February 2008 Archives

So today we sampled the delights of Jamaica...well we had an ortanique. I think it was a team bonding exercise disguised as a citrus fruit; we had a makeshift assembly line going. One person would make the initial hole, the other peel it and of course, the pithy parts needed to be removed.

The verdict: not bitter, not too sweet. By far the best orangey-type thing I've had since Orange and Passionfruit flavoured J2O.

I was spelling my colleague Anil's name over the phone to someone and he spelled it back to me as Anal.

Web Anil, I feel one millionth of your pain.

You know when think you created a phrase but you didn't? That.

Turns out I didn't create "coolio". So I traded the creator of "coolio" for "darnsarnit" which is much more awesome.

"You ate all the bakar khani? Darnsarnit!"

"Someone stole my Toblerone. Darnsarnit!"

"I'm overusing the phrase darnsarnit. Feck."

Snowflake and I met up for our annual birthday trip into London last weekend. We planned it so it would coincide with Chinese New Year festivities that were bound to be taking place around London's Chinatown area in Soho. A couple of years ago we had stumbled upon the celebrations and though there wasn't much going on, there were some cute stalls and things around.

First of course, we had to choose an Obscure Tube Stop for another round of the Obscure Tube Stop Game. We chose St. James's Park and what a glorious day for a walk in the park and a natter on the park bench whilst watching the wildlife.

 As we were walking around, Buckingham Palace kind of snuck up on us, as royal palaces tend to do, so we spied on the guards to see if Snowflake recognised any of them from her Armed Forces days.

We eventually got to Leicester Square and there were mobs of people. Okay, London is a busy place but I have never seen so many people. We walked, nay slow shuffled around the various stalls (curiously there was one selling lost children) and displays and then decided we were hungry. Lee Ho Fook is our favourite restaurant in Chinatown (they do awesome Kung Po prawns) but what with the queueing to get in, waiting for the other starter we ordered and the general poor service we may have to try another one next time. All around the whole food experience was about two and a half hours long.

We finished the day off watching the fireworks display (noisiest fireworks ever) and then headed home.

Good trip, my man!

I nearly bumped into Rich Hall yesterday. He seemed a bit lost at the train station, frantically looking at the departures board and badly disguised in an Cubs baseball cap. I would have gone up to him and told him how much I enjoy his appearances on QI but he looked terribly grumpy and I didn't want to be on the end of a scathing sarcastic retort from him.

That would have made a more interesting story however so perhaps next time I will. Anything for you, dear reader.

So CIMA sent me an email today saying my name now appears on a website listing all the passed finalists. I get wonderfully surprised each time I remember or am reminded that I passed my final exam and NEVER HAVE TO DO ANOTHER EXAM AGAIN. It seems like yesterday when I started them but alas, it was four years ago.

Now to tackle all the things I was putting off until The Post Exam Years:

1) Learn to play the piano

...ummm...I forget the rest. I should have kept a list.

In other news, Condoleezza Rice scares me. If we had a staring contest, she would win. Mainly because she could kill me with her Death Stare.

The name for pine nuts in Urdu. The word always made me chuckle when I was younger. It sounded like a rude word that you could get away with saying. It really is more fitting for the Punjabi language.

I didn't know till I Wiki'd it (is that now a valid verb?) that pine nuts isn't just a clever name. They actually come from under the little flaps on a pine cone. Well, I never.

So why is such a labour intensive nut so popular? I surveyed several people (okay, one people...person, So So, while he was eating pine nuts):

"Umm..I don't know...I just hadn't had them for ages so I thought I'd try them. They're not that great actually."

So, yeah. Mystery solved.