.: asylum for the sane :.

This is a plate of half a dozen of level 30 buffalo wings.

Which may seem to be just another name of a dish to you, but let me tell you that it isn’t. This is super mad spicy chicken, that is almost lethal – I am not exaggerating.

You do know of course that I’ve tried buffalo wings levels 3 and 4 and those were by itself epic experiences already, even for a seasoned chili padi lover like me.

So if levels 3 and 4 were already so torturous (at that time), you can only imagine what level 30 would be like. 10 times the pain. 10 times the spiciness. Talk about torturous eating.

However this time round, when we went there, I only had the level 3 spicy wings (even though I wanted to try level 5 pretty badly). It was the boys who jumped straight to level 30, hohoho!

And how they suffered.

But, it was hard to resist temptation when it is right in front of you. I was curious to know what this coveted level 30 chicken tasted like. I just had to have it. But in an attempt not to kill myself (after seeing the pains the boys are experiencing), I only took one bite.

And this bite, my friends, is enough.

Sorry for the quality of the photo, but it was pretty dark where we were seated and my hands were quite shaky from wanting to try the damn chicken.

So I finally placed this fairly regular sized bite of level 30 buffalo wings into my mouth and..

Holy shit. It was like having a mini bon fire inside your mouth. The spicy taste of the chicken creeps on to you slowly, and when it finally has you around its dried chili hell, it’s too late for anything. The heat and spiciness totally engulfs you.

Totally, totally. It left me speechless. And I was so close to tears, but I couldn’t cry because compared to what the two guys were going thru (3 whole chicken wings each), my little suffering was close to nothingness.

It is something that I will not try again (and I think everyone who went on this trip will agree with me on this), but I will continue trying the other levels from where I left off. But never level 30 again. One bite is sufficient, thank you very much.

FP got thru the entire ordeal pretty well, just an upset and unstable tummy the next day, but Kawan E’s brother had it real bad

But they are both rewarded with certificates of accomplishment! This is FP’s cert, hehehe. We haven’t gotten round to laminating it!

Yes we will come back again, but not ever for level 30. I am so looking forward to level 5 though!

I feel exhausted. It’s as if the accumulated exhaustion of this entire year has decided to ambush me at year end.

2009 has been a very long year to say the least.

Health

I’ve been a complete klutz this year. Awfully accident prone and oftenly sick. Who could forget my week long MC as I lay in bed thinking I was gonna die from food poisoning? Drama Queen, that I am

Or the time that I sprained both ankles (which led to both entire legs hurting so much) just because I took a wrong landing as I jumped over a ditch? And I came back from the hospital with both legs bandaged? Haha

or what about the time I sprained my hand and arm from slamming a door really hard?

Yes a cam whore never misses a chance to cam whore. Even if it means taking the photo with her sprained hand. Tsk.

I think this year I took more MCs than I would annual leaves haha. Let’s hope for better health next year then. Maybe I shouldn’t mention here that I’ve been having chest pains. But oh well, I just did. Shh.

Career

I worked so damn hard this year. Looking back on my accomplishments at work this year, I feel a tinge of pride. It’s truly a lot of work to have come thus far. I’ve learnt so many things, gotten to know so many new people, people come people go.

My teams in Jakarta grew by leaps and bounds and suddenly I have 2 incredibly big, capable and talented teams there that I can rely at any given time or day. And these two teams practically make two out of many firm foundations of the site.

And for the first time, I’ve started growing a team in Singapore too. Incredible. Even though it is something very new (less than a month), it has been incredibly exciting and fun to have my own team here.

More powers indeed come with extra responsibilities, as I’ve learned this year.

Of course with success come haters, which I totally do not give a shit about. 2009 has been an amazing year at work, despite the fact that I came close to giving up completely once or twice. I really am glad I didn’t. Here’s to another long, exciting and rewarding work year in 2010!

Personal Achievements

This is where I wish I can that I’ve learned how to ride a bicycle, or completed a marathon or won awards. But I didn’t achieve any of that. But what I did achieve (on a personal basis) are:

1) I finally got a domain. Thank you Toni, Nico and Indra for helping with the set up. and thank you FP for teaching me how to change my own theme, lol. Yes I work for a website but I can still be a tech-idiot at times.

2) I survived an earthquake. Even though I couldnt sleep for 2 weeks after that.

3) I learned how to bake! First for FP’s birthday cake (hehehe) and then for my own pleasure. Which reminds me, I haven’t baked in months!

4) I survived levels 3 and 4 of crazy spicy buffalo wings, despite sweat, tears and crazy internal heat. and the runs.

Part II still in the works. Be patient!

I’m pretty sick right now with flu and everything that comes with flu.

But I will still complete this post because this was meant to be typed and published a few days back. So to even out the momentum, I shall keep typing until this post is finished and then I can concuss till the break of day.

(And then start on a brand new work day, which will be a typically crazy fast paced day. It’s been a tad more crazy and twice the speed this entire week!)

Okay so last weekend, we went to have spicy chicken wings at a remote location (don’t I just enjoy being secretive?)

Apparently, this place serves chicken wings with 10 levels of spiciness. I’ve read somewhere that anything after level 3 is too hot too handle, so we decided to have level 3.

So here are the level 3 spicy wings:

They don’t look too harmful, do they? Well, don’t judge a book by its cover! It was spicy! 

At first it tasted okay, and I was pretty confident that I was able to take it because I am the daughter of a woman who eats chili padi like nothing and inherited that “gift”.

But… it was really crazy hot. And most of the effects came after you have finished eating. The entire area around the mouth burned. It’s like someone smeared chili seed all around my mouth area and it really, really burned.

I kinda like this photo despite the eyebags and all. It was a tiring day for me, having to wake up early and go on a nature walk with FP. We walked for 5 km, but that’s another story. Hope that didn’t scare you off, but there will be nicer photos of me later on in this post. Plus an unglam video *covers face* Plus, this was taken having the chicken and just tasting the spiciness. You try looking pretty while eating crazily spicy chicken.

There.. a nicer photo. Thanks Kawan E for taking this nice photo! <3

Apparently, Kawan E enjoys taking photos of Sha eating. She says it’s the many faces of Kodok Fairy.

That was me, eating soup. LOL. And the soup was yummy! Two thumbs up for the garlic bread!

So before I reveal the video that is embarrassing as it is unglamorous, let me put up a few more photos.

(this is called trying to stall for time)

So, this is Kawan E and Kawan C. (LOL Kawan C!) This was the only photo in this entire blog post taken by me. The fingers belong to FP

FP never ever ever wants to smile nicely for the camera! I guess I’m smiling pretty enough for the both of us, right?

RIGHT?

So I guess I can’t delay the video any further. I’ve uploaded the video in two sources. One is a embedded video from youtube. The other is uploaded up to this domain in case youtube doesn’t (or cannot) load. Thanks to Kawan E, Kawan C and FP for spreading this video across Facebook.

I don’t know where to put my face now. but anyway. Since they’ve created such good publicity for me, I should also promote my own video, as taken by Kawan E.

Option 1. Click this link here to watch Sha and Her Spicy Wings. This will open up your Quicktime player.

Option 2. You can watch it below:

Okay now I’m going to hide under the bed now. LOL. This is so totally unglam! *hides face*

p/s: I ate two full chicken wings, FP and Kawan C had 1.5 chicken wings and Kawan E only had one. Guess who had to rush to the toilet (without hardly any notice)? Everybody who had more than 1 chicken wing. And the discomfort lasted till the next day. Oh my. Can you imagine level 10 wings? hohoho!!