zchayx3's Xanga

Old

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 23:46:01 GMT

Almost 22...I feel old. Especially when I'm on Labour Ward take, and assisting with delivering babies. 8 so far. I want to be a Dad soon, so I can have my own to look after and love.

This week has been insane - Tuesday started at 7.30am and finished 12pm Wednesday without sleeping. Then came Friday at 8.30am without sleep until 9.15pm on Saturday. By that point, I thought "stuff it" and went to drink at ULU with Mukti and co. 5-6 units without lunch or dinner and I wasn't drunk. I was thoroughly impressed with myself.

Different notes: Jacob's Creek Chardonnay 2005 Vintage is rubbish. Avoid. Still only £6.50 at ULU (just 50p more than Waitrose!!!) so reasonable cost. But rubbish wine.

I'm eagerly awaiting my new glasses. One makes me more fun-loving, and the other is mature. I'm giving up the contacts; I'm facing my ever failing ways to keep young. Sigh...22.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 20:02:04 GMT

Finally succumbed to the evils of Facebook...

Happy New 2007!

Sun, 31 Dec 2006 20:29:39 GMT

Celebrations will again be alone tonight. Yet another New Years just like the last and those before...

I'm festering with campylobacter (the same gastro bug that my cousin had). She's been moaning so much about being ill that my Mum and I have been looking after her. She's passed it onto my parents and now myself. Her dad (ie. my uncle) has flown over and within a few hours, he's gone down with the same illness.

So I'm alone in my own flat away from her and doing redecorating. I've a new wardrobe to allow for further expansion, and my room is consequently a tip, but is far more spacious than it used to be.

Completely different note: the 27th of December was amazing. I met up with Primary school friends from Clare House after 10 years of leaving for drinks. How incredible we all were at remembering each other (bar the Harper twins, who are inseparable apart from a subtle tic). I'll post photos up as soon as I get a few in my inbox. There's one girl that was picked on (along with myself and Daniel) for being geeks back then; she now looks a spitting image of Christina Aguilera (with shorter blond hair) and the dream of being a vicar. And Roxanne's all settled down with a husband and children...how responsible we've become since the days of "Stuck in the Mud" and "It"!

I'm going to console myself with a hot water bottle and sleep. So I bid you all adieu.

Lack of Festive Cheer

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 14:49:11 GMT

Though I shouldn't be in this mood, I think I have reason to be.

I'm having a bad holiday so far. "Why", I hear you ask? My cousin (my Mum's eldest brother's daughter) has recently moved into the local area in Bromley and is causing all kinds of grief. I'll just illustrate last night/this morning's incident.

We get called at half-past midnight from my Mum's eldest sister and brother from HK telling us our cousin is in agony with "acute abdominal pain" (medics will know what I mean by this presentation...it could be of many things). Anyway, they shouted at my Mum for not going to check on her. My Mum had been asleep since 10, and our cousin had not called us to let her know she was ill.

She's been ill since end of November, with multiple complaints. But these coincided with when she was all alone in her home (which she had reclaimed from her father's tenant with the bare minimum notice).

Anyway, we went to see her at 1 in the morning, and she had a bag packed and walked perfectly fine (ie. surprisingly okay for someone who my Aunt had said "was crying in pain that she couldn't say a thing").

We took her from her home all the way to the nearest A&E (in Orpington, a 20 minute drive away). I di the driving as Mum was too tired. There we waited until 4.30am before we were seen, and her history of pain was so appalling the Registrar handed the case over to the SHO. My Mum and I had asked her the whole story before, and she gave us an unconvincing one, and then gave an altered version the the SHO and Reg. Sigh.

She was dismissed as non-urgent and was given the usual pain meds and then told to come back if the pain didn't go away. My Mum and I got home at 6am before we went to Mass without sleep. Our cousin then called us later this morning to ask if we could take her to queue for the Harrods Sale on the 28th. Such gall!

I'm in a bad mood, and I don't hide it. My brother even felt sorry for both my Mum and I. And that's a rare thing for a non-communicative 'teen to do.

So much for a White Christmas. I think I have a "Whine" Christmas.

PS. on a better note, I opened a bottle of Chateau Bastor-Lamontagne 2001 and it was amazingly good. Beautiful white wine, straw-coloured with a strong aroma of grapefruit and lemons, very full bodied and smooth to drink. It's so sad that one of my only joys so far is alcohol. The other is TV; Mark deserved to win Strictly Come. Karen was so wonderful in all her routines with him too, and she gets so emotional. Bless.

I wish you all (again) a far more Merry Christmas than mine.

Happy Holidays

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 09:24:40 GMT

Now that I've narrowly passed my exams, I can unwind to 2 weeks of holiday.

I'm heading down to Kent for the next week, so I won't be around to wish all of you Season's Greetings and a Happy New Year.

And to add to the festive joy, Primark are opening a department store on Oxford St, where the Allders used to be!

Poster Project

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:23:18 GMT

It all came good on the 11th hour; we managed to finish our poster project overnight and get it printed 2 hrs before presenting it. Not advisable, but well worth the effort. We even managed to make it look official with the UCL logo and colours!

We had high praise for our efforts and were award runner-up to the best poster on Stockholm Syndrome (which was worthy of it's award for fantastic presentation).

Now I can rest happily without the need to work overnight.

OSTs

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:22:48 GMT

I've developed a penchant for Original Sound-Tracks (OSTs); to list some of my favourites ones - The Da Vinci Code (especially "Chevaliers de Sangreal"), The Island, Pearl Harbor (amazing soundtrack, but utterly rubbish movie), Pride and Prejudice (Keira doesn't do it for me, but the music certainly did), Batman Begins (astoundingly atmospheric), Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (a very solidly written OST by Tai Dun), Pirates of the Caribbean (the 1st one by Klaus Badelt; Hans Zimmer didn't do enough with the sequel), which leads me onto the purpose of this entry.

I've delved into an old collection of VCDs from home, and one was "The Myth" - ??. Not a brilliant movie, and hugely unsatisfying ending, though it had glimmers of promise in a few scenes. But the OST by Nathan Wang and Gary Chase was absymally unoriginal. It's a good soundtrack, don't get me wrong, and would be up my list of current favourites IF it weren't so plagurised. It takes themes from Pirates and modifies it slightly to sound oriental, but you can blatantly hear the lack of trying to disguise the fact that it was copied. Music was also taken out of "City of Angels"...but overall, as most good/excellent soundtracks go, the accompanying movie's crap.

I'm too lazy to subscribe to YouTube, but here is a link to the main theme to "The Myth": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu_YttoUWPI

Simply beautiful...

Sherry

Fri, 08 Dec 2006 22:33:46 GMT

Having not opened a whole bottle of wine to drink by myself (over a few days of course...) for a few weeks, I decided to re-ignite my journey into learning more about the appreciation of it. I'm finishing off a Cabernet Sauvignon (a hard growing red grape - tastes of berries once it's made into wine) by San Pedro (the "South 35"). It's a satisfactory wine from Sainsburys, though there are better out there. It came into my collection when I dipped into Chilean wines. Cabernet is pretty much a stable grape variety, so I fancied a chance to go and try a grape I haven't got in my cabinet.

As covered by the news, Threshers Group wine shops have been having an upturn in fortune with their sale figures. This is down to a 40% off voucher initiated by Stormhoek (a South African winery) and has spread itself over the web - it's even on www.studentbeans.com (you have a plug in my blog Julia!!!). As tempting as it sounds, it's rather a rubbish offer. To the Threshers newbie, it sounds a great deal. But all year round, they offer a 33% discount when ou buy any 3 bottles of wine or champagne. This voucher merely gives you an extra 7%, and the opportunity to buy a number of bottles that isn't a factor of 3.

I went to the New Oxford Street store today, hoping to find a good Pedro Ximinez to add to my stock. Alas, the frenzy of bargain hunters had beaten me to the shop; the shelves were practically threadbare, and the assistant was bemused at this whole situation. He had to turn away customers because of a lack of wine...

Undetered, I looked into Waitrose. They have a lovely own-brand collection of 6 Sherries (there are 5 main styles of Sherries: in order of increasing weight, are Manzanilla, Fino, Amontillado, Palo Cortado and Oloroso. Waitrose have 2 Amontillados) - these sherries are made by Emilion Lustau for Waitrose (Lustau is said to be the best producer of sherries by connoiseurs). So I was tempted to give their Solera Jerezana Rich Cream a try. But then it's for a collection, and being a snob, I went to Oddbins to get the full works. A proper bottle of Lustau.

Yes, it's only a label, but the Very Rare Old Oloroso (blend of Oloroso and Pedro Ximinez) is a delight to drink. It's to my understanding that there were just over 10,000 bottles made 2 years ago, of which I now have 1.

(Image from: http://www.emilio-lustau.com/solera-two.htm#eugenia)
Pedro Ximinez (PX) is an exception to the sherry variety. It's the only one not dry - it's very sweet and works fabulously with fruity desserts, or plain vanilla ice cream with a drizzle of PX sherry. I do not know why Hagen Daaz haven't offered a PX ice cream topping; it's a "must-try-at-least-once-in-a-lifetime" thing to do.

I realise that I've come out sounding rather poncy with all this wine lark. And sorry for wasting...5 minutes of your time if you've read this far. I could make it up to you by serving aforementioned vanilla ice cream with PX on top.

I shall explore more varieties in a future post.

And on to exams I go...

Smooth operator

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 17:38:21 GMT

My family was on the lookout for a new TV...knowing my brother, he instigated this whole episode by complaining that the one at home occupied too much space, and that everyone has a plasma these days (yeah, right).

So he did his research and found the Panasonic TH42PX60PED and stand for £999 online. But this had a one year guarantee. Being the busy bee down Oxford St, I recalled seeing an offer at John Lewis, and so I checked their website. They sell the same TV package for £295 more but with 5 year warranty. Not being satisfied enough, I enstilled my evil to the salespeople on Tottenham Court Road. And I hit jackpot the 1st time I asked. Musical Vision is recommended, because this is the 2nd time they've excelled themselves. Let me tell you about the 1st:

This was April '06 and I had a firmie (fellow student doing the same rotation as I) who was looking for a 26" LCD TV. We found her a Samsung that she loved (because it was shiny and black - not for the technology...) and the best offer we got online was a tad over £800. TCR shops were selling it closer to £900. So evil Ed threw a spanner in the works then. I created a fictious offer of £750. And lo-and-behold, 3 shops matched it. But Musical Vision stood out, because they went that one step further - the salesperson said he would stand his offer out by taking another penny off his price.

This time round the package was £900 over the John Lewis offer at Musical Vision. Asking for his best offer, there was a scratch of the head and £200 off the asking price. Then the spanner: "John Lewis are doing it for even less than that". He did a little online research and then came up with and offer £200 less than John Lewis. I told him we'd think about it. And then he offered a budget DVD player to come with the TV. We took the offer.

I'm surprised that John Lewis can still be undersold on the High Street.

Enough of my waffle. Life is better now. Complicated relationship, happy family, hobbies, fitter than last year. But stupider than the last - you can't have it good all the time.

Simpler method of D/Ling YouTube (embedded) videos

Sat, 25 Nov 2006 19:53:33 GMT

Far more simple than typing in a URL - it involves Firefox (install it if you haven't - you won't regret it), then install the videodownloader extension from https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/3590/

Once installed, all you have to do is double click a little icon on the bottom left of your screen, and the video downloads. How simple is that???