First Week of School is Always So Sian

Didn't have any mood to write anything even though I had plenty of time over the past few days. In fact, I was so sick and tired of watching movies on my laptop yesterday that I went over to Chris's place to get the cookie mix to bake. Ok ok I know using cookie mix is cheating but what other choice do I have? I have no mixer or weighing scales here and I don't have any intention of buying them. After all I'll only be here for 2 years, so why waste the money? I did buy a vegetable chopper for $4 today though. What the hell, it was cheap and I am so sick of chopping onions and garlic manually. The garlic smell stays on your hands for days after and it takes ages to go away. So you'll end up smelling garlic everytime you bring your hands to your face and you wonder whether the people around you can smell it too. How embarrassing if you were in the lecture theatre and people starting moving away from you or holding their breath?

I tried to be healthy this week. I went for a walk with my housemates and Chris on Tuesday and went swimming on Thursday, effectively skipping my tutorial. Now I'll have to make up for that tutorial tomorrow. Surprisingly I did miss swimming and it felt good to be under the water again. However, I found it weird that I seemed to swim much slower than usual. Was it because the water is different here, maybe more dense? Did I gain so much weight that now I move like a slug under the water? Or maybe my long hair is creating too much resistance under the water? Whatever the reason, I found it enormously tiring to pull myself through the water and it felt like I was moving an inch for every stroke. It was good exercise though, my legs were wobbly after I swam 20 laps and I was exhausted. I started getting aches yesterday and it felt good. I have finally done something good for my body. I hope I'll be able to continue swimming and walking at least 3 times a week. With my predictably busy schedule coming up soon, I might just find myself reverting back to the lazy, couch potato me in a few months time and I don't want that to happen. Oh yes, I'll be playing tennis this Friday with Mag!!! I can't wait...I'm really excited. I miss tennis so much...I miss the smell of the balls, the grip of the handle, the vibrations that travel up your arms when the ball hits the sweet spot of the racquet and even the running and sweating. Yes I especially miss the sweating. Back home when we would train so hard that we would be dripping sweat off our noses and our entire T-shirts were soaked...sweating was much more effortless in S'pore. Over here, you really have to go the extra mile just to squeeze a little sweat from your pores. Also, my skin and lips have become extremely dry. I have to moisture everyday and go through the oily feeling where you leave traces of yourself all over the table and computer. Yucks...I hate cleaning away all the oil stains and it gets really troublesome when the oil gets onto small stuff like your wallet or handphone.

On Friday, after school, Chris and I went down to West End to check out a sushi buffet recommended by Mag. The price was average at $12 per person but the food was average. This wasn't the kind of sushi restaurant where they have the moving sushi plates on a belt. Instead you have to stand up and walk to the buffet table to get whatever you wanted. The range of sushi was limited too. I guess when you compare this to Suki Sushi in S'pore, this place really sucks. I miss having free-flow sashimi and unagi. I miss having free-flow lime juice and just sitting there, stretching out your arms to grab a plate.

Chris and I have been more adventurous lately. It can't be helped. After being here for 1 semester, we've become bored of visiting the same old places all the times. Now we want to explore and visit new places and eat different food. Hence, we went down to Milton today to a eatery called Singapura. Obviously, the place sells S'porean food and it was pretty good. I have Hainan chicken rice while Chris ordered Hokkien mee. The chicken rice was good, the rice was fragrant and soft, the chilli was tasty and the chicken was tender. I never thought that I would enjoy it so much considering the fact that we actually can buy chicken rice paste and cook it on our own. Yum....it must be the chilli. The mee was good too, only that they gave really tiny prawns and there was no sambal. I preferred the rice. The prices were not too expensive either, average price was only $7. I wonder how they prepare the sauce they pour over the chicken after cutting it up. That seems to be the key ingredient to make the chicken taste good. Now that I think about it, I also miss claypot chicken rice. This is one of the things I'll be eating when I get back. In fact, I'll probably have a whole list of food to savour once I step off the plane....wahahaha....no worries, I already have friends offering to go food hunting with me. Weirdly enough, they are all guys....ahahhaah.....