia..selamat raya haji and bercuti...korang banyak holiday ler.....tak aci.. :P







Lyric of the week

"You change your mind like a girl changes clothes
Yeah you, PMS like a b***** I would know
And you always think, always speak cryptically
I should know that your no good for me

Cause' you're hot then you're cold
You're yes then you're no
You're in then you're out
You're up and you're down
You're wrong when it's right "