of conincidences and Anne Frank

Omg, guess what I just saw on the Yahoo! homepage news today?!
A postcard written by Anne Frank to her best friend, Samme was found in an old antique store.
And just yesterday, I was blogging about the Anne Frank diary and the holocaust.
How awesome~~ eh??

of Anne Frank and the Holocaust

We had the cutest little old man for clinicals today.
He was so like those old men that you see on black-and-white films with the receeding hairline, small and bony stature complete with that cute voice.
And he had that sense of self-deprecating humor that most old people didn't.

And get this. He was a Holocaust survivor.
I've finaly met one.
And even though he was only 6 when he was in Germany, he still remembered his mum being herded into trucks and him standing behind this huge wrought-iron fence, unable to get to her.
And from there, it was just a-wandering from Germany to Hungary and finally to Australia without his birth certificate.
Hence, his official age being 60++ and his daughter's age being 50++.

Listening to him just reminds me of the Anne Frank story.
I was lucky enough to stumble upon her published diary about her being in the Holocaust during her teens.
And teens are the most insightful creatures.
They emote so well (hence the emo culture right now), they cry and laugh so easily.
They get angry and rebellious at the slight injustice.
And the sun comes out the next minute with the slightest gesture of kindness.

And so, Anne documented this incredibly insightful diary about her being in hiding during Holocaust to avoid being sent to the camps, or worse, chambers.

Textbooks only bring the cold hard facts about the mistreatment that went on during that period.
But reading Anne is like attaching a familiar face or human being to those facts.
You sympathise with her, you wonder whether you could ever be as brave as her.
And your heart aches so badly at the epilogue when Otto (her father) wrote that they were caught just a day after her last entry.
And from there, it was just misery to her.
She was sent to the concentration camp where she died of malnutrition and disease.

And at the very end, you wonder what were her last thoughts, whether she thought of her faimly at all, whether she missed her diary which she affectionately called Kitty, whether she regretted being born Jewish, whether she would go to heaven.
And then you wonder when your time comes, what will be your last thoughts.

of Chinese Whispers and the Olympic saga

so what else do I see on the papers today??!!
nothing but more and more Olympic cock-ups.
China is hitting back now, harder and harder.
and of course, the Paris leg of the torch relay got disrupted.

and did I mention that the Chinese are damn fed-up about negative press that they have started to call the CNN the "Crooked News Network"?
apparently, according to them, CNN is paining such a horrific picture of China that the whole collective is feeling somewhat offended.

oh, but i just have this teensy weensy little thing to point out:
They do not get CNN OR BBC on cable or paid TV.
ONLY tourists hotels get those channels.

so how do they get hold of such news then?
apparently, their Chinese relatives overseas supply them with these so-called bad press.

hmm, i wonder whether they've heard of the phrase "lost in translation"?
or that chilldplay's game of Chinese Whispers where you all sit in a circle and a message is whispered one by one and at the end, it is inevitable that the message gets distorted beyond meaning?
or maybe they could just realise that "hey, CNN and BBC are english-medium channels. so maybe, just maybe, when you translate the news into chinese, it kinda screws up the meaning ey?"?

but because of the bad press from CNN and BBC, they are protesting outside French embassies and Carrefour and KFC.
and yes, even Carrefour and KFC are other hate targets.
apparently, these corporations donated funds to pro-tibet organisations.
so this one Chinese man retaliated by setting up the websites www.anti-kfc.com and www.anti-carrefour.com.

I don't blame them Chinese for doing stunts like these.
what can you do when almost the whole world is against you and you are definitely not the media's darling?!

but hey, nobody is ever a media's darling.
every famous person out there has their share of bad press right?
owells.
staying tune to the latest saga in the Olympics.
it's almost like a glowing, tell-all, vivid painting of the best and worst in man.

of my spanking new Lumix and hotpots

will post up the birthday pictures abit later in the week or maybe the next...
but for now, i just have to show off my spanking new Lumix and its chio-ness in taking cool pictures
bro was craving Pancake Parlour so off we went.

sleepy him at 11am in the morning... don't you just love black and white shots??here i look absolutely stumpy...the totally cool reject shop with their 10-dollars-a-pony head-on-a-stick and their novelty jars to collect money with... you have to be there to enjoy this moment.my favourite shot of the day: my wee little cousin (doesn't look very wee in this shot eh?? he's a grown up boy now and he rocks both my brother's and my worlds. i find it absolutely awesome that he's here in Melb with us and we have so much fun together. i always wanted those huge extended families with cousins getting in your way and in your business all the time. and Robin is the nicest little brother-cum-cousin that i can ever wish for.) and my brother.

the boys wanted those rice whisky to go with the korean dinner that we were having. so we ordered a small bottle and we couldn't finish it so the half-empty bottle is sitting in my fridge now.

the uber yummy mushroom hotpot and Robin in the background with his "My stomach doesn't want to eat anymore!!" complaints. only he can describe his tummy as a seperate person and get away with it.

of Nobu and that culinary gem

I wouldn't say that I'm a complete foodie. but i do enjoy that swirl of revelation on my taste buds that just drives me straight to foodie heaven, whereever and whatever that may be.

and Nobu does that with that right amount of omigoodness-es.
and stupid me, forgot to bring along the camera for that moment of culinary delight.
and i shall try to reveal all in that foodie-critic style. should be fun using those cheem cheem words. shall rack my brains out then.

so the first course was this appetiser specially recommended by our server.
it's this yellowtail sashimi with jalapeno and a drizzle of "..." soya sauce. (couldn't catch the name of the sauce but owells.lol)
and omg....
the yellowtail had the right fishy taste, and that thin sliver of jalapeno gave that right amount of spiciness. and I'm a sucker for coriander on anything. so the coriander on the fish was an added bonus.
it didn't have a lot of ingredients.
but the moment i put it in my mouth, it was really foodie nirvana.
it had that combination of taste that reminded you of being on a beach ten thousand miles away with a coconut in your hand.
it had that laidback feel to it.

and then came the beek tataki with crispy garlic chips and minced onion with this other sauce again.
i've tried my fair amount of beef tataki before. but this trumps all.
the raw beef taste was exquisite, it was so strong that the sauce and onion failed to mask it which I totally love!
and i absolutely abhor garlic and onion and ginger.
but this dish managed to entice me into eating those crispy yummy golden garlic chips.

and then the salmon skin salad.
and for the love of my life, I have never seen so many cute interesting little salad leaves in my life.
i can tell you right now that Nobu doesn't just use any salad leaves from the market. i think they specially import it from goodness-knows-where.
the salmon skin was good. but the veggie in me relish those little exploding bombs of taste with every leaf.

and then came the piece de resistance.
the black cod with miso.
omg omg omg omg omg.
this truly deserves 5 omg-es.
it was.... just heavenly.
the fish literally melts in your mouth with those little slivers of fat in between the slices of meat. the miso was salty and fragrant.
for a moment, you can just sit there with that piece of fish in your mouth and not care or realise where you are.
it really does transport you into this whole new place where taste is dominant. i swear on this.
we had the most lovely time just chewing the fish, not daring to swallow and just swirling it in our mouth to milk every last drop of fishy essence from the fish.
and then the last bite came all too soon. sad.

and the the house special hand roll.
Nobu is never ordinary. and their hand rolls rock all the other hand rolls into oblivion.
most hand rolls are just rice with a tiny sliver of fish.
but Nobu generously packs with 4 (i counted and tasted every one!!)different kinds of fish.
and all of the sashimi was not supermarket-unfresh-crap. it was good.

and the the sashimi platter that came with a bowl of rice. (omg, can i just say that the rice at Nobu even tastes wonderful?!)
the sashimi was to die for with salmon, mackerel, tuna and yellowtail.
but the fresh scallop was one little circular thick disc of delight to be reckon with.
i have never known scallop to be so sweet. but this was.
it gave me that feeling of luxury with that seafood-ey avalanche of saltiness.
but i could still taste that sweet sweet flesh.

and the bill came all too soon.
it was a whopping amount.
but all i can say is that it is totally worth it. every cent.

and good food really does inspire good conversation.
there's this connection between tummy and the brain that scientists have yet to discover.
we had the loveliest time because of that connection.

time to save up for the next-year-trip to Nobu. *grins*

of the messed-up Olympics and Imagination

And the Olympics was suppose to foster ties between nations.
My primary school textbooks still intones the 5 coloured rings signify unity and peace in the world.
But world unity and peace is no more.

France's PM decides to boycott the games.
Britain's head is not going to be present at the opening.
The EU is urging their members to boycott the games.
Rudd is even thinking of doing a no-show.
Almost every country wants an open communication between China and Tibet.

China blames the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama says he's innocent. He only wants Tibet's autonomy, not independence. He's a man of peace, he says, not one for violence.
But his followers, Buddhist monks are raging on in Lhasa.
And throughout the world, along the torch's journey, people are joining the monks in halting the games in its tracks.

This whole shenanigan is one whole big mess.
and i have just the very solution:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...


John Lennon was way ahead of his time. and he's a genius.
he's a wonderful insightful kid in a grown-up's world.
sometimes, all we need is just a little bit of imagination...
and maybe a whole lot of justice and kindness.

but hey, let's not kid ourselves, shall we?

of the non-ambassador and the munchies (and Nicholas's birthday!)

just been chosen as an ambassador for the End Child Slavery campaign by Oaktree Foundation, a youth-run, non-profit Aussie organisation.
but sadly, I have to turn them down.
too much work to do and so little time.

on a brighter note, it's Nicholas's birthday today. and since he's such an awesome friend, i shall be a good person and wish him a happy birthday!! i will forever remember his beeg beeg eyes (lol) and think his blog is such an entertaining read. hugs and will see you soon, dude! in the meantime, read more books then you can recommend some good ones for me when i come back alright? and someone is 20 already! hit the big 2-0 already huh?

i'm itching to bake the saucepan brownie again. blame it on the munchies.
and i bought a brigh blue nail polish from Sportsgirl today for a mere 3 bucks! ~yayness~so Rach, if you have a sudden craving for bright blue, you know who to look for huh?

turning 20 soon and i'm feeling a tad cranky.
blame it on the fact that i'm feeling OLD.
and that's what OLD people do all day.
they get cranky cranky cranky.
it's my right.
blah.

of the smallest black hole and spaghetti

omg i just find this too interesting to ignore!
read on the Yahoo! homepage about the smallest black hole ever found.
it's like the size of a large city.

and get this: it's called J1650!!
i think NASA scientists are way to uncreative in naming space thingies, what with their naming every star or black hole or whatever there is out there with a number code and an alphabet.
if it was up to me, i will probably name it John Ramses the II or the Itsy-Bitsy-Mitsy Black Hole.
subsequent smaller blackholes will just be named Itsy-Bitsy-Mitsy Black Hole the II aka The Real Deal and so on...

kinda reminds me of C3PO from Star Wars and all the wonderful modern equipment i have in my apartment right now. like my laptop is the Portege M500-310 and my kettle is Estrog F549.
every damn modern appliance i have is tagged with a serial number behind it, come ot think of it.
thank goodness us humans have not resort to that yet. we still have names and nicknames.
imagine a science fiction-ey society where i'm called M1504EL and my brother is called J1405ON. hmm....

but i digress.
this little J1650 can apparently "stretch your body into a strand of spaghetti".
it just tickles me to no end that someone like me can be thinner than Kate Moss in that black hole.
and it's from a star that burn up its fuel and collapse into its own gravity.

and the rest of the article is something cheem about Einstein being way ahead of his time and getting the estimation of this black hole right. the NASA person was actually quite excited about this fact.

and all i could think of is the spaghetti part and wondering how my brother's bottomless pit of a stomach can be stretched until THAT thin.

of love at every sight and those little trills

just read this on Rach's blog.
and i so totally agree with what she just said,

**love at first sight is so easy to find.
whoever said that it was the most difficult around?
it's love at every sight which is the hardest.
have a think about it.**

and i think that this applies to family and friends, not only that special someone in your life.
families get in your businesses all the time.
friends annoy you with their questions.
and it becomes harder to remeber that you love them.
but at the end,
they love you too much to let you be alone for any second of your day.

and as for you,
you just make me laugh so hard at every sight that my heart is lighter, less worried, even does little trills (which in medical terms is quite bad for me, but who cares?)

of paradoxical situations

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider Freeways, but narrower viewpoints.

We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less.

We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We've learned how to make a living, but not a life.

We've added years to life not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor. We conquered outer space but not inner space.

We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.

We've conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.

We write more, but learn less.

We plan more, but accomplish less.

We've learned to rush, but not to wait.

We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships.
These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes.

Give time to love, give time to speak! And give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

If you can find just one reason to let something go, then never hesitate.
It is usually enough because we usually downplay situations.
Do it for yourself.
Don't let yourself be drag through muck and mud.
It's not worth it.