Fifth Weekend?

I've lost track of the number of weekends I've spent here, I figured since I'm into my fifth week of school, this must be my fifth weekend. Anyway, this was the first two days I'm here with a working palm. Took a few interesting things, really liked the video clips I took, they were of:

1. A physics demonstration of a superconductor cooled by liquid nitrogen levitating and gliding round a track made of magnets. The demonstration was for the physics lecture before our maths lecture, so we got a glimpse of what the nat sci people did. Really interesting!
2. A busker with singing dogs! Very cute!
   
3. Guy Fawke fireworks.

Unfortunately, cannot upload the pictures from my room, need to trouble people with a laptop, think I'll look for Jack, but he seems very busy, not very nice to trouble him...

Cooking!
And tried cooking on my own these two nights, in fact now I'm eating the fruits of my labour as I blog this entry. Cooked Spghetti v1.1, and Spghetti v1.2 last night and tonight. Spghetti v1.0 was done with Choon Howe's help. Think I'm getting better at it. Anyway, here are the recipy of the Spghetti I made.

Spghetti v1.i , i = 0,1,2

Ingredients

1. 1 x Onion
2. 5 x Mushrooms
3. 125 g of Minced Beef
4. 125 g of Spghetti

Procedure

1. DEFROST BEEF!!! Forgot to do that a number of times, consequence: waste of time.
   
2. Boil Spghetti.
• Boil Water,
  
• Throw Spghetti into boiling water
• Turn down heat lest water overflows. Overflowing water is annoying but not fatal.
  
3. Slice Onion, Mushroom - Done concurrently with boiling Spghetti.
   
4. After Spghetti is done, remove Spghetti to free stolve. Replace with frying pan, pour a little bit of oil.
5. Fry onion. Realised that this is a delicate procedure. Undercooked onions taste stinging, and overcooked onions taste too blend, it's as though they are not there at all. Well cooked onions add flavour and do not sting. Had undercooked, overcooked and well cooked onions in Spghetti v1.0, Spghetti v1.1 and Spghetti v1.2 respectively.
6. Fry the beef. This is quite a foolproof procedure. Just throw the beef in, chop it up and stir it until the beef changes to the familiar grey colour. When done mix beef with onions and throw in mushrooms.
   
7. Quite hard to tell if mushrooms are cooked as there's not much visual indication. usually will stir in the mushrooms and they look cooked once there's oil all over them.
   
8. Throw in Spghetti. Learnt this from Choon Howe. Back home, used to make the sauce and pour in the Spghetti. Now I'm making the Spghetti and pouring in the sauce. But it tastes nice too! Can even be eaten without the sauce!
   

Version 1.2 saw improvements by means of adding tomatoes. Figured I'll cook the tomatoes last as it can be eaten raw. Only need to apply heat to make it softer. Cut it up into 8 pieces. Think I need to mix them into the Spghetti more so that it wont feel so seperate from the rest of the Spghetti. Next I'll try using garlic :p

Getting more proficient at making the meal. Did it within 30 mins tonight. All in, I think I took about one and a half hour to cook, eat and wash up. And it's very cheap!

Cost Analysis

Cost for 4 Servings:

1. 500 g of beef - £1.29
2. 500 g of Spghetti - £0.27
3. 500 g of Sauce - £0.58

Per Serving:

1. Onions - £0.12 approx
2. Mushrooms - £0.20 approx
3. Tomatoe - £0.10 approx

Approx cost per serving: Under £1.50! And I can eat my fill for that £1.50!

Will do a cost analysis of my breakfast soon! I've been eating cereal with milk and bread, so it's very hard to calculate, as it is all bought seperately. Will average the cost of breakfast over the course of my time spent here.

Fireworks!
There was fireworks all over Cambridge last night! Very specticular. And one wonders how Singapore can spend millions on national day fireworks while over here there is fireworks all over the city, some of the intensity is comparable (and even surpasses) what we have back home for national day.