Silent Night (and other stuff)

Prologue: My supervisor is pestering her fellow grad student (including yours truly) to penned up an abstract to be made to be presented on PPA-13 which will be held on 19-21 July 2011 at Shah Alam. Reality has hit me! Yikes! What am I going to present? Think, think! I put Lorem Ipsum as my title for the abstract template for now! Gotta keep tab for important dates from now on as well as keep in touch with my supervisor closely...

BBC Radio 4: for all the quality and quintessential British broadcasting you need.

As I listened to BBC Radio 4 live broadcast of Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from the chapel of King's College of Cambridge, my lonely soul in such silent night is soothed by the heavenly choir music in the air. While church-goers filled the church in midnight service and party-goers went to all the party hotspots in the city, I stayed in my quiet room, feeling slightly melancholic but otherwise find comfort with fellow similar compatriot around this side of the pond, waiting for the clock to strike 12am and the faint fireworks to dot the sky with dashes of colours from afar. I guess spending the silent night alone wasn't all too silent and lonely after all.

Merry Christmas (for fellow good Christians out there), Happy Holiday (for the rest of us) and last but not least Happy New Year 2011 to all and everyone of us. Six more days til the end of 2010 and another new year unfold!

With all the Christmas wishes done (on Facebook and on yours truly's own humble litte online abode), time for a lil recap for what I did for the past a few days tracing back from today (24 Dec) which was Christmas Eve...

-Christmas Eve 24 December-

Nasi Goreng Daging Merah was my Christmas eve dinner. While definitely modest (for a lonely individual like me) and definitely inadequate (for those who're in the throng of their companion), it's definitely a departure from my usual MSG packed Instant noodle dinner that I had for past weeks. Just a small gesture for this occasion.

Same departure from my usual fare for lunch over Pelita for today too: Nasi Kandar with Cabbage and Ayam Madu. Definitely not the healthiest choice of meal and in fact a slightly expensive departure from my usual nasi goreng biasa. Unfortunately though, the connection over Pelita today was screwed that I aborted my session there immediately after lunch and head across the road to Mcdonald instead. And surprisingly, the connection was pretty stable over McDonald that I get my Restaurant City done!

-Thursday 23 December-

Intermission. Nothing much happened on this day. No event whatsoever. Usual breakfast routine over Pelita, then tapao lunch over ShuangXing then head back to room. The end. But come to think of it, it wasn't that unproductive anyway because I manage to print out the articles that I have long printed and related to my research. But otherwise, nothing much happened. Yeah. So enjoy my economical rice!

-Winter Solstice Festival 22 December-

Yet another festival related to the winter season (despite the fact that tropical countries are sunny all year round) is Winter Solstice Festival or DongZhi (冬至) for Chinese. While most Chinese (those who can and are with their family anyway. But for us as Perantau at Seberang...) spent this day together with friends and family while enjoying their glutinous rice ball soup or Tangyuan (汤圆) as what I can observe for those who are still enjoying their holiday at home and updating about their activity through Facebook (ahh that's how social media is making all of us who wasn't lonely). But being in the festive spirit, I can't just spent it doing nothing! Time to reward self!

Off to Queensbay, I go! Back on the all too familiar 304 bus to the all too familiar Queensbay. But unlike last time I went with my fellow groupies, this time I went alone.

But doesn't matter anyway because I drop by to had Sushi King for lunch instead! Missing breakfast earlier definitely feels worth it as I sat down over the Kaiten counter seat!

Another reason I dropped by to Sushi King is because I still keep the receipt from the last time I visited it (back at home at Hill's Shopping Mall in Kuching! Exotic receipt indeed!) which entitled me to one free plate of sushi as per their Free 1 plate on a 2nd visit for every 5 plate of sushi! So here comes the rare and expensive RM6 purple plate, Ebi-ten sushi!

And for my actual lunch, Chicken Katsu Curry! Of all the meal I had over Sushi King, Chicken Katsu Don is the one that made me full the most. うめえええ！ご馳走様でした！

Went around Queensbay for a while looking for place to settle down with my laptop. (Yeah I brought along with my lappie again!) Christmas is definitely in the air with snowflakes and tinsel and lights! I spent the rest of my evening over Starbucks at Border. Thank god that the connection over there remain stable and very smooth. Stayed around until around 5pm plus and deciding to head back to USM. But before heading back to USM, let's pick up yet another treat for self!

Sushi again! This time from Jusco! Since it's pretty rare for me to go Queensbay nowaday, Jusco Sushi is definitely a must! Too bad they are out of crackers for some reason so grocery shopping kinda failed. And initially wanted to buy instant noodle too but since there are a few packs lying right beside of my table, let's keep it off for now.

-Now: 1:00 am, 25 December. Christmas-

With full moon peeking from above through the undulating cloud, I bid you all good night and have a great day as the sun rise.

Epilogue: I am dilly-dallying too much? Tinkering with my own future much?