How do you continue down a forgotten trail. Once you have spent so much time, met so many people and so many things you have done is now in the past, how do you carry on walking down the forgotten path of years old? It is like having another life altogether. When something that has become every part of your life is no more, your life as you know it has ended. And you are reborn with only the memories of your past life to keep.
Everyone needs a task to do, a goal to achieve, an endeavor that has to be fulfilled. Without a purpose, how can we live? But in the course of our lives hitherto the end, we are oblivious to the thought of what would happen if what we had to do, was done. What then? Most would pick a new path and continue the journey. I for one find it increasingly hard to do so.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Paint-balling in Wicklow
Woohoo!!! I just came back from playing paint-ball with my buddies.
It was fantastic. A really really really cool site. The Skirmish paint ball site has 6 different arenas. All of which have different game types and scenarios. Each arena being unique and providing a new set of obstacles. And each arena is HUGE. We played 25 versus 26 there comprising of boy and girls.
I was in red team. We soon started discussing strategies and roles. Esmond was sort of the commander. And Jonathan and I were his two right hand men. Oooooh we were in for a rockin good time. I have had prior experience playing paint ball back in Malaysia with my friends there (pro). Esmond and Jon have been through their Singapore national service. Thus we three were the commanding officers of the team.
First arena
Goal: capture and hold a fortress in the middle of the arena (really just a long stretch of wall with windows)
Lives: Infinite respawn at starting point.
Round 1:
In this game we blitz the field. We got the fortress before any of the opponents were in sight. We held the fortress quite soundly and ended winning round 1.
Round 2:
We swapped sides. Having held the base the earlier round, we planned to rush the middle and in the event of a failed rush we would flank the sides. We soon realised that the distance to the fortress is much further for that starting point. So we resorted to plan B. I flanked them on the right and killed 3 enemies behind their lines. The marshal on that side was coaching me the whole way. He was going "go for it. Run up fast. Get 'em from behind".
Then I died. I was too busy trying to kill more guys along the wall that I didn't realise one guy creeping up next to me. He pointed the gun in my face and went "you're dead! Go home". By the time I respawned we had taken the fortress and we held it for the remaining duration of the game.
Second arena:
Goal: Defend or attack a house (on stilts). Win by retrieving two bags placed in the front of the house and crossing the outer perimeter. Only one person can retrieve the bag at a time and nobody on the attacking side can enter the inner perimeter of the house with a gun.
Lives: defenders have 1 life while attackers have infinite lives with a respawn point at the starting point.
Round 3: We were the attackers. This one was quite bad. Me and two others went around the back and tried to draw some attention. But we couldn't make much of an effect. I think there were 3 people in the house guarding the rear and pinning us all down. We got 1 bag. But could not retrieve the second. Everyone who went in got pelted viciously. But, when we entered the dead zone after the game, the marshal said "due to copious amounts of cheating by the blue team, the time to defend the house will be halved for the red team. Apparently there were people who did not own up to being shot.
Round 4: Defense. It was a good defense. Esmond was in the center coordinating and communicating. I was guarding the right side. Got quite a few kills due to a very nice angle. We won.
Third arena
Goal: Rescue a hostage (one of your teammates) or prevent the rescue attempt.
Lives: Defenders have only 1 life. Attackers can respawn at starting point.
Round5: We were attacking. We tried to flank them from both left and right sides. The girls would be heading through the middle if possible. We couldn't penetrate on the right side. From what I hear, about 2 people manage to go around the left side and enter through the back. But died while attempting the rescue. The girls also managed to get quite far, but were all shot down. We could not rescue the hostage in time.
Round 6: Defending was rather easy. Everyone just picked a nice place to wait out and hold off the attack for as long as possible. We eventually won but when I was leaving the area, I was shocked to see that our front defense were completely wiped out. If the game went on a minute or 2 longer we might have lost.
Forth arena aka: aeroplane
Goal: capture a flag in enemy base and cross a bridge from their base to our starting point (defenders have a tower)
Lives: same as always.
Round 7: We attacked. Esmond, Jonathan and me flanked the enemy on the left while the others approach from the center and the right. Esmond and Jon continued to flank them to come around from the back. I pushed in through the left side. The 3 of us nearly wiped out their entire team. Sadly, as I was infiltrating I was shot in the ass by a teammate (why can't some people just aim?). Anyway we got the flag and safely brought it to our base. Woohoo....
Round 8: Defending was quite a task. The enemy stormed in through the middle and left. We had a hard time keeping them at bay. After a while their attack was subdued and they began another attack on the right. I took up position behind a tree to the right side. Me and 2 others held of their advance. But as one of their guys was running in, he shot me even though all 3 of us had shot him much earlier. I was a bit pissed off but I just owned up to it. Thankfully we won that game as well. Yayyyyy....so far 6 wins to 2.
Fifth arena
Goal: capture the flag with a catch (you must advance to the enemy base with the flag)
Lives: 1 life
Round 9: This game was really just a finish up game to use up all our remaining pellets. We ended up loosing because most of our players ran out of pellets first and were overwhelmed.
All and all it was a great experience and I would definitely go for it again next year. A bit pricey but well worth the money (75 euros/RM338 in total). I had an awesome time. And I'm sure everybody who went enjoyed it too.
End result: 6 wins 3 loses
Score: 27 kills (about 7 of which are unconfirmed kills) and 7 deaths.
Pellets used: 800
It was fantastic. A really really really cool site. The Skirmish paint ball site has 6 different arenas. All of which have different game types and scenarios. Each arena being unique and providing a new set of obstacles. And each arena is HUGE. We played 25 versus 26 there comprising of boy and girls.
I was in red team. We soon started discussing strategies and roles. Esmond was sort of the commander. And Jonathan and I were his two right hand men. Oooooh we were in for a rockin good time. I have had prior experience playing paint ball back in Malaysia with my friends there (pro). Esmond and Jon have been through their Singapore national service. Thus we three were the commanding officers of the team.
First arena
Goal: capture and hold a fortress in the middle of the arena (really just a long stretch of wall with windows)
Lives: Infinite respawn at starting point.
Round 1:
In this game we blitz the field. We got the fortress before any of the opponents were in sight. We held the fortress quite soundly and ended winning round 1.
Round 2:
We swapped sides. Having held the base the earlier round, we planned to rush the middle and in the event of a failed rush we would flank the sides. We soon realised that the distance to the fortress is much further for that starting point. So we resorted to plan B. I flanked them on the right and killed 3 enemies behind their lines. The marshal on that side was coaching me the whole way. He was going "go for it. Run up fast. Get 'em from behind".
Then I died. I was too busy trying to kill more guys along the wall that I didn't realise one guy creeping up next to me. He pointed the gun in my face and went "you're dead! Go home". By the time I respawned we had taken the fortress and we held it for the remaining duration of the game.
Second arena:
Goal: Defend or attack a house (on stilts). Win by retrieving two bags placed in the front of the house and crossing the outer perimeter. Only one person can retrieve the bag at a time and nobody on the attacking side can enter the inner perimeter of the house with a gun.
Lives: defenders have 1 life while attackers have infinite lives with a respawn point at the starting point.
Round 3: We were the attackers. This one was quite bad. Me and two others went around the back and tried to draw some attention. But we couldn't make much of an effect. I think there were 3 people in the house guarding the rear and pinning us all down. We got 1 bag. But could not retrieve the second. Everyone who went in got pelted viciously. But, when we entered the dead zone after the game, the marshal said "due to copious amounts of cheating by the blue team, the time to defend the house will be halved for the red team. Apparently there were people who did not own up to being shot.
Round 4: Defense. It was a good defense. Esmond was in the center coordinating and communicating. I was guarding the right side. Got quite a few kills due to a very nice angle. We won.
Third arena
Goal: Rescue a hostage (one of your teammates) or prevent the rescue attempt.
Lives: Defenders have only 1 life. Attackers can respawn at starting point.
Round5: We were attacking. We tried to flank them from both left and right sides. The girls would be heading through the middle if possible. We couldn't penetrate on the right side. From what I hear, about 2 people manage to go around the left side and enter through the back. But died while attempting the rescue. The girls also managed to get quite far, but were all shot down. We could not rescue the hostage in time.
Round 6: Defending was rather easy. Everyone just picked a nice place to wait out and hold off the attack for as long as possible. We eventually won but when I was leaving the area, I was shocked to see that our front defense were completely wiped out. If the game went on a minute or 2 longer we might have lost.
Forth arena aka: aeroplane
Goal: capture a flag in enemy base and cross a bridge from their base to our starting point (defenders have a tower)
Lives: same as always.
Round 7: We attacked. Esmond, Jonathan and me flanked the enemy on the left while the others approach from the center and the right. Esmond and Jon continued to flank them to come around from the back. I pushed in through the left side. The 3 of us nearly wiped out their entire team. Sadly, as I was infiltrating I was shot in the ass by a teammate (why can't some people just aim?). Anyway we got the flag and safely brought it to our base. Woohoo....
Round 8: Defending was quite a task. The enemy stormed in through the middle and left. We had a hard time keeping them at bay. After a while their attack was subdued and they began another attack on the right. I took up position behind a tree to the right side. Me and 2 others held of their advance. But as one of their guys was running in, he shot me even though all 3 of us had shot him much earlier. I was a bit pissed off but I just owned up to it. Thankfully we won that game as well. Yayyyyy....so far 6 wins to 2.
Fifth arena
Goal: capture the flag with a catch (you must advance to the enemy base with the flag)
Lives: 1 life
Round 9: This game was really just a finish up game to use up all our remaining pellets. We ended up loosing because most of our players ran out of pellets first and were overwhelmed.
All and all it was a great experience and I would definitely go for it again next year. A bit pricey but well worth the money (75 euros/RM338 in total). I had an awesome time. And I'm sure everybody who went enjoyed it too.
End result: 6 wins 3 loses
Score: 27 kills (about 7 of which are unconfirmed kills) and 7 deaths.
Pellets used: 800
Friday, April 11, 2008
More food
Ok there's a lot I have to catch up on. I've been to loads of places and done many many things in my time of absence from this blog. But thats another story for another day. If I were to write all that stuff now, I'd probably be writing a trilogy of novels.
For now, just to keep the blog alive:
Heres some of my latest works.
Faith's wantons. I helped with some (the crappy looking ones).
Baked fish with carrots and ginger. Didn't turn out that nice but this is only my second time cooking fish. I blame the fish.
Fried chicken with apple, red onion and honey. So good. I'm gonna be making this more often. So nice and sweet.
Carbonara. Tried to make it as close as possible to the real deal. But failed. Used crappy bacon and even crappier tesco value cheese. Used egg and cream. It still tasted alright like. I'm still happy with it.
Spicy noodles. Soaked the noodles in dark soy sauce. Strained well. And finally fried with a little bit of oyster sauce and bacon. Garnished with spring onions and served with chilli, soy sauce and lettuce. Made it a wee bit too spicy for my taste because i soaked chilli in soy sauce and then I poured all that soy sauce on to the noodles.
Pork peasant style (Roasted pork with olive oil, sage and honey). Served with mashed sweet potato (Faith's master piece).
It was so stressful to make the mashed potato. We boiled the sweet potato for way too short. And realised it too late. So we had to pain stakingly mash the sweet potatoes which were still frozen in the middle.
Just made this 2 hours ago. Golden fried rice. Ok step by step now:
Fried garlic in a wok until brown.
Added 2 eggs.
Added the rice immediately.
Fried for a few minutes.
Added oyster sauce, chili flakes and pepper.
Once finished frying, added fried bacon.
Garnished with spring onions.
Not too great but I like it.
For now, just to keep the blog alive:
Heres some of my latest works.
Faith's wantons. I helped with some (the crappy looking ones).
Baked fish with carrots and ginger. Didn't turn out that nice but this is only my second time cooking fish. I blame the fish.
Fried chicken with apple, red onion and honey. So good. I'm gonna be making this more often. So nice and sweet.
Carbonara. Tried to make it as close as possible to the real deal. But failed. Used crappy bacon and even crappier tesco value cheese. Used egg and cream. It still tasted alright like. I'm still happy with it.
Spicy noodles. Soaked the noodles in dark soy sauce. Strained well. And finally fried with a little bit of oyster sauce and bacon. Garnished with spring onions and served with chilli, soy sauce and lettuce. Made it a wee bit too spicy for my taste because i soaked chilli in soy sauce and then I poured all that soy sauce on to the noodles.
Pork peasant style (Roasted pork with olive oil, sage and honey). Served with mashed sweet potato (Faith's master piece).It was so stressful to make the mashed potato. We boiled the sweet potato for way too short. And realised it too late. So we had to pain stakingly mash the sweet potatoes which were still frozen in the middle.
Just made this 2 hours ago. Golden fried rice. Ok step by step now:Fried garlic in a wok until brown.
Added 2 eggs.
Added the rice immediately.
Fried for a few minutes.
Added oyster sauce, chili flakes and pepper.
Once finished frying, added fried bacon.
Garnished with spring onions.
Not too great but I like it.
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Malaysia Night!
Hey hey hey.
Malaysia night has come and gone here in UCD. I for one am feeling relieved that it is over. Malaysia night is this formal dinner held annually by a Malaysian student association here of which I am my 1st year medicine class representative. It serves an image of Malaysia and Asia with Asian cuisine and Malaysian performances.
As for me, I was resigned to my back stage duties. It took us 2 days to set up everything; microphones, mixer, coloured lights, strobe, back drop, speakers, amplifiers, stage, spot lights, etc etc. And I must say our back stage crew was phenomenal. Everything went according to plan. No major set-backs. And all the tasks were done efficiently. We worked our asses off to make sure Malaysia night could run.
Our backstage crew plus the two emcees in the middle, all of which sacrificed their time that night so everyone else could have so much fun. What little time I had out on the floor, I spent eating the delicious food and taking pictures. Nevertheless, we still had a one hell of a time there that night.
Malaysia night has come and gone here in UCD. I for one am feeling relieved that it is over. Malaysia night is this formal dinner held annually by a Malaysian student association here of which I am my 1st year medicine class representative. It serves an image of Malaysia and Asia with Asian cuisine and Malaysian performances.
As for me, I was resigned to my back stage duties. It took us 2 days to set up everything; microphones, mixer, coloured lights, strobe, back drop, speakers, amplifiers, stage, spot lights, etc etc. And I must say our back stage crew was phenomenal. Everything went according to plan. No major set-backs. And all the tasks were done efficiently. We worked our asses off to make sure Malaysia night could run.
Our backstage crew plus the two emcees in the middle, all of which sacrificed their time that night so everyone else could have so much fun. What little time I had out on the floor, I spent eating the delicious food and taking pictures. Nevertheless, we still had a one hell of a time there that night.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
The latest craze
Recently I seem to have caught a whiff of culinary inspiration or more suitably, a willingness to actually cook a decent meal. Partly inspired by the new astro cooking channel that I was mad about during my brief time at home.
My first attempt at a good breakfast. Didn't really turn out that great. Didn't beat enough eggs so it kinda looks like guts spilling out. Anyway there was pork, bacon and mushrooms in there. Added cheese inside and some pepper. It tasted soooo gooooooooood.
My lunch. Just some stir fried noodles in light soy sauce with pork marinated with thai coriender sauce and topped with some crispy bacon to give it some salty kick. And I have no idea why but I just felt good after slicing up the lettuce and decorating the dish like that. Call me a sissy but I feel quite proud of it.
Did almost the same here with the exception that I used udon noodles and it was fried with chilli oil. And stir fried udon noodles ROCK!
My spagetti carbonara. I was inspired to make this after having a really tasteless disgrace of a spagetti carbonara at an italian restaurant the previous night. Notice i lined the rim of the plate with black pepper. Again just to make myself feel good.
Chicken rice! Cooked the rice by adding finely chopped garlic and ginger, butter, salt and chicken stock. Sadly I didn't feel like finding a chicken and actually taking the time to roast it. Thus I fried chicken marinated in oyster and light soy sauce. Served the chicken on a bed of lettuce and topped with a little oyster sauce.
Now this mountain here is fried rice mixed with oyster sauce marinated chicken and lettuce. Seasoned with some spicy chilli flakes.
Ok it's kinda not right for me to put this picture up because it was actually my flatmate who made this. But we here at M3-4 are family, therefore I justify this post. Our cheese cake was made with cream cheese, yogurt and sugar with a base of crushed tesco value biscuits. Sooo goooood......
My first attempt at a good breakfast. Didn't really turn out that great. Didn't beat enough eggs so it kinda looks like guts spilling out. Anyway there was pork, bacon and mushrooms in there. Added cheese inside and some pepper. It tasted soooo gooooooooood.
My lunch. Just some stir fried noodles in light soy sauce with pork marinated with thai coriender sauce and topped with some crispy bacon to give it some salty kick. And I have no idea why but I just felt good after slicing up the lettuce and decorating the dish like that. Call me a sissy but I feel quite proud of it.
Did almost the same here with the exception that I used udon noodles and it was fried with chilli oil. And stir fried udon noodles ROCK!
My spagetti carbonara. I was inspired to make this after having a really tasteless disgrace of a spagetti carbonara at an italian restaurant the previous night. Notice i lined the rim of the plate with black pepper. Again just to make myself feel good.
Chicken rice! Cooked the rice by adding finely chopped garlic and ginger, butter, salt and chicken stock. Sadly I didn't feel like finding a chicken and actually taking the time to roast it. Thus I fried chicken marinated in oyster and light soy sauce. Served the chicken on a bed of lettuce and topped with a little oyster sauce.
Now this mountain here is fried rice mixed with oyster sauce marinated chicken and lettuce. Seasoned with some spicy chilli flakes.
Ok it's kinda not right for me to put this picture up because it was actually my flatmate who made this. But we here at M3-4 are family, therefore I justify this post. Our cheese cake was made with cream cheese, yogurt and sugar with a base of crushed tesco value biscuits. Sooo goooood......
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Now and then, here and there
Alright I realise that my blog has been like a dead pet that I continue to advertise on my msn and for that I do apolagise. Having said that, I'm back!
The first term in UCD was a blast! But the real fun began after.
For Christmas I returned to Malaysia to visit friends and family. I was back home for 2 weeks and I loved every scorching, sun burning, mouth watering, tongue burning second of it. It's only when I spent a few months away from home that I begin to appreciate the good food and nice weather in Malaysia.
But you'll never guess what I really really really couldn't wait to eat when I was back home...Chillies. Since I have a terrific cook as a flatmate here in UCD, I have been pigging out on asian food everyday. Thus as I went home to Malaysia, I had a huge ravenous craving for western food.
Oh I managed to meet up with my fellow Rempit who had developed a rather odd craving for coke. By that I mean Coca Cola not cocaine (which would make much more sense if you haven't met this member of the 3man-cell). Every night when driving back to his place or my place, he would force me to stop by a 7 eleven to get a bug bottle of coke for himself. He would seriously kill me or at least hurt me if he didn't get his coke. He was so addicted to the drink that when a tiny drop fell off the edge and on to his leg he screamed like a girl being raped by a monkey. After calming himself down by saying monologously "It's ok! It's ok! Its still on me. It'll diffuse in. It's still good. It's still good."
Went ice-skating with some friends too when I was back. It is sooooo expensive to ice skate in Ireland. Anyway, while we were there, we noticed a group of wall hugers at the side of the rink just crawling at a mind-bogglingly slow pace which would make a snail envious. About half and hour later, I had forgotten all about them. But as my friend brought to realisation, the wall hugers had made it from the entrance to the rink, all the way to the other side of the rink....in half an hour.
I wish I could have seen many more sun rises back home in Malaysia during that break. After a mere 2 weeks, I flew off to Wales to spend some quality time with my girlfriend.
After spending 11 days in Cardiff, Wales I headed to London to meet up with an old friend. Stayed in a mate's place near London bridge. He was staying in a Kings college accommodation hostel. And I was scared. The entrance to the hostel was in some darkly lit alley right next to a loading entrance for a hospital. If I had not known it was all laughingly considered part of the university campus, I would have been really scared. But as it was, and since I had known that fact, I was only minutely feeling a bit of fear in the back waters of my head.
Later my friend told me a rather disturbing fact that on average, 5 people are either stabbed or shot in london every day. Now that made me the fear creep forward quite a bit, but I was keeping my cool. After all, what were the chances of me being a statistic in that survey. London is of course quite a big place (20 million people live there. And yet some how I managed to find my friend).
Then we went to the underground tube. It was dark, stinky (smelt of concentrated piss), crowded and had litter every where. Well at least that was the case with the one stop that I was at. The rest were actually quite okay. But anyway, I was just thinking of how crowded the place looked when my friend added the icing on the cake, " You know, last time the tube station was so crowded there was no space to move (this didn't bother me). You just had to stand beyond the yellow line because there was just no space (I was still keeping cool). Then some people started getting stressed out (still nice and cool). And then someone committed suicide (now this took some time to sink in) by jumping in front of the train (and I lost it).
But now it's all done and passed. I'm now sitting in my comfy room in my good ol' UCD residence looking forward to a better term (if it could ever get any better). Cheers to a new term!
The first term in UCD was a blast! But the real fun began after.
For Christmas I returned to Malaysia to visit friends and family. I was back home for 2 weeks and I loved every scorching, sun burning, mouth watering, tongue burning second of it. It's only when I spent a few months away from home that I begin to appreciate the good food and nice weather in Malaysia.
But you'll never guess what I really really really couldn't wait to eat when I was back home...Chillies. Since I have a terrific cook as a flatmate here in UCD, I have been pigging out on asian food everyday. Thus as I went home to Malaysia, I had a huge ravenous craving for western food.
Oh I managed to meet up with my fellow Rempit who had developed a rather odd craving for coke. By that I mean Coca Cola not cocaine (which would make much more sense if you haven't met this member of the 3man-cell). Every night when driving back to his place or my place, he would force me to stop by a 7 eleven to get a bug bottle of coke for himself. He would seriously kill me or at least hurt me if he didn't get his coke. He was so addicted to the drink that when a tiny drop fell off the edge and on to his leg he screamed like a girl being raped by a monkey. After calming himself down by saying monologously "It's ok! It's ok! Its still on me. It'll diffuse in. It's still good. It's still good."
Went ice-skating with some friends too when I was back. It is sooooo expensive to ice skate in Ireland. Anyway, while we were there, we noticed a group of wall hugers at the side of the rink just crawling at a mind-bogglingly slow pace which would make a snail envious. About half and hour later, I had forgotten all about them. But as my friend brought to realisation, the wall hugers had made it from the entrance to the rink, all the way to the other side of the rink....in half an hour.
I wish I could have seen many more sun rises back home in Malaysia during that break. After a mere 2 weeks, I flew off to Wales to spend some quality time with my girlfriend.
After spending 11 days in Cardiff, Wales I headed to London to meet up with an old friend. Stayed in a mate's place near London bridge. He was staying in a Kings college accommodation hostel. And I was scared. The entrance to the hostel was in some darkly lit alley right next to a loading entrance for a hospital. If I had not known it was all laughingly considered part of the university campus, I would have been really scared. But as it was, and since I had known that fact, I was only minutely feeling a bit of fear in the back waters of my head.
Later my friend told me a rather disturbing fact that on average, 5 people are either stabbed or shot in london every day. Now that made me the fear creep forward quite a bit, but I was keeping my cool. After all, what were the chances of me being a statistic in that survey. London is of course quite a big place (20 million people live there. And yet some how I managed to find my friend).
Then we went to the underground tube. It was dark, stinky (smelt of concentrated piss), crowded and had litter every where. Well at least that was the case with the one stop that I was at. The rest were actually quite okay. But anyway, I was just thinking of how crowded the place looked when my friend added the icing on the cake, " You know, last time the tube station was so crowded there was no space to move (this didn't bother me). You just had to stand beyond the yellow line because there was just no space (I was still keeping cool). Then some people started getting stressed out (still nice and cool). And then someone committed suicide (now this took some time to sink in) by jumping in front of the train (and I lost it).
But now it's all done and passed. I'm now sitting in my comfy room in my good ol' UCD residence looking forward to a better term (if it could ever get any better). Cheers to a new term!
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