Oishi oink oink

I have gone through a Mr. Chips phase, followed by a Doritos phase, and now mi última adicción is Oishi's Vegetarian Chicharon. It's really my dad's fault that I got hooked, he *coerced* me to try it the other day and since then I have been having it nonstop. Props to me for being a good girl and picking something healthy this time around. According to the back label, its main ingredients are peas and tapioca starch. People think that the 0% trans fat claim is pure hogwash, but whatever, it's still heaps healthier than other chips around.

I have to give it to those Oishi guys, they are really stepping up. I remember back in HS, my favourite seatmate gave me a massive box of Oishi goodies on my birthday (she is the sister of a movie star who used to endorse Oishi) and I immensely enjoyed their chips. A famous writer (whose blog I follow) always extolled the virtues of their latest snack line and so I was inspired to grab a few bags of their cheese sponge thingo. I was quite disappointed though, it tasted funny and I couldn't decide if it was sweet or salty. Apparently she hoards them by the box as she would also feed them to her cats.

Also, she says that Oishi has now secured a 10% share of China's snack food market. Watch out, world.

Help me fill my KLM plane

What went down on Valentine's Day/Night

- Pepper Lunch at the Shang with my singleton girls, C. and E. Lunch was on E. as she just got her hands on her fat and juicy paycheck (Thanks heaps!!!). Was happy to finally have Beef Pepper Rice again after what seemed like an eternity (the last time I was at Pepper Lunch on George Street was WYD last year).

- We joined a Body Shop makeup competition thingo. The girls conspired to orchestrate this very convoluted plan to get me to Glorietta on the pretext of "meeting with another friend", but the long and short of it is that they have previously signed me up to become a model (here's the part where I shudder repeatedly) for the makeup contest. It was too late to bail my sorry ass out and so I just went along with the plan, like the very good sport that I was (hehe). We were made to wear Myphosis dresses (which they later took back) and heels (I came totally unprepared so I had to borrow a pair off someone). We each drew lots to work out which makeup artist would do our faces. These professional makeup people were tasked "to bring out our natural beauty" (yes, that was the major criterion of the contest...which is ironic really, considering it was a makeup competition). I ended up with I., who was extremely sweet. She was quite meticulous with details and that really served her in good stead - she made it to the Top 13 at the end of the competition (the 13 stylists will all move on to the next round). I find this unbelievable still as I did the WORST catwalk walk among the girls. Also, I nearly tripped going up the stage, my shoe almost fell off and I exited the wrong way. Que disastro. Good thing it was a makeup competition and not a modelling one. I still reckon I looked uglier post-makeup than pre-makeup (not because I. did a lousy job, but more than cosmetics, it's a facelift I need), but I'm exceedingly thankful the judges gave I. the chance to advance to the next stage. I really wouldn't have been able to forgive myself if she got cut off the list. At the end of the competition all of the models (I am retro-cringing as I say that again) were given Body Shop freebies. The blush and the eye shadow are truly gorgeous. The organisers were consistent with the V-Day theme as there was a Mallrats-type dating contest thing going on whilst the judges were tallying up the scores. The whole time I was telling myself that I was better off being part of the makeup contest as the levels of public humiliation involved were far less. I truly felt for the poor girls on stage (searchees, they are called), as they were subjected to the agony of answering a bunch of very ridiculous questions and doing bloody embarrassing noontime show stuff like singing and dancing.

- Quickly popped by Eastwood to meet with T., one of my closest friends from Oz who I haven't seen in nearly half a year. She's now back in Sydney and I was so happy to have hung out with her, even for just half an hour.

- UP Fair. As usual, I didn't even attempt to enter the fair grounds. What's the point anyways, the queues were impossibly long and there is always that looming risk of getting embroiled in another bloody riot. We met up with the boys (D. & A.) and decided to hang at Sarah's instead and have a few drinkies. There was a bohemian poetry reading thingo going on at Sarah's and it was quite packed. We grabbed a few bottles of Red Horse and I finally (FINALLY!) got meself a Happy Horse (five hundred beers too late!). The beers were warm as piss but the night was happy and I was with awesome company so it was all good. I was out for fifteen hours that day and I was so wrecked when I got home but I couldn't help but think it was such a mad way to spend Valentine's.

Happy manufactured capitalist holiday!

And no, I am not bitter :p Here's a few snippets from my favourite lurrrrve movies of all time to prove I am still not jaded and unfeeling.

In the Mood for Love - Too beautiful. There are no words to describe this scene.



Before Sunrise - How I would kill to have my personal love story patterned after this movie. Endless conversations with someone impossibly intelligent and spontaneous and who I genuinely connect with (kindred spirit! That's the word). Traipsing around Europe together. Spending an entire day with that person and not having the slightest idea what to do and where to go next. Anyway this scene is so deeply meaningful to me because you will only understand it if you actually saw the movie (and paid real attention). When I leave a certain place that I have developed some attachment to, my mind creates its own montage of photographs of significant spots and spaces (also set to music...I am artistic like that).



Say Anything - Please let me know where I could score a DVD of this. The movie has the simplest storyline but it's still Cameron Crowe's finest work, methinks. John Cusack plays the cutest loser evah whilst Ione Skye is an overachiever. A critical piece of information - the movie is set in high school, so how can that not make you nostalgic? Check out how John Cusack holds up a boom box (80's jargon alert) playing Peter Gabriel's In Your Eyes whilst standing outside Ione Skye's window.



El Lado Oscuro del Corazón (The Dark Side of the Heart) - This scene is precious. A poet is at a bar reciting my favourite favourite Mario Benedetti poem (Táctica y Estrategia) to a hooker, and surprisingly, she finishes off the poem for him. This movie is replete with surrealist elements and Benedetti's heartbreakingly beautiful poetry.




**There's actually heaps more but unfortunately they're not up on Youtube (Los Amantes del Círculo Polar, Dream for an Insomniac, Cinema Paradiso, etc.).

***Check out what Valentine's really means. Definition brought to you by the brilliant geniuses of urbandictionary.com, the site I run to whenever I need a good laugh.

The phrase "Valentine" was coined sometime after July of 1947, by either the Ebe Alien culture or Chuck Norris himself, as a technological trade that would allow corporations to scam millions of lonely hearts like Paris Hilton. It is understood these technologies, and holiday ideas are just some of the many things that the Aliens have provided us in exchange for the thousands of helpless abductees, cows and crops who are assaulted each year.

Valentines day has become as much of a worldwide epidemic as people who expect you to remember and much less care when it is their birthdays. On valentines many ladies will perform favors for flowers and candy versus the old rent payment, it gives the many guys who'd never would have had a chance otherwise, a break.