Wednesday, May 27, 2009

delf b1 today was quite ok actually. but it was at 8am so i was totally understandably not yet awake. and i totally understandably zoned out during the 1st listening compre. it was simple yet i only caught 50% hahaha.. that woke me up though definitely. the paper ended at 10am and i had to wait till 2pm for my oral exam. it went well enough i suppose. yet another person commented on my bonne prononciation hehee. merci merci. mais tu peux peut-être améliorer ton vocabulaire et puis prendre le delf b2 ce décembre.. mais tu es une bonne candidate. hehehe merci merci.

anyways. i managed to read a humourous article while killing time waiting for my oral exam. i picked up the may '09 issue of the golf digest and came across this article titled-
How to play golf during a recession - Dan Jenkins

The other day, in my continuing effort to survive in these dire economic conditions, I was forced to sell my new $3,000 driver on the Internet. It went for $17.23 to the highest bidder. But it put food on the table. This got me to thinking that I should write a guide for other recreational golfers on how to continue enjoying golf while coping with the current Depression. I'm happy to say that Golf Digest purchased the guide from me for $6.14. Herewith I offer a few excerpts:

Resign from your country club, now. I know you paid $100,000 to join after staying on the waiting list for five years, at $6,500 a year, but you really don't need those monthly dues of $542, plus the new chef has made the fried chicken taste like trout amandine.

Think of it this way: With only one month's dues you might be able to buy a two-story, five-bedroom house in an elegant neighborhood in 2012.

Do not regret the loss of status. Most economists are betting that within three years you'll be able to rejoin your country club for $50.

Rid yourself of those other expensive clubs in your bag. Just guessing, but you can probably get $24 for that $10,000 set of irons made out of enriched uranium from Iran, $18 for the $5,000 hybrid that was constructed out of a Lance Armstrong bicycle, and maybe 10 bucks for your $8,000 mallet putter with the head that's a replica of a roving lunar module.

In these desperate times there are less-flamboyant woods and irons and putters to take with you to the public courses where you will be playing.

Think brassie. Think baffy. Think mashie. Think niblick. For a putter, you probably would prefer to dig out the old Bulls Eye or Cash-In, but smart money would try to find a rusted Wright & Ditson blade with loft.

Why? Because the muny greens you play--yes, I'm reintroducing the word muny--will be mowed only once a week, if that, and the loft will come in handy on those testy six-footers.

You will like muny golf. Among other things, it will bring back memories of your younger days before you became a CEO with off-shore banking concerns, the carefree time when you went to work every night with only a .38, a ski mask and a getaway car.

The muny green fees shouldn't be more than 50 cents for 18 holes throughout this decade. However, even they can be avoided once you've slimmed down from hunger and find it possible to get on the course by sliding under the wire fence at No. 3.

Of course, there are two other ways to sneak on.

There is the creek you can enter from behind Fred's Donuts and Wonton that will take you under the bridge and lead you to a spot just below No. 8. But the stones you will have to step on to keep from falling into one of the deep areas can be awfully slippery, which might even be more difficult with a golf bag slung over your shoulder.

And then there's the storm drain you can enter at the side of Wanda's Ceramics and Pantyhose that will bring you out reasonably close to No. 12. On lazy days when you can't seem to interest anyone in a lively 10-cent nassau, you can look for lost golf balls. Muny courses are a haven for this sort of fun. In a single afternoon recently I came home with a virtual treasure chest of Spalding Kro-Flites, Maxfli Reds, Hagen Honey Centers, Uniroyals and half a dozen Po-Dos.

If none of this interests you, if you're simply too caught up in the rancid economy, you might want to consider dying.

It certainly relieves you of any worries about your massive debt or what appears to be a portfolio that's well beyond rescue. I have actually looked into it, where my own faith is concerned, and have been assured that in the Hereafter there are no three-putt greens, no water hazards, enchiladas are on the lunch menu every day, and your dog speaks English.


well written and very entertaining!


------ Saturday, May 23, 2009

c'est pas facile.. je meurs de l'effort..

today i realised my comrades de classe think the same way as me about someone. hmmmm. should i be happy abt that or not?
anyways. still thinking if i shd go out later.


------ Thursday, May 21, 2009

rarrr rarrrr rarrrrrrrrrr delf B1 is coming up next wed and i've done nothing much to prepare for it except to have mental conversations in my head.
it's a suggestion karen gave me some time back: walking on the streets, or in the train or the bus, just pick a random stranger, imagine a situation happening and have a mental conversation with him/her. think of what you could say and say it in your head. sometimes i feel like a 5 yr old again, having imaginary conversations with a make-believe friend.

but i do have to put in some effort for the test i suppose. at the very least, i don wanna waste my $65! ah well i've got nxt tuesday off to study for it, better make full use of it man!


------ Sunday, May 17, 2009

un mois plus tard, je suis encore contente. même si c'était juste une bise et seulement une touche.. c'est assez maintenant.


------ Sunday, May 10, 2009

i was away on training on wed, which ended early, so i went to the gym early and after my laborious run, i decided to go for a different yoga class. this is an intermediate class at an earlier time so there were much lesser ppl.

and so at the door of the yoga studio, i saw this tall, well-built guy going for the same class as well. he was running a few treadmills away from me (not alot of ppl running at that time) so i thought he was like me, going for some stretching after a run.
and when class started, to my huge surprise, he turned out to be a yoga master of sorts. he was so good at it, so flexible, i felt kinda embarrassed practising next to him 'cos i'm still not too good at it. esp during the balancing positions, gosh i must have toppled over so much it bordered on being comical. and there he was, a look of calm and serenity on his face, stretching into a pose i can never reach. it's... surreal actually.


but anyways. a mini war of sorts broke out on fri morning and i was totally totally caught in the crossfire with no shield! it's kinda like.. a deer caught in the lions' playground.
so i went to whack some balls at the range in the evening and it was totally.. uninspiring. gahhhhh. i think golf needs hand eye co-ordination, which i think i'm not as good as i thought hahaha..


oh oh we found a recipe for choc truffles, and that's what i'm trying to make now. but erm, can someone tell me: after bringing the whipping cream to boil and dissolving the dark choc in it, is it supposed to turn lumpy (the cooled dissolved choc) and liquidy (the whipping cream i think)? it looks wrong man.. cant imagine what it'll look like tmr after 1 nite in the freezer...........


------ Saturday, May 02, 2009

just thought i should note it down simply cos it's really rare:
i hit a 大三元 last nite at mj at ed's place! woooooot!! it was my first time, in fact, the first time i ever saw anyone winning with a 大三元 in my life! the chances are so small, i thought it will only ever happen in movies, or on computer games.
i hit a 大三元 with 半色 (万子) plus 碰碰 !! that's 14 台 and it would have won me over $6,500 if there wasn't a cap.. the feeling is damn shiok!

but i wasn't the big winner. that was edmund, who had incredible luck. he won with 花上满台 with literally the last tile of the game.. and not once, but TWICE. lucky shit.

it was a thoroughly exciting 2.5 hours which started near midnite after golf range. i got home at slept by 3.30am, then woke up at 9am to go to work today. laborious day for me.


but anyways. that exciting note aside, sometimes i do wonder at my own capability to be sane again and again. even though it seems like it is enough to drive me insane, but here i am, flowing downstream again and again.. and sometimes, like times like these, like now, it just makes me want to shut myself away again.
oh for the life of me.....


------