|
Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Apologies for abandoning the Imaginarium to the wolves for so long! Guess I just dinna feel up to blogging this week, and I've been busy with Christmas shopping, meetings, generally stuffing my face (as one is wont to do at Christmas break, or any vacation from school for that matter) and baking.
Speaking of baking, for the first time in all my years of Christmas cookie making did I have a major crisis yesterday, and for two consecutive batches! *sobs* First was our traditional batch of chocolate chip cookies, which normally come off without a hitch, since we're so used to the recipe. I think that conplacency was my downfall. My mum hypothesizes it was a problem of too much butter and too little flour, but whatever it is, once we'd popped the cookies in the oven they started spreading out alarmingly, growing larger and larger and flatter and flatter, until they all merged and formed one continuous sheet on the cookie pan like mutant siamese confectionary, and then they started burning even before they were half way through the specified baking time. Upon taking them out, not only did we have to slice the big sheet into pieces, but because of the butter excess the bottoms of the "cookies" (and they were cookies only in the most technical sense of the word) the bottoms of them were all shiny and slick with oil. We then proceeded to try and salvage them by dabbing off the oil, but after a while decided it was a hopeless case and the whole lot went into the bin. *wails* And they had good chocolate chips in them too! Lugged home from our trip to New Zealand, and now they're sitting in the bottom of the bin, sadly waiting for death and the incinerator to take them. GOOD CHIPS. Damn.
So anyway after a sufficient period of mourning and smarting over the morning's unprecedented cookie disaster, we come back and decide that we'll try our hand at cornflake cookies. Hell, the recipe's easy, it calls for half the amount of ingredients that the chocolate chip ones did. So everything goes well with the cornflake cookie making until, once more, we pop them in the oven (why do these things always mess up so late on in the game? You think Murphy would give us a chance for once...), and my mum looks at the leftover crushed cornflakes that didn't make it into the cookies and goes ballistic. "The dough was made with the right amount of butter and flour to support this"--and here she points to the rejected flakes--"much more cornflakes. You didn't put them in and now you're going to have another disaster on your hands." It's at this statement that I really freak. The last thing I want is a reprise of this morning to further batter my already tender kitchen-ego. So I do the unthinkable in baking, that which makes all the hallowed bakers of old writhe in their culinary graves: since barely a minute had passed since we'd put them in the oven I figured it would be alright if we pulled them out and added in the other cornflakes. Sure the cookies would turn out rather chewy and would probably fall apart, as my mother had prophetically intoned, but at least they wouldn't be a big oily burned sheet of cookie roadkill. If anything I had to show that I had learned from this morning's mistakes. Sure, I would still be making mistakes, but it's even more embarassing to commit the same errors twice in a row. Better to commit a different, lesser set the second time round, and at least feel good that you avoided the errors of times past and that now you're creating new LEARNING EXPERIENCES for yourself. Progression. Development. I'm thinking important type people do it all the time though I'm short on examples. So anyway since the dough is already overworked, it's hard to even get it to stick into little balls once they're ready for reinsertion into the oven. The cornflakes don't adhere very well to the dough anyway. So I struggle on, do my best, and the final cookies actually don't turn out all that bad, thankfully. They're chewy but then again because they're cornflake laden they still retain the crunch. Cornflakes are forgiving that way. I love them now. So it was a disaster narrowly averted but the end results weren't stellar either. I'm not used to making bad cookies, and especially not two batches in a row. I need hurting time. *Sob*
So anyway that's the end of that. Oh before I go on further it seems we have a tie for the 20 000th hit! Jiaqi and Naeem, you are today's big winners! Naeem I'm guessing you want a very long overdue copy of How the Other Half Loves, which is duly noted and kicked into Vivienne's rather faulty mind. Must. Make. Will have it to you by Christmas! And on top of that, the both of you get art! It's the best I can do since I've no access to Spanish dubloons or Cuban cigars. ;) So let me know somehow if you've any ideas on what you want in your gift art, if not I'm just gonna let my imagination run all amuck over them and trust me, you just may regret telling me "Oh, anything's fine!" *grin*
Oh yes, the New Zealand trip. Well it can be summarized thus:
1. Lots of sheep (given)
2. Lots of cows (ditto. There were deer and llamas too which were way cuter but less often seen.)
3. Lots of beautiful scenery (and this is really really gorgeous. I've never seen such craggy snowy peaks, rolling hills, lush plains, sparkling lakes, or gone through such scenic drives. It truly did take my breath away)
4. Lots of Middle-Earthians (well considering that like most of New Zealand seems to have been involved one way or another in the making of thetrilogy, and myriads of them became extras in the films, it's unsurprising that they all look like they stepped out of the screen.)
5. Lots of roadkill (on the state highways, one squished possum approx. every 10 minutes of driving)
6. South Island kicks North Island's butt, big time. I fell in love with South Island's glacial landscapes, and was grateful for taking geography with Mr White so that I could see what was so great about Milford Sound and the glaciers and all of it! It was really wonderful and awe-inspiring to see. And the town of Queenstown, on the shores of a very very large lake, is about the most lovely and charming village to move around in. Pity it's a rather expensive place. Tourist trap, y'know. North Island, in contrast, is industrialized, commercialized, kinda polluted and in short not as pristine and magnifnicent. It's the place to live I guess. If ever I have to live in New Zealand, I'd live on the North Island. It's more populated and most towns don't just constitute one toilet, one cafe and one gift shop (unlike on South Island -- rather dismal, that.). But for sheer beauty, and as a tourist, I'd take the South anyday.
7. Lots of trekking. HURRAH! LOSE CALORIES!
8. Everything closes early. Durh. :(
The end!
Actually I'm just kinda hungry. Will be disappearing for brekkie. Will revisit this if self wants to. Bye bye.
Watch the calibre of my language steadily deteriorate over the course of this post! Whee!
Viv wished for the moon @ 8:03 PM
Wednesday, December 08, 2004
YEEEEEEEHAH!! Yup boys and girls, I'm home! But more importantly, thank God! Really I am so thankful:
Vivvy's exam results
CS101: A
CS104: A
CS105: B (oh pooh! Still cannot get straight A's. But I guess I was expecting worse for 105, I thought the projects+half-completed exam = train wreck. )
CS107: A
CS111: A
Of course I'm happy! Even though I'm falling asleep over the computer from fatigue (the evil administration made you plough through this really long online survey before letting you access the results, which really served no purpose other than to prolong the agony of not knowing!)I'm happy. No idea how others did...considering the amount of work I put in, it seems likely that probably many others have done as I have done, perhaps bettered my scores (with all straight A's or sumfing.). I wouldn't say I worked very very hard for the exams. I'm serious. I mean come on, I was reading fanfic till 5 in the morning during that period! But I shan't mention it any longer. Thank God, is all I can say.
Lowdown of our trip to follow! But for now my jetlagged mind CRAVES SLEEP!
Viv wished for the moon @ 12:40 PM
|
