Wind In My Head
Wind In My Head
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
A Desert on a Hot Day
I go through phases where I like a certain type of food and I hanker for it all the time. Sometimes the hankering is quite detrimental because I want sinful food. My most detrimental hankering was for Gummi Bears a few years ago. I had just broken up with a guy who I had been going out with for 6 years. Needless to say, I wasn't in very good shape and was far too nauseated to stomach anything. My poor brother, in an attempt to get me to eat something, bought me gummi bears for diabetics- quick energy I suppose. And I polished off the entire bag and asked for more. My system soon associated it to be comfort food and constantly demanded it. My favourite ones were the greeen, apple flavoured ones and I began to have grades for the gummi bears. Some tasted better than others and soon enough, I had sniffed out all the right places to buy gummi bears. It was still okay at the point when I was still upset over the break up because I still wasn't eating as much as I should. And by the time I got my appetite back, I was off to Oz. Yet another shock to my system that was made easier by gummi bears- a whole kilo of it that a friend had kindly bought for me as a going away present.That went on for about six months in Oz, thereby facilitating my freshmen ten.
Thank goodness, I got over that phase and found another. There was the Starburst phase, the raspberry soda phase (thank goodness I got over that one), garlic bread phase and the Bubble Tea phase (this was in my final year and all the weight I lost after first year was rapidly put back with this phase. Afterall, at the height of it, I was drinking two cups a day with all that sugar and all that tapioca starch).
One thing I learnt about my hankering for food is that it doesn't mean it won't make a repeated appearance, although I am thankful that the gummi bear one hasn't come round again. The bubble tea one did. Thankfully, sans bubbles. I found a less sinful replacement in the form of jelly in the drink and have not looked back since.
This is aided by the fact that my aunt runs one of these stalls and makes the most awesome of drinks. Regardless of weather or time of day, there is always a queue. Even though I am her niece and she has extended to me the privillege of waiting in the airconditioned comfort of the inner sanctum of her stall, I often choose to be one of common folk. So, I stand in the sweltering sun and await the cool cool relief of her fruity ice blended jelly drinks. While in the queue today, I spotted a sign that I had known was there for the longest time, but never quite noticed.
At first, I thought it was a mirage. Afterall, it was a hot day, in my conceptual memory was rapidly firing away words associated with heat. So perhaps, desert was an apparition. But upon closer inspection, it was a typo. A funny and commonly made typo. Irony in a cup. It hasn't made the experience any less. In fact, it is more endearing.
After all, it is my very own desert in a cup.
Technorati Tags: Dessert, Bubble Tea, Gummi Bears
Ondine tossed this thought in at 21:49
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Gummis from toxic swamp
The last time I had a hankering for gummi bears, it was when I first went to Melbourne, even though when I was pregnant, gummi bears did save my life. I'm a little bit wary of them now, it happens when you've eaten enough to last a life time and in Melbourne, I could go through a kilo a week so that was really more than anyone should eat in a life time.Anyway.
Yesterday, I bought gummi bears again. Not because I wanted to eat them but because even in the confectionary industry, size does matter. See, on the right, is the regular sized gummi bear. On the right, a Papa gummi bear? Or was it one that got stretched out? Or did it start off as a tiny gummi bear that accidentally fell into a puddle of toxic goo? Whatever happened, it was huge and somewhat deformed.
And when I tried it, it reminded me once again of Melbourne days. But for a different reason. Being poor international students, we tended to get food that was cheap but would fill us up. We discovered meatballs from the Asian grocers were a good thing to put into our noodles (those days, we went through a carton of Indo-mee a fortnight). By accident, we discovered that the longer you boiled the meat balls for, the bigger they became. I think our record was boiling them to the size of ping pong balls. And the theory behind it was, the bigger it was, the more meat there was, the better it was to fill us. Unfortunately, by overboiling it, the taste of the meatball was destroyed. It wasn't chewy or meaty anymore. It just tasted like boiled flour. Similarly, the giant gummi bear, albeit larger, didn't taste as good. In fact, it wasn't very yummy, it was just chewy and where's the fun of a gummi bear if it isn't yummy?
Technorati Tags: gummi bears
Ondine tossed this thought in at 13:29
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
You are That Guy
Inspired by Mr Brown who was inspired by Mercer Machine who inspired a whole lot of bloggers.You are the boy who spent your school fees on $10 worth of chicken wings thereupon getting a spanking from your mother.
You are the boy who grew up to play games every week with fellow boys.
You are the boy who got a Playstation 2 as an engagement present.
You are the boy who would eat like a boy if you lived alone, living on potato chips and Pepsi.
You are the boy who would like it very much if he didn't have to grow up.
But you are a boy who is also a guy.
You are that guy that she met at the pre-departure talk, who insulted her baby blue mobile phone in an attempt to get her phone number.
You are the guy that commented on how she stood like a dancer with her feet turned flat out.
You are that guy that apparently dedicated music to her over the radio and staked out the uni just hoping you catched a glimpse of her.
You are the guy that got lucky when you bumped into her at the traffic just outside uni on the first day of school.
You are the guy that repeated her phone number all the way home just in case you forgot it and missed the chance again.
You are the guy that she out ate on your first date.
You are the guy that had to bear all the crap when she couldn't decide who she liked better, you or some other guy back home.
You are the guy that won her heart by buying her gummi bears and walking her home from ballet in the cold.
You are the guy that she impressed by eating through half a bucket of fried chicken and then sat back and asked what's for desert.
You are the guy that had to be taught what relationships were and in turn taught her how to work hard in a relationship.
You are the guy that put your thesis on the back burner while she wigged out about her own thesis through the year.
You are the guy who proposed to her on the plane back to Melbourne and made her dizzy.
You are the guy that wanted to wear Bata shoes to the wedding and refused to be put into ill-fitting Kenneth Coles.
You are the one who got up there during your wedding and sang to your bride.
You are the guy that endured the pillows hurled at you in her sleep.
You are the guy who will go out there and look for yak's milk from Yemen if she ever demanded it.
You are the guy that buys her flowers and burns her cds just to make her smile.
You are the guy that believes, trusts and prays even when she has given up hope.
You are the guy of her dreams and her greatest fear is to live without you.
Who are you? You are that guy and I am that girl.
Ondine tossed this thought in at 09:51