I've been officially 25 for a few weeks, since it's a landmark quarter of a century thing... I think I should blog about some ideas and thoughts it.

Starting off... here's what I wrote on my 21st...

I can't believe this, I'm sick on the day I turn 21. What a start to adulthood. Having the lethal combination of flu, fever and sore throat. Thank god I had plenty of fun for the past three days to make up for it. (suspiciously, i think the sickness was probably due to having too much fun)

Friday was our halloween-themed BBQ night, thanks to everyone who came, I had a blast! Thanks for all the presents, I love them so much! To the dearest friends doing the much-dreaded bbqing most of the time, applause for the good service (hehe) and sorry that you had to bear with all the ant bites. Photos will be posted up real soon (by tmr, not next year. the camera's taking awfully long to charge and I'm too tired to wait.)

Saturday @ Thumper was equally good. I saw racehorse legs (courtesy of the gorgeous models hanging there), devils (its halloween), austin powers, a nurse (kinky, i like), the usual assortment of monsters AND of course - a fine-looking, bespectacled man in striped shirt whom I did my best to make an effort to smile more, wink a little, and make moderate eye-contact with, in the presence of his female companion.

The alcohol flowed endlessly, thanks to Pammie and Jason (winks at les)... At 4, I was still suitably high... so much that I wanted to head to Devils for more partying, until I realised how tired my friends were - then we walked to newton where I dropped my witch's hat quite a no. of times along the way. Sobered up with sugarcane juice and carrot cake before heading home.

Crawled up to give tuition on Sunday and met up with Shups to pick up Cheang Khong Guan (her kitten). Khong Guan, or rather... Guan Guan, is the most adorable thing on earth, was so amazed at how much he grew since we last saw him. He fell asleep in Shup's red quiksilver cap so suddenly that we thought he fainted. Such a cute and lovable baby with a curious appetite for kitty-litter and a heart-meltingly piteous mew.

Darr came over later at night - thought it was going to be just both of us, until the hamster appeared and gave me quite a shock, then dearest pearly arrived too. *smiles* Felt so touched. Headed off to Esplanade with some food and drinks, scowled and sulked quite a bit due to a matter, then all was fine. Thanks for coming down!

Alright, time to end this long post. I can't believe this, its 5.50pm and I have yet to eat anything, thanks to the bloody sore throat. Hope I'll be able to survive Fish & Co. Laters!

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WAS THAT ME? I used to sound so... ditzy but sincerely happy. I sounded like a much happier person. Is it normal that people sound less happy when they grow older or is it just me? That's the good thing about blogs, they save all these memories.

I've stopped calling Love, Love. I call her Bun after I got self-conscious about it, I should go back to calling her Love. after all, this is a person who deserves all the credit for putting up with my crap, making life as comfortable for me as possible especially during the last few weeks of being tortured by clashing conference and examinations. I aged a lifetime, I think she did too. So, the least I can do in this blog is to get rid of the self-conscious feeling and just name her as what I feel about her. Love.

BTW, Love has finally graduated, it was touching watching her go up the stage to receive her second uppers. For all the hard work that she put in, I really think she deserves a first class. But of course we both agreed from experience with her classmate who spent after-office hours and every weekend in the library to get her first class... that would make us miserable. I sat with her mum and I felt like a proud parent myself with a camera and waiting to shoot the moment she shook hands with the dean. I think I'll remember her smiling in that gown for a long time. Alright, no getting misty-eyed - ANYS, do you know how much it costs to graduate?? For her school, it costs a bloody bomb. I suppose it's the school's last ditch attempt to squeeze whatever they can out of their students - it costs almost a thousand quid just to wear the gown, bring your loved ones in for the ceremony and take a few photos. I can practically hear the vendors laughing all the way to the bank. Poor Love, she paid every cent. Anys Love told me that RMIT's charging more for their gown, my turn to be ketoked soon.

Love will be heading to SH and BJ for 2 weeks - so on Mon, I came up with this great idea to bake her a swiss roll, sheperd's pie and a quiche. Well... actually I'm the one who loves quiche. To prove my seriousness, I even went to the library early in the morning (BEFORE IT OPENED - I forgot the opening hours) and waited for 40mins with retirees, mums with their kids and students for the doors to open at 10am.

I spent over 80 bucks on the 'supplies' yesterday and got down to work. You know... I always thought I make a pretty not-bad cook, looking at the pretty pictures of the recipes, it built this image of me floating through the kitchen, oozing with domestic goddessness. BUT WAIT, I don't even have an electronic whisk! A good swiss roll, I learnt later, needs to have a combination of eggs and caster sugar beaten till it's creamy, before you fold in the flour. When the recipe meant creamy, it meant that when you draw a line across the mixture, the line stays. That is almost impossible with my ONE manual whisk and weak hands which grew tired after ten mins of non-stop whisking. Dad got disturbed by the noise, when he came over, I thought he was going to give some 'comments', but he took the whisk from me and started whisking. Despite our good effort, the first one was... lets just say, if I post up a picture of it, a lot of people would've died laughing, it reminded me of those pipes that they use in construction work. Undeterred, I scoured online for a more comprehensive recipe. You see, the recipe I had didn't tell me the meaning of thick and creamy, I mean... campbell soup consistency is considered thick and creamy too, right? So that was when I realised what was needed, no wonder my 1st swiss roll was as flat and heavy as a... bad pancake.

So the 2nd attempt had me and my dad watching soccer together while taking turns to whisk. We whisked from the beginning of the match till half-time - 50mins. The mixture became thick and creamy... I am now considering getting an electronic whisk, 10mins would've done the job with it. But then again it's good family bonding. :D Anys, the mixture rose but the outcome was a flop, the mixture was wet at some parts because of the uneven heat distribution of my expensive and impressive looking BUT disappointing oven. Multi-function... my A**.

Domestic goddess should be equipped with the right stuff - this i mean... good equipment and experience.

The sheperd's pie came out well - I mentioned experience, didn't I? ;P

The quiche... hmmm... it wasn't that bad, I'll improve on the crust. Love summarized that I should stick to doing the savoury stuff and she'll handle the sweet stuff. Now, each time I see swiss rolls and sponge cakes, I am going to weep. It looked so EASYY!

Ah... 21 year-old Pearl would never blog about baking.

Anys, Love was rather touched, rather touched instead of very touched... I think that was because I made her eat half of the 2nd swiss roll, but well, she's lucky I didn't make her eat the first. That would've been pure torture, I'll save that for the future, when she makes me really angry. Now... did I also remember hearing my classmates say that they are willing to be my guinea pigs?

The next thing about growing up, the recession does scare you. Our zeh-zeh who's an expat in HK's Citibank got retrenched. It's scary how you are at that age where you see economic downturns affecting people you know. For me, I'll have to stick with working for my... nevermind... with gritted teeth. It came to a point where my classmates were telling me that they'll give me an expensive treat if I just quit my job. I'll decide when the 13-month bonus comes.

Which reminds me, I'll be going on my first official trip next week! The location's not much to rave about, it's Jakarta and I'll be there for three days. I just pray that it's not going to get bombed or something - Insurance insurance. Overall, I'm looking forward to pick up new things.

The next is that... birthdays celebrations are no longer as important, there are other priorities like work and school, I was surprisingly fine with sacrificing that. 21 year-old Pearl wouldn've been highly upset. =) Actually, being upset is not a bad thing, it's good. I think I need to be more enthusiastic about birthdays.

Last but not least... HAPPY MONTH-NIVERSARY, LOVE! 3 and a half years! Thank you for everything, looking forward to the 4th and more!