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SOW NAUGHT RAIDY.

I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not.

Suddenly in the last 24 hours, everything seems to come to 'the last'.

The last lunch, the last dinner, the last cybercafe session, the last drink, etc.

FRGHAch. <-- frustration let out in a very articulate manner.

Last random thoughts before I go?

I haven't been this nervous in a long while.

It's been pretty long since I've cried for a proper reason. Watching Finding Neverland probably doesn't count as a valid one.

I thought it through exactly a day ago at this time and played leaving through in my head for a little bit. I didn't see a reason to feel messed up. I honestly believed it. Now I'm just a trigger away from letting it all explode.

What the hell did we achieve from blowing 6 people up with 5 HE grenades in the final hour?

When I come back next year, I'd be coming home to pretty much the same people all over, except they've AGED FOR ABOUT A YEAR. I'm just not used to it. I've never been away from home for this long before.

I hope the community somehow plays more Hold'em than Omaha or any other silly European form of poker.

This is pretty crazy. It's so much different when you're the one walking away from the crowd.

Ready my ass. I've never been this unprepared for anything in my life since...wait nevermind, probably my exams a few months ago.

Phil Ivey folded Q/8 twice. Why?

There's no such thing as gender superiority. Who you are today wasn't pre-determined by your gender. It's the easy way out to generalize and classify people's characteristics according to their gender, but it's NOT the answer.

Can't wait for Year 2 to be over. Then the others can join us.

I NEED DOWNLOAD-FRIENDLY INTERNET ACCESS. Music. Poker videos. TV series. Pleaaaaase.

I'm so tired. I haven't slept well. The plane better be comfortable. I just can't sleep now with all these things running through my mind.

I don't really wanna leave this. Hm.

Ready?

I've got about 36 hours before I leave. I've just started packing, realized I have a lot of shit missing, yet I'm still calm, walking around the house with nothing to do.

Does this mean I'm really ready to leave, or the complete opposite?

Clear out

I cleaned my car today. It was pretty horrible.

















Parking tickets throughout the year. Want some?

















At least 200 of them. I'm rich ^_^

I'm Full.

Now for a very special food/meal review on my own dishes. Did a 3 course meal tonight for the family:

Appetizer - Broccoli soup with Parmesan cheese and (somewhat of a huge) crouton

What it looks like:
















Horribly un-chef-ly of me to leave that stain on the side of the plate =(

What it should look like:
















Looks somewhat similar I suppose?

Recipe/inspiration:
Gordon Ramsay. No further explanation required.

What it tastes like:
I thought it was pretty bland at the beginning. I followed Gordon Ramsay's recipe, which means I put cheese at the bottom of the bowl before serving it. It tasted pretty damn good after I remembered that and stirred the soup a bit and the cheese dissolved a little. I thought it was way too peppery, but the tasters were fine with it (except mom).

I got what I wanted with the taste I guess, different flavours from mom's usual cooking.

Main course - Chicken and mushroom Marsala with (somewhat of a huge) crouton

What it looks like:





















Tastes nothing like how it looks.

What it should look like:
















This is veal. I did chicken. Only because it's safer ^_^

Recipe/inspiration:
Gordon Ramsay. Again. Yeah.

What it tastes like:
The chicken itself was pretty normal but had a good bite to it, tender and juicy. Didn't have a lot of flavour to offer as it was cooked separate from the mushroom, butter and Marsala sauce. Combined with the sauce though, which had been stewing and reducing in alcohol (Marsala) for a good 20 minutes had a great unique flavour to it. I've never tasted anything quite like it - like biting into juicy mushrooms that squirt buttery alcohol into your mouth. Yum.

The next time I try this recipe (if I ever do), I'll probably cook the chicken in the sauce for a bit as well, because the chicken on its own was...just pan-fried chicken, pretty much.

Dessert - Malibu Banana Foster with a scoop of vanilla ice cream

What it looks like:
















What it should look like:













Sauce is a lot darker than mine.

Recipe/inspiration:
Online recipe

What it tastes like:
Fantastic! 290 reviews, 5 star recipe. I was very confident in making this because of all the good reviews. And it's sooooo fucking easy to make, it's absolutely idiot-proof. Throw rum (I used Malibu), cinnamon, sugar, vanilla and butter into a pan, bubble it up, throw bananas in and cook for a couple of minutes. Serve with ice cream. Bam, hot and cold, sweet with cinnamon.

Highly recommended. DO IT. And tell me how awesome I am for recommending it.

PS: I FORGOT TO PUT NUTS =(

Extra dessert for the chef - Inniskillin 2006 Vidal Icewine ^_^






















Doesn't smell very fragrant but there's an instant zing when it goes around the mouth. A little too sweet, but that's what a dessert wine is. Awesome stuff.

All in all
Mild success? I think a little better than mild success, I'm a big fan of my meal :P

Lastly, a few preparation shots:














Chickenz on da trayz.

















Laying the plate and pouring sauce over ice cream, while mom scoops ice cream on. Hah, my sous-chef!

Bam! T'was a good night =)

Sudden Silence

I stood in the shower absent-minded and indulged in thinking about tonight before I turned the water on. When I finally snapped out of the little flashbacks and decided to finally move, my feet were glued to the ground because of how long I'd been standing there.

To think about it, we don't have nights like these very often. At the same time, though, there was nothing particularly spectacular about it, aside from JH buying dinner (which is totally holy fucking upsetting the balance of nature). But it was nice. Nothing special, just a comfortable and simple time out with a bunch of good friends. Shouting at each other in the car, playing with food and making watery soups with an assortment of leftovers, etc. The usual.

I guess there's really no point to writing all this, just that as always, I'll miss the simple times when they're gonna be put on hold for the next (few) year(s) or so.

I've got like a week left and there still seems to be so much left undone (, mostly chores). One of which though, is to cook a 3 course meal for the family tomorrow. Have the menu all planned out, and hoping it'd be at the very least a mild success. I'm realistic.

Pictures of both tonight's stuff and tomorrow's dinner will be posted soon, I guess.

PS: Sudden Silence refers to how lonely I suddenly feel at the laptop right now even though it's about the 60,000th time I've sat in front of a computer screen doing my own thing.

And with my one last gasping breath, - Chapter 5

7 hours. I've reached my target and beat it by 2.5 hours. I have played 26.5 hours of poker in the past 6 days.

Tonight was a solid game for me. I had a pretty big chip lead over everyone on the table and held it there for about 2 hours before I made a bad call with 2 pairs against straights, and almost half my chip stack leaked away. The other chips were all thrown in due to aggressive pre-flop play (almost none of which paid off - 4 times with A/Q completely missing flop).

But I didn't at any point of the night go below my buy-in of 100 chips, and ended the night with 362 chips. I played 3 lower straights when there were 3 suited cards on the table to split the pot twice and sweep all the chips once. I played lowest pair to call like 3 of JH's bluffs, raking in ~50 chips per pot. I folded 4 2-pairs against straights on all 4 occasions. I folded A highs against people who hit lowest pair on river, and called with lowest pair to beat a handful of bluffs. My reads were scaring myself.

And a game I'll remember for some time:
8/9 in hand. 6 7 10 rainbow flop. Raise 10. JH calls.
7 turn. Raise 20. JH raises. I push all in. JH calls.
JH turns over A/A.
*calculates* "4 outs, last card, 8%, hah!"
J river.
Double up chips!

For once the pairs that beat the table don't hit a set on the river. It was previously 16% which beat me, now it's 8% that loses. At least I'm being rewarded for good plays now.

I think I've officially overdosed on poker tonight. But that doesn't mean I won't be back for more ^_^ Good night!

PS: Pictures up soon maybe.

And with my one last gasping breath, - Chapter 4

Nothing screams out bad beats and ice cold decks like today's games for me. It was painful as hell.

To top it all off, my big attempts at grabbing pots get called:

3 7 8 10 J table, all in with ~350 chips into a pot of ~50 chips with A K bluff. And I get called by the only player on the table who could call such a big all in, with 10/7.

I was down a whopping 485 chips when there were ~40 chips left in my hands (mind you, we play 1 chip/2 chip blinds). It was the last round of deals before we ended. In one hand, I quadrupled up my chips. On the very last hand, I tripled up my chips, with pocket 7s on a table of 7 10 10 J J. To make things even more amazing, my opponents who were still battling it out while I was all in were playing A/A and Q/Q. The best I could have hoped for.

I end the game with 502 chips, and someone who had 23 chips of winnings tossed the bit into mine, making it 525 chips - the exact amount of my buy-in.

1. Thank you for the 23 chips.
2. Thank you for playing 3 nights of poker in a row with me.
3. Thank you whatever is up there for giving me the hands I absolutely needed (even though you're probably responsible for my earlier bad beats).

PS: This is more like a poker journal than a blog.
PPS: 4.5 hours clocked out. 4.5/24 hours to go!