Aroma Japanese Cuisine.

I haven't posted in a while but I felt compelled to after going to Aroma today. This will be my little 'review' of the place. I'm writing this so that if you do visit, you are aware of their little tricks so you actually have an enjoyable experience.

Let me start by saying I love the place. The boyfriend and I have been many, many times because we love the amount of food you get for $13.80. It's not too bad quality as well, and it's made fresh. But there are a few catches where they suck your money...

Ok so I've already established that it costs $13.80 for lunch. Great. They also charge $1 per jug of tap water without telling you until you get to the counter. The staff can be quite careless and rude as well. I never really thought anything of it the last few times I went. Mistakes here and there, but the really dodgy thing is that they only let you stay for an hour to eat. Last time I visited, the waitress forgot about our dishes and we were waiting 20 minutes. Then when we asked where our food was, she said we never ordered anything. (Why would we sit there looking at you for 20 minutes when we only have an hour to eat?!) When we re-ordered the food, she said this was the last time we were allowed to order because we'd been there an hour. Even though we were waiting 20 minutes! What the?! We decided it wasn't worth arguing and just accepted.

Today, a group of 12 of us returned there. Like I said, in the past I've had good experiences there and could overlook the annoying little things. One friend could not afford to eat so just drank water when she was there. However, when it came time to pay, we had to pay for her, even though she hadn't eaten a thing. Just because there was a butt in the seat, it cost an extra $13.80 (plus $3 for what we thought was free jugs of water). It seems the waitresses have no concept of understanding or customer service. I'm understanding if there are rules there. But this is not a rule, it has not been stated in the menu that if you don't inform them you're not eating, you have to pay. (Though the menu does say that any food left uneaten will cost and extra $3). There are times when you have to use common sense, and that seems quite non-existent among the staff at Aroma. We're fed up and will not be back for a while, at least.

If I were stronger, I would have refused to pay and walked out. But I'm not that sort of person, so instead I told the waitress our side and got ignored... and now I'll tell the whole internet my little story.

Overall, the food is good but the way they go about things is ... meh. I wouldn't say "DON'T GO," but I would say to be aware of hidden costs. It can be VERY annoying.

EDIT: For reference I have been to restaurants where they spell out in the menu that everyone must order a dish or there will be a surcharge. So it's not like they have a "you should know" excuse either!

HP Laptop

I have a HP laptop and I liked it very much.
But then the hard drive died, after SIX MONTHS. I do back up my information, but I didn't back up everything, obviously because a new laptop shouldn't have any issues. I normally do a back-up every holiday though. A week before the holidays is when it stuffed up.

Anyway the hard drive was SO screwed that I lost everything, and HP replaced the hard drive. Hooray. If I want my OLD one back, the important one, to try to fix, they want to SELL it back to me! MY hard drive! And it's going to cost ME to get the information back. I don't have $1000+!

Hewlett-Packard: YOU put this hard drive in the computer. It stuffed up badly. I don't care if you didn't make the hard drive, YOU put it in the computer. YOU believed it would work. It didn't. YOU stuffed up. YOU should do the running around to get it fixed. YOU should pay for it. I want my information back.

But since it's very likely I'll never get anything back from this, I'm going to leave this to float on the internet. Screw HP, buy ASUS or something.

"You have hypochondria." "Oh, no! Not that too!!"

Hi everyone! It's been a long time. How have you been? I've been really busy being dead.
I've written one line and it's already stolen from somewhere else. Those who have played Portal 2 may recognise it.... [there are no spoilers in the video, it's basically a trailer.]



Aaaaaaand there you go. Nice segue into talking about Portal 2. My brother bought it on PS3 when it first came out, and got an extra Steam version. Guess who has two thumbs and got the Steam version? THIS GUUUUUUUUUUY! *points at self*

Every review gives it a 10/10 and I'm no different. It was eeexxcellent. The characters were quirky and lovable. As you can probably tell from the video above. You did watch it didn't you? No? FORSHAME. I do have one complaint though, and this isn't Valve's fault. It's too much fun. I played it the week before I was to start exam study, which was an awful, awful idea, because I wanted to play it all the time. I didn't of course. I'm a wonderful student. But it took every ounce of my willpower to stop myself... to combat this problem, I did the only thing I could do: I finished it as fast as I could. When I finally did finish it, nothing stood in the way of studying. Well... until I remembered I have episodes of How I Met Your Mother on my computer...

When I study, I study like crazy. During SWOTVAC (The week of no lectures for exam study), I didn't wash my hair, I ate a lot of lollies, and I studied from when I woke up until I got too sleepy at night to study anymore (Normally around 2 or 3am). Obviously, this is detrimental to my mental and physical health, and I felt like crap the whole time I studied. Feeling like crap makes my imagination run wild, and I'm a hypochondriac at the best of times.

I'm left-handed. During the study period, I wrote so much that it hurt my whole arm, right up to my shoulder and even my ear. I was tense and stressed so that means my chest was tight too. I didn't eat properly so I felt sick/dizzy quite a bit.

Of course, naturally I assumed I was having a 2-week-long heart attack and was going to die.

I didn't shower much. Yes, I know. Too much information. I'm sorry. And here's even more cringe-worthy stuff. Because I didn't shower much, I got a lump on my back. Some sort of blemish pimple type thing under my skin. I tend one or two if I don't shower everyday. Ah, nature.

OR IS IT? D:



Yes, it ended up being fine.
I'm running out of time to write this so I might end it here. Thanks to everyone who's been reading this and telling me to write more because it's really inspiring :) Now the pressure is on...

If you want to read more, drop me a note here and let me know what you like and I'll be sure to include more crap like it in the future!

Love!

GLaDOS: Well done. Here are the test results: You are a horrible person. I'm serious, that's what it says: A horrible person. We weren't even testing for that. Don't let that "horrible person" thing discourage you. It's just a data point. If it makes you feel any better, science has now validated your birth mother's decision to abandon you on a doorstep.

A correction!

On the 17th of June 2009, I published a post about an ice cream known as 'Skinny Cow,' stating that they were "vile" and implying they were 'vomit on a stick.'

Well since then, my father has been diagnosed with diabetes and become a super health nut who runs 14km a day (Not an exaggeration by the way, he's freaky amazing.) He lost about 45kg in less than 6 months by changing his diet and exercising.  He eats these ice creams constantly. They're excellent, and while I still don't like the ones on a stick, the skinny cow sundaes are pretty nice.

But yeah so buy them so the company doesn't go broke or my dad won't have any ice cream to eat!

The Little Man in the Cute Hat.

Last semester at uni, I had 10am lectures every day. That means I took the bus around 9:20am everyday and theoretically should have been at uni in time for my lectures everyday. It never happened like that because my bus was always late or unbelievably early (PUBLIC TRANSPORT TIMETABLES ALWAYS LIE!) but nevertheless I would always leave my house around 9:15am*

*(+/- 20 minutes depending on how many times I hit the 'snooze' button.)

Anyway whenever I would leave the house, everyday without fail there would be a little old Asian man (Think Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian or a mix of them) shuffling past my house, standing in front of my driveway. Every morning. If I was late he would be shuffling slowly past my bus stop and up to the park nearby. The man always wore a big jacket and a little beanie/cap like thing. It was like a bobble hat without the bobble but also had flaps, (though I always imagine him with a bobble now because it's cute). He would always stop and look at me as I left the house.

Let me give you a mental image. Think of Jackie Chan. Not just any Jackie Chan. Think of a cross between "Old Man" Jackie Chan in Forbidden Kingdom:



silentmonkeys.wordpress.com

 and Jackie Chan in The Karate Kid.



screen-power.com

 Now, I'm not saying every old Asian man looks like Jackie Chan. My grandpa was an old asian man and he sure didn't. Nor am I saying that Jackie Chan is old. Jackie Chan is the most awesome person ever and I plan to be in a movie with him one day. Him and Will Smith. But I'll blog about those later. This man that obviously lives nearby (probably 2 or 3 doors down) really reminds me of these two characters. Both have a kind of silent wisdom about them. Both glanced at the protagonist (in this case, me XD) everyday as if watching them and analysing them. The man down the road is in between these two characters age-wise. He's not as old as the Forbidden Kingdom JC (He doesn't have white hair and doesn't quite look like he's about to die), but not as young as The Karate Kid JC (Looks a bit more frail than that). Furthermore the Karate Kid JC wears the same cute hat as my little man.

Some may say that the man simply goes for a walk everyday at the same time as I leave my house. HOWEVER. From these similarities I have concluded one thing. In both of these movies, Jackie Chan has kept watch over some young person for an extended period of time before suddenly teaching them kung-fu or something similar and leading them to save the world (etc). I therefore must be the Chosen One. When it comes time for some disaster, this little man in the cute hat will come to my door and say:

"Ojaye, I have been watching you for a long time. You are the Chosen One. Only you can stop [insert disaster here]. Come with me and I will teach you the ways of [insert fighting/defending/hero thing here]."

Then he will train me with sticks and swords and hand-to-hand combat and I will finally be like those cool people in movies.


It could happen.

"We can hang in my crib. I will show you my 'hood." - Jackie Chan, Rush Hour.

I'm FREEEEE!

...for now!

Now that I'm free, I've started working everyday to get dosh! Though I have decided I want to go jogging as much as I can now that I have the time. I go jogging every so often, and 90% of the time it's when no one is home because I'm embarrasssssseeeddd.

I also play beach volleyball! It's the best sport in the world. When I googled a photo for beach volleyball I noticed all the photos were of women's asses, so here's a picture of a woman's ass.

Seriously. Search "beach volleyball" in Google images and see how many asses/pervy photos of women come up. XD
http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/archives/2009/04/

Anyway while I was at beach volleyball yesterday, a friend from church took two photos of us. In both photos, I was standing still and my stomach was sticking out! I was slouching in one of them too. I looked pregnant and it was awful! My body image isn't too bad so normally photos don't bug me but omg! It bugged me!

What the hell is this?!
http://explorations.sva.psu.edu/vcg/vol2_toc.htm

So anyway it's good that it was taken because I knowww I'm not fat but it gave me motivation to stick to my after-exams resolution to jog more! WOO. But ew. That photo. I'd post it but I know the comments will be either "it doesn't look that bad" or "FATTY MCFATTERSON" either way I don't need comments about the photo, because it's about how I feel about it, and I think it's a healthy motivation ;)

Anywho I shall go now! I have to remind myself to blog about an old asian man that's been walking past my house every morning.

[Friends - Chandler's key broke in Monica's door]
Chandler: I love you.
Monica: I love you too.
Chandler: Are you hugging the door right now?
Monica: Um... no?
Chandler: Uh... yeah, yeah, me neither.

You know what's great?




NOT having food poisoning during exams! In my exams last semester, I got food poisoning the day before my first exam. I thought I was going to die. My uncle probably poisoned me, haha. But yeah my Uncle and Grandma were visiting and I was really really nervous about my first ever exam at Uni... and it was my most dreaded one: Biology exam.

See, you'd normally think Chemistry is would be my worst exam, and it normally is, but my last Chemistry exam involved a lot of maths... and I'm cool with maths. So though I was worried about it, I was a million times more worried about biology because I'd never taken biology as a subject before and I didn't understand the crazy biology language. You know, I've taken science subjects all through high school, but I'm not really a 'science' person. I'm like a borderline science/artsy person. Science people are so... science-y. And I'm so... not science-y. I pretend to be but really, I'm like the idiot's guide to science. If I understand something well, I can explain it to people because I drop alllll the technical language. I'm so un-science-y that I think of genes and stuff like hot dogs and then the hot dog buns fall off and then genes can be copied. Stuff like that. Which is why I'll never be a scientist. I'll work with people because they'll understand me and science people will be like "What hot dogs? What the hell are you on about?" It's a lot easier now, because I'm more used to it, but when I was thrown in for the first time it was overwhelming. So much science!

American Hot Dogs look disgustingly delicious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_dog

Anyway what was I talking about? Food poisoning. So I was studying really hard for my biology exam and my family went out to one of my favourite restaurants with my Uncle and Grandma. They kindly brought me back a nasi lemak in a takeaway container. <3 I was so excited. As I started eating it, I thought it tasted a bit funny.

"Don't worry, it's just cause it's all mixed together" they said, because I don't normally mix my nasi lemak ALL together.

So I ate it.

Later that night, I started to feel sick and sweaty/feverish.
"You're just nervous" my parents said.
"I'm not, I'm sick. I'm definately sick." I said. By now, I know the difference. Not that I needed anything done about it, I just needed someone to believe that I was sick.
They wouldn't believe me. They said it was nerves.

So in the morning I woke up, very pale, and got in the car. I felt very very queasy and feverish. My parents were giving me the usual pep talk. "you'll do the first question and you'll realise, 'I can do this!' and then your stomach pains will go away."
"I think it was the nasi lemak," I said
"Trust me, you'll feel better as you're doing the exam," they replied.

Ok, so I got out of the car at the showgrounds where the exam was held. As I was walking, I felt light-headed. I needed to vomit. But there was nowhere around to vomit. It was just pavement. But there was a line of trees (this is next to the ferris wheel by the way.) I had just walked past. I had to make a quick calculation in my head: *can I run behind the ferris wheel and do it there, or do I have to do it out in the open?* I wouldn't make it to the ferris wheel. I turned around and walked very quickly back to the closest tree and .. you know. Did my thing. There was a girl walking past at that moment. I was SO embarrassed, I covered my face. I can only assume she thought I was hungover on the day of an exam.

So I still went into the exam and, looking at the exam paper later, you could tell I was sick. The writing was HUGE and slanted, as if all the muscles in my arm had disintegrated. But it didn't matter, I passed with food poisoning.

Needless to say my parents believed me when I got back in the car, sweating and shaking. Then went home and died.

Cool.

Update: Whoops. I forgot to add that I walked past those trees on Monday at my Biology exam and again on Wednesday for my Chemistry exam. I noticed that the tree I threw up on has not grown as much as the other trees. It's noticably smaller. I can't help but feel responsible.

The tree looked as pathetic as Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree. :( I'm sorry, little tree.
http://www.frickinmom.com/2009/12/08/favorite-frickin-memories/

Somehow I enjoy watching people suffer.
- George Carlin