what the *#$@(&@$!?
Got this link from someone's blog. Thought that some of you refined mid-twenties folks out there might be interested. How to insult, swear, cuss, and curse in 165 languages! Very useful for travelling, haggling, and picking fights. They even have our favourite Singlish swear words, noting that "Singapore recognizes four official languages: English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. Singaporeans also speak a peculiar brand of English called "Singlish". This mixes English with Chinese dialects (mostly Hokkien) and some Malay." Seems like Singlish is gaining international repute/infamy. Played Trivial Pursuit (American Edition) with a couple of s'porean friends last night, and one of the questions went to the tune of: "Which city state's main language is known as Singlish, a mix of English, Malay and Chinese?" We certainly did not have trouble with the answer. =P The other questions however, were much too difficult for us, simply because of the american slant. Gosh, it was just like watching Americans stumbling on world affairs/geography questions on game shows. We ended up asking each other the easiest questions we could find in a stack of cards rather than the specific category on a given card. haha. Had a great time though. A yummy sashimi dinner, followed by Trivial Pursuit, Cranium, Trivial Pursuit (round II) and finally 'Mafia' (a game something like polar bear and murderer). Wah, hang out with Singaporeans very mentally stimulating...every thing must use brain one leh. =P

the countdown

"Distance is just a test to see how far love can travel"
- Anonymous

I think we've done pretty well in this test...don't you?

For those of you who haven't heard, D was accepted into the exact same PhD program at BU. I'm his TF for BE505. Scandalous. He'll be here in the fall. 3 more months! 3 more months! 3 more months!
Here. Boston. Daryl. Xiao. Together. FINALLY!!!!!! (excuse the sappiness...but i believe i've waited long enough ya? =P)

You'll Never Walk Alone

The Champions League final 2005 was certainly a night to remember. Perhaps the best European Cup final of all time? Tears of despair changed into tears of hope and again transformed into tears of pure, unadulterated joy on this roller coaster ride. Miracles DO happen after all. This game will be surely be talked about for generations to come.

Liverpool Football Club, Champions of Europe!

Liverpool was painted Red as an estimated half a million fans lined the city streets for yesterday's victory parade. Football crazy (or should i say dedicated) fans the British are...

AC Milan got off to a quick start, with Maldini scoring within the first 50 seconds. Things went downhill for Liverpool from there, and the score was a humiliating 3-0 to Milan at the end of the first half, and two players suffered injuries. Drastic changes, Rafa!

the mood at halftime...

Drastic changes were made, and just 9 minutes into the second half it began to turn around... Goals by Gerrard, Smicer and Alonso in 6 short minutes of madness!!!! AC Milan 3, Liverpool 3! Who would have thought it?

A worthy captain heads in the goal that triggers the amazing comeback...

30 minutes of extra time. Players were running on empty, but Liverpool hung on for dear life... The oft-criticized Dudek made a super last ditch double save off Shevchenko (European Player of the Year 2004) dubbed 'the real hand of God'. You should have seen it.

The much dreaded Penalties. Dudek the hero again. His Grobbelaar-inspired "starfish with jelly legs" impersonation saved the day, and Liverpool beat AC milan 3-2 on penalties. What a comeback!!!! You too could learn to "Du the Dudek". =P

the final save that won the game... (nice thighs...hee)

and so a miracle happened...the world was painted red.

..and we all lived happily ever after.

The heartstopping drama was well worth it... (damn stressful to watch the game ok!!)

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS.....

A Food Odyssey 2005
Daryl visited Boston for three weeks, and we finally got to spend some quality time together. Of course we did little else but indulge in something that excites us both greatly....EATING loh. =P BU's spring break coincided with his visit, but instead of doing something like snowboarding or going on a road trip, we decided on cooking as our main form of activity. Yeah, there's nothing like a good meal to get that adrenaline (or is it just saliva?) flowing. We cooked at least one meal a day, and big meals they were. We had 3 friends over for dinner one night, and planned an eight-course meal, just because there were so many things we wanted to cook! In the end we settled for just six courses (but of course the other two courses we cooked for ourselves the next day). I'm not sure how much weight I put on...I can see myself getting rounder and unfortunately, i think it's the same for D. He's now back in Singapore (more food!), and his relatives have been telling him that he's gotten fatter, but of course following up with 'oh, that's a good thing'. One day I should put up some before and after pics of us...one from a few years ago when we were fitter and healthier, and one after our most recent binge fest. But we had an awesome time and I suppose being apart for 80% of each year, that's would be the most important thing...

Here's one of our homecooked meals with Chicken Watercress Soup, Grilled Sambal Stingray, erm..some sort of Sambal Tumis with Eggs and Stingray dish, and Salted Fish Fried Rice! My only table is really small, not even 1m x 1m, so maybe that's the limiting factor to the number of dishes we make. Hehe =)