On Motivation...

I tried to go to a time management course today.

Obviously I didn't manage my time well enough because by the time I got there, I was told I was too late and I'd have to go again another day.

As it is, I now have a wall planner up in the study. I've never used a wall planner before and it looks pretty imposing. Especially with all those 2000 word 40% essays due on the same day.

It's probably a hint to not blog but eh.

I've been trying to read my ENGL2070 text for Week 2, as well. Ian McEwan's Saturday. I honestly can't get through the first few pages. It's not nearly as simple to get in to as The Reluctant Fundamentalist, admittedly, but the main reason is, embarassingly enough, that I'm too damn squeamish. The main character of Saturday, Henry Perowne, is a neurosurgeon, and as such, there are plenty of descriptions of operations he performs in the days leading up to the titular Saturday of the book.

I actually started flinching on the bus and thanked my lucky stars that I could just use my reading of The Reluctant Fundamentalist for marks instead.

Started HIST1201 today, too. Australian History. It's pretty interesting, I must say. 1000 word analysis of a primary source due in a month. Watch this space for my angst over it in about three weeks time.

Especially with Pokemon Black and White coming out in a week time. Oh God...I don't like my chances at motivation.

Still, for now, I think I'm going pretty well. Fingers crossed.

On 9/11...

Let me start this blog by saying that when 9/11 happened, I knew nothing of what was going on. In my defense, I had only just turned 10 and was more concerned by the fact that Pokemon wasn't on (boy, how little has changed). The world around me changed, indeed, but I honestly barely realised at the time. It is now, as a 19 year old, I only begin to know better.

This year marks the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, and I was reminded of that fact in a book I read today - Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

Hamid's book is a deceptively simple read. Picking it up for my English class (University of Queensland, ENGL2070 - Modern Classics, if anyone cares) in the bookstore today, I read about 1/3 of it while in line with students frantically buying up textbooks. And instantly, I was hooked.

Admittedly, the title was a little off-putting - looking at the reading list for the course, I instinctively flinched when I saw it. The Reluctant Fundamentalist. Boy, that sounded like a barrel of laughs. Likely a massive tome on religion, no doubt an absolute struggle to read.

It may be a total cliche, but let it be said that I've never been happier to be proven wrong.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is an evening encounter between you, Stereotypical American Businessman (specifically a man, I might add - buff, well dressed, hardly elaborated upon, because it's not your story), and Changez, the storyteller. This man has invited you to join him for tea in a Lahore cafe, and you agree - albeit a little reluctantly - as he begins to tell his life story. About he, as a young, intelligent man from Pakistan, got accepted in to a prestigious United States university. How he worked hard and was one of the top students, getting a job at Underwood Samson - an excellent opportunity for a student of finance. How he met Erica, the love of his life. It all sounds very romantic and idealistic...

...and then, on the eleventh of September, 2001, as the lights at the cafe begin to dim, the story begins to take a grim turn, as life becomes far less than rosy for our storyteller. The dichotomy between East and West becomes clear, the perfect life he had begins to fall apart...

What happens? Well, this is something you'll just have to read for yourself.

Like I said, though, I never quite understood 9/11 when it happened. I have little empathy for the characters in this book, but perhaps that is for the best. Regardless, even without that knowledge, I still appreciated this book and would highly recommend it. It is far from a complex read - indeed, it took me little over 2 hours to polish it off - and is thoroughly engaging. As Changez tells his story, you feel compelled to listen, to find out how it ends.

And how it ends is perhaps the most interesting part of the book.

On Spaghetti...

Everyone has a recipe that, in their own humble opinion, nobody does better than their own family. They won't have it anywhere else, or if they do, they'll know in their hearts it would be so much better at home. For me, that has to be spaghetti bolognaise. Nobody can beat the Ganly family spaghetti recipe. I learnt how to make it from my mother, and while I wouldn't go so far as to say I make it as well as she does, mine's not half-bad.

It's a fairly simple recipe, too, which is even better.

You will need:

• 500g beef mince
• a handful of diced bacon
• 1 brown onion, diced
• 1/2 a large red capsicum, diced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tin of tomato soup
• 1 cup of water (easiest option is to fill the emptied tomato soup tin with water, tbh)
• 1 tsp beef stock
• 1 heaped tbsp tomato paste
• various herbs and spices (I like to use parsley, oregano and chilli, but I usually throw in contents of the tin labelled 'mixed herbs' too, for variety)

Heat a large frypan and throw in a dash of olive oil. Put in the bacon, onion, capsicum and garlic, and cook until the onion begins to brown/bacon starts to cook. Then, add in the mince and cook until it browns. Once that's cooking nicely, add in the the soup, water (with beef stock added in to the water), and tomato paste. Stir, then sprinkle the seasonings. Leave to simmer while you cook the pasta.

Plain spaghetti is fine, I know I've always loved various alternatives like shells and spirals though, but that's because I'm childish. Strain the pasta and spoon in to bowls, topping with the bolognaise sauce and parmesan cheese (if you desire). It's also good with garlic bread.

As I write this I have bolognaise sauce simmering on the stove. The longer you leave it to simmer the better. Even so, it's a delicious recipe and well worth a try.

Unless you don't like bacon.

Or happen to be vegetarian.

In which case you shouldn't have read this post in the first place.