Malaysian Government plans to give Tamiflu away. Only thing is there's enough for 10% of the population..

So I hear that the Malaysian government is giving away oseltamivir (pharmaceutically branded as Tamiflu) to every Tom Dick and Harry who shows flu symptoms. But they forget to tell you that there is only enough to treat 10% of the population. Therefore it is only advantageous for the first 10% of the population who exhibit flu symptoms, because there shall be no more Tamiflu stockpile left after...

Christmas Chocolate and more

Been helping myself to plenty of chocolates lately. Lindt, some Cadbury (cranberries and granola no less!), little fattening caramel things known as Toffifees and a Godiva or two. Not to mention the Hershey's and Reese's and the Tim Tams. Here's a picture of what's within accessible reach:




Left side: Lindt Christmas-Liquor with apple and cinnamon notes fine unskimmed milk chocolate

Right side: Lindt Excellence Chilli Dark

The chocolate on the right reminds me of a couple of years ago when I had an encounter with chilli chocolate. Someone I knew tried to feed me chocolate and was giggling away like nobody's business. I smelt something fishy of course, but accepted the small lump of chocolate and whiffed it before prompty chewing on it. All this while my friends' giggling grew louder, but to their surprise I didn't respond in the way they had expected. After all, yours truly had sampled even more bizzare chocolate combinations, e.g. the pink peppercorn chocolate I once got from Bath.

Time to indulge!

Wagyu and the Ox

One thing has always intrigued me: calling something my its name twice (or more?). It is something most commonly noticed during inter-linguistic uses.

Since it is now the year of the cow/ox (and a golden one at that), one which comes directly to the front of my mind is wagyu beef. Which more or less translates to 'our (Japanese) beef beef'. Umm. Alright. There's no need for the double beef, folks!

So why don't we just order it as wag beef (which the dear British press would probably love to jump on due to the similar acronym W.A.G., or we can say its called wag beef because the cows are so happy with their pampered lives that they wag their tails like dogs do, although I would be concerned because cows flick their tails around to chase away flies)

Or maybe we can all start ordering as follows: 'I would like a 10 ounce wagyu steak done rare please (anything more than rare, please go shoot yourself)', or 'I would like to have the wagyu sukiyaki' (note the absence of beef in both cases).

So anyway, do enjoy your Year of the Golden Ox and hopefully times are still good enough (or will turn around soon enough, depending) for you to have your share of the wagyu!