I think my laptop is pretty much dead. I guess Penelope came alive one last time to let me back up my data before falling into eternal slumber. Sigh.

So besides this piece of bad news, this week has been quite fun. On Tuesday, we gathered at 11.30pm to celebrate Denise's birthday. We surprised her with a yummy chocolate fudge cake at the stroke of midnight and the first thing she said when she opened the door to her room was, "What the hell?!" Denise never ceases to astound me. Earlier that night, Cherlyn and I set off the smoke detector again. We decided to bake cookies once more and we were prepared for it to go off again. Unfortunately, this time we set it off in the evening when most people were in hall, so many people actually rushed to the kitchen to help. I felt pretty embarassed about it cos it (the ringing) was really annoying everybody hence the decision that it would be our final batch of cookies made in Cornell.

Thursday I had no lessons. Normally I have one lesson in the morning. However, the instructor issued the second prelim paper, which was a take-home paper, the previous Thursday so we submitted it on Wednesday and there were no lessons on Thurs. Cherlyn and I braved the wind and the irregular TCAT buses to go all the way down to Winli oriental supermarket to get ingredients for our "feast" on Fri. We decided (a pretty long time ago in fact, just after Chinning's laksa) to treat the guys (Alvin, Yizhuan and Chinning) to a home-cooked meal to thank them for all they've done for us (which is really really alot). We (back to Cherlyn and I) detoured to Walmart where I picked up a pair of chunky light brown boots (yipee!) that promises not to leak from the soles or the sides (goodbye wet soggy feet). Then we had to hunt down some really elusive ingredients at Wegman's and wait 40 min for the bus back to school. So we were pretty damn worn out by the end of all that.

So anyway, Fri was one busy day. The guys actually forgot about the dinner. Wouldn't say I was mad cos we did send out invitations a very very long time ago and I guess it's no wonder they'd forget so... Cherlyn and Denise had a wild time reminding them about it. Things like Alvin nuggets, Ning minced meat and Yizhuan Kongba bao were frequently mentioned. Think they got the idea about what would happen to them if they couldn't guess correctly haha. Our lessons normally end at 1.10pm but we had a review lesson at 4pm, so as soon as that ended, we headed over to HILC to commence Project Iron Chef!! *insert dramatic music* The dishes were: Tom Yam Fish Soup, Chawanmushi, Stir-fry Kangkong with Sambal (yes there is kangkong here, albeit imported...) and Fried Chicken (which deserves special mention). Desserts courtesy of Denise were Blueberry Cheesecake and Agar-agar. The fried chicken, oh my... think we will all avoid chicken for the next couple of days. In short, the chicken totally did not turn out the way we wanted. Thank goodness for ketchup.

Today, I went to do community service. It's a Cornell thingy organised annually, entirely voluntary with no strings attached but we decided it'd be a good experience so we decided to participate. We picked rubbish at the local YMCA, cleaned windows (well not me but some members of our group), broke our backs trying to move an outdoor basketball hoop thingy indoors (up a slope no less!) and painted the pavilion the wrong colour (oops!). So now, I'm taking yet another brief respite from mugging for my prelim on Monday to blog. Gosh, who am I kidding man...

As a closing note, I do feel that love is in the air. It's so contagious that all my best buddies have fallen into its clutches. I'm still immune though, should go do a blood test to check for the antibodies that give me the resistance. Perhaps I can make some money out of it.

I'm kidding.