Herbs

My parents made a dip consisting of soy sauce, chilli, garlic and some chopped leaves. Normally, green stuff on your dining table means that it most probably sucks but the dip made the dinner, mostly due to the leaves. I found some of them in my fridge and using my superior sense of plants identification (mostly learnt from Primary Six's science lab lessons), I managed to identify them.

Turns out that those leaves were Basil leaves and my mother had brought them back from my Grandmother's garden in Malaysia. I'm quite certain that the dip I had today can make any food better. At the very least, it lended its refreshingly aromatic taste well to my soup noodles. The soy sauce forms the base with its sweet saltiness, the garlic with its...garlic-ness, the chilli providing that slight amount of kick and of course, the basil adding that strong and crisp fragrance that it's known for.

I would imagine the dip going extremely well with more neutral-tasting food such as steamed white meat and tofu. My idea of good food is having melted cheese over anything fried. So, don't come complaining if my gastronomic terms are off. I just try to learn as much as I can while watching Discovery Travel & Living. Mostly from Anthony Bourdain but not so much from Nigella Lawson, it's too easy to be distracted by the camera work and her. Both in a good way, of course.

Rain

Not the pop star, the weather.

I believe it has been raining non-stop for a couple of days now and this is probably the most miserable weather I have ever experienced. Beats the hell out of hailstorms, blizzards or a drought but still, this is pretty bad for local standards. One of the promised privileges you get when in living in Singapore is sunny weather all year round, dammit.

Oh wow, the rain actually got heavier when I finished the paragraph.

Aww

God dammit.

A video that showcases how fun a Nintendo Wii is and how disgustingly cute little children can be. I like the father chuckling rather embarrassedly at the end.

Nineteen

It was my birthday 2 days ago and after a good, artery-choking dinner at Carl's Jr, a few of us stayed back and talked by the sea. Sounds romantic here but it was actually just a body of seawater that is separated from us with a man-made stone shore and don't forget about the port that is just across the road from us.

For some reason, I suddenly felt like asking "What's your biggest regret?" and the few of us got even quieter and more pondering-er than a typical nighttime seaside conversation. Although I'm quite proud to say that I do not have any major regrets in life so far, there were some things that came close to being so. But then again, this isn't a sad entry so I'm not going to list those almost-regrets down. For sad blog entries, I recommend Nicholas' and Hansel's.

"Never regret" has always been a mantra of mine and in theory, it works well as a pushing force. To make the whole not regretting thing easier, you would have to DO stuff because most, if not all regrets come from things that you didn't do rather than things that you have done. Nike really nailed it with the "Just do it." attitude and even though it may just be a corporate slogan, devoid of any real human meaning inside, it's still a good phrase to recall in times of hesitation. Just don't actually say it out loud because it will make you look like a stupid idiot.

So anyway, reminds me of how a week ago, I casually called my youngest sister a stupid idiot out of mockery and she just looked at me like I just elbow-dropped her Game Boy Advance or something. After a few seconds of that DEATH STARE, she finally opened her mouth and told me how her teacher told her that "stupid idiot" is a "bad word". The funny thing was how "stupid idiot" is such a standard curse word in primary two that the teacher had to actually tell the whole class how bad it is.

Recently, I saw a photo of my sister and it took me a while to realise that it was my youngest sister that I was looking at because she just looked so different from my fondest image of her. But then again, that fondest image was her almost nine years ago, still unable to speak but made it up by having the most infectious laughter ever. She was such a chubby little baby back then and now she's just a chubby little kid who eats too much.

My family actually bought a birthday cake for me and was planning to celebrate it with me but of course, I chose to talk about depressing topics with my friends instead and missed that. Needless to say, my mother was a little upset so I gave her a nice big hug today, tears (the good kind) just formed in my eyes naturally and I was sure she teared up too because I rarely talk to my family nowadays, let alone hug them. I don't like using smilies much but I believe this sums the whole thing up very appropriately.