Bake With Yen

Posted by eirene83 at 03:08 PM on March 3, 2008.

Also known as, "Omigod, I died and gone to heaven" bakery shop.

I used to go to Guten Braun over in Taman Sea but the prices were always a bit expensive, so when Chun Yip opened a branch right in my neighbourhood, I started getting my baking ingredients there. Sure, variety wasn't much but they stocked the basics I needed so I was still contented.

Until they closed down. So I had to go to the KL branch. More things yeah, but bad location and I didn't like their staff. So I decided to try one of the baking shops recommended in The Star's Flavours magazine and out the car, before I had even stepped into the shop, I was already in love.

They. Have. SO. Much. There!!!

Flours of every variety. All the nuts to your heart's content. Sprinkles, chips, coloured sugars, chocolates, cereals, flavourings, colourings, premixes... All stuffed into this wonderful smelling shop and although not by much, but still cheaper.

And let's not talk about the pans and the decorations and the nozzles and all other goods you could possibly want with your baking! Vanilla beans!!

Happiness...

2 onigiri

Don't Hate The Mirror

Posted by eirene83 at 03:08 PM on March 3, 2008.

I was going through my regular blog reads when I came aross this passage.

“When you meet someone and you immediately dislike them, always remember you are seeing a reflection of yourself—there is something you don’t like about yourself that you’re not owning up to. When you see it in someone else, then you don’t like that person, but in reality you are being displeased with yourself. Always remember that.”

I said the exact same thing once to an ex-boyfriend regarding a classmate whom... well, he didn't really like, to put mildly. Or did I say it to his pet sister? *shrugs*

Anyhow, both ex-boyfriend and said classmate didn't really have a good 'relationship' but to me, I rather saw it as ironic because they were actually both very alike in certain ways and principles. To this day, I still think that they could have been good support for each other had things turned out differently.

Ah well, it's still true no matter what. Sometimes why we don't like a person is because that same person has a quality which we don't like in ourselves.

Fruits Basket!

Sneak

Posted by eirene83 at 03:09 PM on March 3, 2008.

I don't really like getting last minute calls to join the boss for court since usually I have no idea what's going on and my sole function there is as a recording machine (verbatim preferably, mind you) and well, today hasn't changed my opinion much. Okay, so maybe there wasn't much to do since we were in chambers...

But sitting around waiting for the boss to finish his chit-chatting not knowing how long he'll take and only leaving 90 minutes later is a bit much, I feel. And imagine that the driver has to go through this every single time...

But getting to 'snake' home at 5 because the boss wants to sneak to MV to fix his computer is a pretty good bargain for sitting there and acting dumb.  

Fruits Basket!

Let Them Eat CAKE!

Posted by eirene83 at 08:35 AM on March 4, 2008.

Wahahahaha, I have sunk to bribing my colleagues.

Hear me out. I was busy yesterday trying to xerox this thick bundle of documents while the clients were waiting and I had to make sure I got everything and put it back together in the proper order but I also needed to go talk to the clients, get their IC, phone numbers and everything.

So I bribe one of the girls to go do it for me... with cake. Not just any cake mind you, but one I made myself. (Coz I was too cheapskate to splurge RM5 just for a little help photocopying... and because I was too busy to do the whole talking to client bit myself.)

She was more than happy to do it... for cake... One that I made myself.

Let them eat cake!! :D

Fruits Basket!

CAKE! And Orange

Posted by eirene83 at 12:36 PM on March 5, 2008.

Yes, I have cake on the brain...

I was just looking at my banner and decided that I wanted to bake a cake and decorate it as per orange in banner... Preferably with one end of each orange segment dipped in chocolate.

Incidentally, that orange is real. I did it one late afternoon when I was bored and there was a bag of clementines close at hand. I wasn't really hungry, just something to occupy my hands.

I had actually only planned on trying to peel the clementine in one long narrow spiral without it breaking off. But after I did, I realised I didn't really want the fruit (Late dim-sum lunch at Royal China... what can I say?) and proceeded to arrange the segments in one circle after removing the pith.

And after I finished, it looked so pretty that I just decided to snap it... and when I started my blog, I decided to use it as my banner.

Anyway, back to the cake... Maybe a chocolate fudge one with orange... Or a plain orange cake?

Cakee!!!!

Fruits Basket!

Lust

Posted by eirene83 at 09:31 AM on March 6, 2008.

For cooking appliances...

I've been told I get this gleam in my eye whenever I'm in the electronics aisle. More specifically, the aisle for cooking appliances... The type that whip up all sorts of wonders from doughnut makers to sandwich press to waffle makers. I haven't graduate to lusting for ice-cream makers yet since I don't eat much ice-cream... but I have wanted a popcorn maker before.

My ultimate lust though is for one of those really super stand mixers. Those that can handle up to 1kg over of flour. That can handle the anything you throw in it. That will take all sorts of attachments. That will withstand the worst battering. The Land Rovers of mixers.

A Kitchen Aid.

Sadly though, I've got no place to put it.

But dammit, I still want one!

Fruits Basket!

LJane Smith

Posted by eirene83 at 03:02 PM on March 7, 2008 in Library.

When I was a wee slip of a teenager unknown, unloved and unpopular (), one favourite series my friends and I loved to read was the Night World series by Lisa Jane Smith. That same series also seriously got us hooked on the idea of soulmates too.

Back then, my parents weren't too keen on the idea of buying 3 or 4 books at a shot just for me to read them once. So I depend on rental book shops and the goodwill of my friends to pass around their copy.

I loved her books; the Vampire Diaries; Forbidden Game; Dark Visions; and of course, Nightworld. And I read them all... And in fact, I still rather remember them. At 14, the idea of vampires and soulmates and people loving you from the shadows (literally) and always looking out for you was all very romantic (and still is, really).

Then, the books stopped coming out. Back then, Internet was still a very new thing so we didn't know what happened other than she stopped writing. And so I stopped looking for them in the books stores.

Recently though, I started seeing some of her books being made into omnibus and wondered why the publishers would reissue such an old book. I browsed around and lo and behold, now LJane Smith, she has picked up from where she left off and writing the next and final book to the Nightworld series.

It may be a good 10 years down the line, but I'm still excited by the idea of witches and vampires and soulmates, so you can bet that when her Nightworld omnibus hits the market, I'm definitely going to get it. Possibly along with the Vampire Diaries omnibus.

Fruits Basket!

Don't Die

Posted by eirene83 at 03:03 PM on March 7, 2008.

This kinda reminds me of Roseanna's Grave

Fruits Basket!

Posted by eirene83 at 03:04 PM on March 7, 2008.

For the first time ever, I'm curious to see how Malaysia will develop from here...

This is a chance for things to change... The only question is, how. 

Fruits Basket!

Marathon

Posted by eirene83 at 11:02 AM on March 12, 2008 in Foodie stuff.

I love weekends... I especially love last weekend when I went nuts, broke out all my baking trays, measuring cups and mixer and went on a 6-hour marathon in the kitchen. And the results were these beautiful beautiful trays:

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Cake - Egg = Dense

Posted by eirene83 at 11:03 AM on March 12, 2008 in Foodie stuff.

Is that a cake doughnut covered with icing sugar?

Close... It's a giant chocolate chip cake baked in a Bundt pan! I got these gorgeous Bundt pans last year before Christmas but never broke in the large one. So last weekend (yes, during that same marathon) I made a full recipe cake and my goodness, it puffed up so much that it literally resembled a really big tube. Even inverting the cake didn't manage to flatten it.

After that, I also made an accidentally eggless banana cake. Why accidentally? Because the banana cake is a really simple one-bowl recipe, I whip up the wet ingredients, stirred in the dry, did the washing up... and realised I forgot to add the 2 eggs in the recipe. By which time, the cake was already being half-baked.

*bashes head*

Must have been too much marathon-ing... Well, the cake is edible... It just wasn't fluffy. Oddly enough, my mom likes it. *shrugs* Though I doubt I'll be repeating this born-vegetarian-by-accident cake.

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Tumbling Down

Posted by eirene83 at 11:07 AM on March 12, 2008.

I woke up extra early this morning for a spot of exercise before going to the office. Since my ankle was hurting the night before, I already decided to put on my ankle guard. Which was a good thing too because...

On the way down the stairs in the semi-darkness, I tripped over my brother's office bag strap, stub my left toes very very painfully and hurtled down down the 3 remaining steps.

Now I'm in the office with my slippers, ankle guard safely on and a few of my toes throbbing rather painfully... I'm not complaining though.

Providence has seen fit to semi-twist my ankle... and by that same twist of providence (pun not intended ), I escaped having to go for another last-minute-informed Court trial. :D

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Carrot Cake

Posted by eirene83 at 09:55 AM on March 13, 2008.

I don't like carrots. Just don't, no reason why, don't try to force me to eat it or I'll force it up yours kind of don't like. I don't hate it, I just don't like it... So logically, from there you can deduce, I don't eat carrot cake. Not a bite in my entire life. And frankly, neither have my parents... Not even my dad, who will usually eat anything.

So why am I devoting this post to carrots? Because not one but two of my colleagues asked for it. How am I to bake a good, nay, a decent cake... if I don't even know what it's supposed to taste like? So I did research.

There are just as many different recipes as opinions on what makes a good carrot cake, but upon very careful scrutiny (and after hundreds of sites and dozens of recipes), the base is mainly the same, the difference is the amount of oil/sugar/spices used. Not to mention the add-ins! Walnuts, pecans, coconut, pineapple (for moisture), raisins... Jeez.

So enough of the lab work. What about field work? I went around to a few bakeries and yanno what? Not many places do carrot cake. So can anyone help me out here and tell me what you think makes a good carrot cake? With recipes and tips too preferably?

Fruits Basket!

Happy White Day!

Posted by eirene83 at 10:05 AM on March 13, 2008.

Also Happy Pi Day...

Coincidentally, I was actually thinking of making a pie this weekend, without even knowing that such a day existed. If I have the time tonight, maybe I'll be able to make it in time for Pi Day (too late by Malaysian time but definitely in time for America )

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Chocolate Pie - Without The Top

Posted by eirene83 at 11:47 AM on March 17, 2008 in Recipes, Foodie stuff.

I ended up making a chocolate tart instead of pie... I know I promised pie... but a pie is just a tart with a top crust right? A kind of open-faced pie?

I had quite a bit of cream left over for a while now so since I didn't want to throw it away, the best way I could figure out to use it up was to make ganache... And since my family definitely couldn't eat that much truffles, I baked my shortbread pastry in a pie pan, cooled it and then poured ganache over it. Chill and eat. YUmmm.

The taste was fantastic; I know the crust to filling ratio was a bit high but since the chocolate was so rich, it all balanced out. But one complaint I have about my ganache is that it never seems to turn firm. There's no way I could handle the ganache to roll them into balls without them melting on me. Can anyone help? Is it because I use a 1:1 chocolate-cream ratio?

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Milo Doggies

Posted by eirene83 at 11:48 AM on March 17, 2008 in Recipes.

I've seen this on so many different blogs and I've really really been tempted to make it. And so finally I did.

And well, it's not as easy as it seems to make them look like little doggies. I thought they looked more like the koala bear on the Kokokrunch box more! And frankly, there's not much to it, taste-wise. If not for the chocolate chips inside, there really wasn't any distinct flavour of any sort. And I'd used more Milo than specified in the recipe.

Deformed dogs... With lopsided ears... I guess they're mongrels?

I'll give it another shot (if anything, just to finish up the box of Kokokrunch that I had bought specifically for this recipe) but maybe I'll use my favourite shortbread dough instead of the one specified.

Still, it is really cute!

Grrrr... Angry-looking doggie says: "I'm not cute!"

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Professional

Posted by eirene83 at 11:48 AM on March 17, 2008.

Professional means:

Work must do,
Try best to do.
No guarantee good;
$$$ still take!

:D Taken from "Just Follow Law" by Jack Neo.

I wonder if that's the credo for lawyers and doctors?  

Fruits Basket!

Burn It

Posted by eirene83 at 11:34 AM on March 18, 2008 in Library.

My brother had some Kino vouchers (best gift ever in the world, in my opinion ) and wanted recommendations. Unfortunately, it's been a while since I've been to a bookstore and what little books I would recommend, I'd already bought.

So he went... and came back with conspiracy books. You know, like Da Vinci's Code, Seven Ancient Wonders, et al. I like conspiracy books. Especially those dealing with world-famous sites (Stonehenge, Pyramids of Giza, Hanging Gardens) and myths... But that one particular book, Pyramids by Tom Martin? Burn it.

The best way I can sum it up is, that book is written in way that will make easy book --> movie transition. Worthwhile plot (could have been trimmed and polished better), 2-dimensional characters, little background information, secret shadow societies out to destroy the world, everything happening on fast-forward and of course, the requisite romance between the of course gorgeous female lead and the needless to say handsome male supporting lead.

I read it in 3 hours. As I said, the theories were good and if developed, could be intriguing. The development? Horrible. Everything goes at fast-forward and then the ending? Everything goes *boom* and hey guess what, everything's still okay! Without any interference necessary by our beautiful leads. Talk about a stupid deus ex machina...

You want Apocalypse-type book? Read Matthew Reilly. 

Fruits Basket!

Butter

Posted by eirene83 at 11:39 AM on March 19, 2008.

I've been doing a hell of a lot of baking lately, as you might have noticed. I can now because there's a lot less snacks at home (though I've been asked to take a break because well, I just filled up the snack-void with all my baking )

I just enjoy looking at different recipes and though it doesn't quite amount to a professional interest of love, I do like trying to improve my baking and progress further. So with aims of that, my home is stocked with pounds of flour and sugar, couverture chocolate and sprinkles and the basic baking equipment and assorted trays and tins.

However, one thing I don't keep on hand is butter. I prefer buying them as I need since I feel that old butter loses its taste and feels 'hollow' and brittle compared to fresh butter.

European brand butter like Lurpak or President is really expensive, going about RM10. I tend to use average butter or butter blends even, for baking, not so expensive but still gives good results in baking. Lately though, I think the price of butter has been going up!

It's only about RM1 or so, but if you're buying a lot of butter, that's quite a noticeable difference in what you pay! Has there been a price increase for butter that I wasn't informed of?? If this keeps up, I might just start baking with margarine!

8 onigiri

Happy Nawruz

Posted by eirene83 at 10:29 AM on March 21, 2008.

Last Friday was Bahai's New Year and so the office was left pretty quiet all in all, there being only 4 of us around...

There wasn't much work assigned to do so by the time lunch rolled past, we were mostly bumming around, playing online games or just reading the paper. Oh and also wishing that boss had given us the day off.

Yanno, skiving off work is so boring when well, there's no work to skive off.

Fruits Basket!

Things That Go 'Sizzle 'n Hiss'

Posted by eirene83 at 10:30 AM on March 21, 2008.

I misplaced my brain somewhere yesterday. I had planned to make another chocolate pie to use the remaining truffle mix left and frankly everything was going fine right up until I had the crust all ready to bake.

Instead of putting it into the oven, I proceeded to spread the chocolate on top of the crust and dump it into the oven. Midway cleaning, this thought occured to me. Won't the chocolate melt?

Opening the oven door just confirmed my fears. One oozy puddle of chocolate happily swirling around. So I just hoped for the best that once the crust baked, the chocolate would cool down and resolidify.

Instead, 15 minutes later, I heard hissing noised from the oven... And behold, chocolate bubbling over the pie pan. T_T Who knew chocolate could froth up so much... Scratch the chocolate pie; serving up one exploding chocolate bomb.

Fruits Basket!

I-R-R-I-T-A-T-E-D

Posted by eirene83 at 11:13 AM on March 24, 2008.

I'm feeling so irritated. I've been to Carl's Jr a couple of times since they've opened and I rather enjoyed their menu. I know it's pricy and not really all that different compared to Chili's or TGIF, but one thing really appealed to me:

Their 'free' 13 sauces, besides ketchup...

I say 'free' because well, at least it used to be free. I only found out about it on my 2nd visit when I was reading the paper liner on the tray where they recommend their other signature sauces. Free guacamole? And chili? I was up for it... And for a while, it was good...

Up till yesterday when I had a craving for fries. Sure, I know it's not those crisp shoe-string fries we're used to from McD's but rather more old-style fries... And I actually prefer it that way. Anyway, back to Carl's Jr. I used to get their Chili Cheese Fries (totally misleading, no chili whatsoever, just loads of meat sauce and cheese on fries... Looks goopy and disgusting but taste good.) but I thought I'd just get a side of fries and top it with guacamole and chili... Guess what?

They are now charging RM1 for any extra sauces you take.

Sure, it's business... But it just really irritates me because why promote all your signature sauces (which by the way is not mentioned on the menu at all), giving it away for free and suddenly start charging it without informing customers? I might as well just go back to TGIF and Chili's...

Fruits Basket!

Shortbread Doggies

Posted by eirene83 at 11:13 AM on March 24, 2008 in Recipes, Foodie stuff.

Take #2 on the Milo doggies. I decided to remake them using a shortbread dough instead. They turned out fairly well except for the fact the dough spread and I had to take them out of the oven after 10 minutes since the dogs were threatening to end up as one flat face on the (ungreased!!) pan.

Instead, I ended up finishing the cooking process in my mini oven-toaster several times (hence the tanned ears...) See the ones with the pink noses and the heart eyes? Yeah, I know that makes them look more like pigs, but they're still cute right? They're actually strawberry chips and I think they taste much better than chocolate.

Overall I prefered this version better compared to the Milo ones. They tasted nice and buttery and the strawberry chips inside (yeah, they're actually stuffed doggies ) melted and caramelised and made a nice sweet centre. Chocolate actually didn't taste good for once in either version. Anyway, these are nice for a treat... Now I'm just thinking what else can I stuff it with.

Fruits Basket!

Maths Test

Posted by eirene83 at 10:46 AM on March 25, 2008.

If the journey takes over 30 minutes and by the time you get back to the office, it's past office hours, can you just go straight back home without dropping by the office?

Okay, so maybe that wasn't quite a maths question... Anyway, what really happened was that I had to attend a court case at 2.30 yesterday in Shah Alam and by the time we finished it was already past 5. Boss had to bring lady boss and daughter along, so he told us (me and another colleague) to make our own way there and all which we did, with cab and we were planning to take the taxi back as well. However boss told me, "Don't go back home. Go back to the office and do this... bla, bla bla...".

Okay, thing here is, I pass my house before I can get back to the office... And by the time I get there and then go back home, it'll be close to 6.30. So does that really make sense to go back to the office? Especially if I know the research isn't going to turn up anything? Plus I called ahead to the office to ask them to double-confirm the fact the research didn't turn up anything?

I mean, as long as I do my work, does it really matter that I go back home? Punctually? Instead of doing OT like normal?? Is it such a crime to finish work on time???

Fruits Basket!

Scones

Posted by eirene83 at 10:46 AM on March 25, 2008.

I was going through the papers when I came across something that made me spit. I won't name the paper but they have this column where the columnist goes to a hotel, does a review and come away with an article of a particular food item and the recipe for it. Usually, it's okay. This one was... beyond words.

It was an article about scones and all that... What made me incredulous (beside the fact that recipe required 2kg worth of flour and 150g baking powder!!!) was the method of mixing the ingredients and how the reviewer thought the scone delicious.

The method? Mix well the butter and sugar. Mix well the flour, baking powder and all the other stuff. Get everything mixed well!! Rest in room temperature for 30 minutes!!!

...

Now if you've done enough research or even just seen 2 or 3 recipes, you should understand that making scones is like making pie crusts: minimal, gentle handling with the ingredients as cold as possible. Just rub in the butter until you get coarse crumbs. Don't overmix. Don't overhandle the dough.

Scones are meant to be light. Tender. Crumbly. Moist and flaky. The reviewer described the scones as dense bread. I think that should give a clue about just how off-track she is about what a scone should really be like.

As my colleague would say, haaiiihhh, I really cannot take this lah. This is tooo much! Seriously.

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KTM Rant Again

Posted by eirene83 at 03:58 PM on March 26, 2008.

This isn't the first time I'm going to complain about the state of KL's public transport and I doubt it'll be the last.

Okay, I know and I can accept the fact that the trains are all going to be packed, whether it's the Monorail or the Putra or the commuter (Not the Star line though. THAT'S sensibly a train that is frequent and has enough carriages for all.)

But really, don't you think that 15 minutes frequency per train to an interchange station at peak hour just a little bit too much? I mean, we're talking about the commuter here. People aren't taking it for just two three stations... We're talking like from one end of town to the other...

So, it took me 45 minutes to get from central KL over to Mid Valley... This is a journey of about 10 minutes maybe, by car, we're talking about here. This is a 2-stop journey we're talking about. And really, correct me if I'm wrong, isn't the train supposed to be frequent during peak hours, not less??

Fruits Basket!

Breasts

Posted by eirene83 at 11:52 AM on March 27, 2008.

My colleagues and I were having a discussion over lunch (Boss is away; group lunches!!! ) and the topic wandered off to breasts. It's actually quite a common topic here in our office. We love comparing sizes of our breasts constantly...

Maybe it's because most of us are well... Not flat-chested, no, never that... But maybe, just a bit small. Whereas there is one among us who is well... Let us just say, oranges and grapefruit okay? Lol...

So we wondered why most guys seem to adore breasts so much. (Okay, I know not every guy is a breast guy... But really, those glands do seem to provide much fascination for the XY chromosomers...) So I quipped, it's because they're recalling their first ever source of nutrition.

Silence.

Then laughter...

Because really, I can't think of any other reason why they are so fascinating.  

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The Mouse Got Sick

Posted by eirene83 at 11:15 PM on March 28, 2008.

I'm getting that horrible stuffy feeling in my throat that usually means I'm coming down with a flu. Possibly a nasty one because that stuffy feeling is slowly but surely starting to become a swollen feeling...

Too much partying now that the boss is gone? Well, so far all we've done in the office is have a mehndi party with one colleague decorating our hands and arms with henna and... make our wallets much much lighter in the process of making ourselves much much heavier...

On the bright side, I met up with a CLP classmate at long last for dinner and had a brilliant time catching up, though I have to confess that half the time I was so drowsy and sniffly-ish that I really just wanted to go home. It was a totally last minute thing which I usually abhor but sometimes if you get me in the right mood, I'm totally game for meeting up.

Anyway, it's late and so I'm going to take my medicine and just go to bed like a good little girl.

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Cuppa Tea

Posted by eirene83 at 07:26 PM on March 29, 2008.

I'm sick...

In case some of you didn't pick that up from the previous post.

However, what most of you won't know is, I was violently sick.

I was sick at the crack of dawn; sick in the bathroom, at the knees of the porcelain goddess, whom I worshipped, violently painfully and frequently.

Cold sweat and trembling kind of sick until I blacked out, for a few seconds or a few minutes or for an hour, I don't know.

On the bright side, I woke up from all that feeling much better and without a trace of fever.

And what does all that have to do with a cuppa tea?

Because after all that worshipping, there's nothing like a hot cuppa sweet tea to make everything better.

So go ahead, sweeten that tea and enjoy.

Fruits Basket!

Quarter Of A Century

Posted by eirene83 at 07:52 PM on March 30, 2008.

I'm in denial... I refuse to believe that I am finally a quarter of a century years old... That college really has been that long ago. That I can say hello to wrinkles and eye bags soon.

I'm not ready for 25.

Like a lot of my friends, I still go home to my parents and family pets and I still go to sleep with my numerous soft toys which I'm not ashamed to say I'm still keeping. I generally still act like a kid in many many ways and it's way too easy for me to forget I'm supposed to a responsible contributing citizen of my country. Heck, I can't even afford my own car yet! Sure, I work and all. I have my own savings. I know that everything else will come in its own time...

But for now, I can't really accept the fact that people are going to call me 'Kak' (older sister) in a few year's time rather than the other way around; that people will soon ask me when I'll get married... That I'm actually five and twenty instead of still being three and twenty!! I'm not refusing to work and stuff and I know I have to think about my future, plan about getting a house and retirement plans and all... I'm just in denial about the number 25.

I refuse being 25!

Fruits Basket!

Ringtones Alarm Tones

Posted by eirene83 at 08:20 PM on March 31, 2008.

I was waiting for lunch to be cooked when I heard someone's phone ring and immediately got a start.

Reason is, that's the exact same ring tone that I use for my phone alarm and hearing it, I just got this really weird feeling like I was supposed to wake up but couldn't. Gave my heart quite a shock too.

Does that happen to anyone else? You hear someone's phone ring and you get a shock because you use it for your alarm clock and get the feeling like your heart was shocked or something?

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