Good Food, Greater Company

The last week of the holidays has been pretty eventful.

On Monday and Tuesday, there was this magazine revamp thing in school. There were a total of 19 of us who signed up. We were split into three teams. On my team, I had KX, Nica, Nadhirah, Hasinah and Rachel. The first day, we basically came up with ideas as to what we wanted our magazine to be and how to improve it. There was this whole design thinking process where we used our research too. Anyway, by the end of the day, I really liked what my team came up with but the other teams had pretty interesting ideas too. We also had a rehearsal for our presentation the next day before going home.

The A-Team (without Hasinah because she didn’t want to be in the photo)

The second day, my team met earlier to rehearse our presentation. We rehearsed it like twice and then we rushed to SPH. I swear the train moves a lot slower when you are running late. But we made it on time. So, the original creator of the magazine gave us all a briefing on what the magazine was all about and other things that we should know. He told us that the magazine should be primarily local content and that’s when Nica looked at me and I realised that our chances of winning just dropped drastically. Our whole theme for the mock-up was ‘Heroes’ based off how Big Hero 6 is popular amongst kids this month. Oh well…

Anyway fast forward three presentations and intense Q&A segments which poked holes in all three of our ideas, the original creator decided on a winning team which was not my team. Honestly, I was happy for the winners. Their pictures were going to be on Berita Harian and they received $60 Popular vouchers. I compared it to a Top Model challenge where the winners get a reward. But in this case, the rest of us got a reward too – a goodie bag and $20 Popular vouchers(which I have yet to spend). It was fun and I had no regrets!

Then came Wednesday and Thursday which were my day-offs. Well, actually I did do some work but other than that, I just caught up on my TV shows. I realised that it’s extremely hard for me to have a day-off without worrying about the assignments and long list of things to do. And on top of that, since we have our phones with us all the time these days, there is the possibility of something coming up which could ruin the day-off. Anyway, I watched the season finale of The Comeback on Wednesday and it blew my mind. I am going to write a post on why you should watch it sometime next week. I already have a couple of reasons on my mind.

Then came Friday which was closer to a day-off as compared to the previous two days. It would have been a perfect day had I not read the email in the morning about our potential documentary profiles for an assignment. However, Friday has three day’s worth of activities squeezed into one.

Anyway, today was the day that Chelsea, Jamie, Shaf and I were supposed to attempt cooking and also make our vision boards. We had been looking up recipes and decided on cheese tortellini and Cali chicken. Shaf was supposed to buy the vision boards and meet us once the rest of the three of us were done shopping for the ingredients. But I woke up late and so although I felt bad, this allowed all four of us to do the shopping together and I think that started us off on the right foot.

The shopping was fun as we searched for required ingredients while at the same time wondering if it was worth following the recipe entirely or making our own edits. And then we also spent some time searching for mascarpone cheese which was not available. So we substituted it with something else that I can’t exactly remember right now.  Once we got all our ingredients we made our way to Chelsea’s place.

I honestly thought that I would be of no help in the kitchen. After all too many cooks spoil the broth, right? But what we had was just the right amount of people since we were cooking two dishes. We split up into pairs and I actually helped. This gave me more satisfaction when we were eating lunch later since I had a part in it. YAY. We spent about two to three hours cooking our two dishes. The first hour was spent brining the chicken and boiling the tortellini and the last 30-60 minutes was spent cooking the dishes in the oven. So, I guess we didn’t take that long after all.

Anyway in-between all of this, Shaf got to meet Rainee and Eden for the first time. Jamie avoided Rainee and rolled her eyes almost every time Rainee barked. While I attempted petting Rainee (when Chelsea challenged me to) but Rainee kept putting her face in my hand. So, I gave up in the fear that she would bite me and petted Eden instead. But then later, I told Chels that I wanted to try with Rainee again. And this time, it was a SUCCESS. This was one of the little things that made my day.

Eden: “Okay, you can have ONE picture.”

Eden: “What are you STILL doing here?”

Rainee: “What is this thing that you are pointing at me?”

Rainee:”You smell better than Chelsea.”

Once the food was ready at about 3pm, we all dug in (after taking photos) and I was really proud of all of us. The food tasted really good. I definitely want to try cooking again. Perhaps, we could try something else next time?

Extremely proud of myself for taking this picture.

A selfie with our hard work a.k.a our lunch.

After lunch, we all regrouped in Chelsea’s room to make our vision boards. I know I was the one that suggested us doing this but I’m not quite sure what inspired me to do so. I have been looking forward to making this board forever though so I’m glad it was finally happening. We all brought some magazines to look through and cut out the stuff that we like and want. My approach was cutting out motivational messages and pictures of celebrities that I like. And I also put a couple of polaroids with friends on the board too since they are important to me. We spent about two hours on our boards before leaving at around 6.30pm. As of right now, my board isn’t ready yet. I still have a couple of gaps to fill up.

I know it seems like that is enough fun for a day but my day was far from over. I met the dudes (Azfar and Rosydi) at Northpoint for dinner too! The plan was to try BurgerUp, this new fast food restaurant and also watch Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. BurgerUp was alright. The fries were a little too salty but the fish burger was really good. We did have to wait quite some time but I didn’t really have any problem with that since I had people to talk to and I wasn’t starving hungry after that lunch. We filled each other in on the latest happenings in our lives which wasn’t exactly that much but for some reason, we never run out of things to talk about every time we meet.

BurgerUP allows you to DIY your burger.

Much love for these two amigos.

The movie was good. I’m glad I re-watched the previous two movies last week so I was prepared. Something I thought was interesting is how they sort of implied that a character was gay. On the other hand, I think that they wrapped up the series really well. It felt as though they had everything planned out before they started on the first movie which goes to show how they had a perfect ending instead of a convenient one. I’m going to miss the series and the loveable characters, that’s for sure.

After the movie, we sat at McDonald’s talking again. We sort of already have ‘plans’ for the next long holiday. So, I am pretty excited about that.

A new school term is about to start and I guess I’m pretty prepared. Stay tuned!

PEACE OUT.