Let 'Em Have Cake

Today I sent out another job application and completed a reasoning test for another application. I haven't had much progress with this job thing. So far I've had numerous rejections...there's only one upcoming interview, but I don't know when 'cause people haven't gone back to work yet. I really can't screw this one up. I know job-hunting is difficult, especially this year, but receiving rejections is just so depressing!

Apart from job-hunting, I also did some dissertation work. Very little though I must say. I didn't do any work for the past two weeks and I feel I'm quite behind on this dissertation reading. I have a plan for it but I can't write anything until I've read enough. I'm also writing a 10-minute speech in Japanese on the same topic, for the oral exam in two weeks' time (and for the speech contest finals in February). I really must stop procrastinating and get back to work. The trouble is that my topic is contemporary so it's very difficult to find relevant published academic papers and essays. And I need to find sources in Japanese too, which is even more difficult considering I'm like over 5000 miles away from the country.

Next Friday is Wen Chean's 22nd birthday, and I've been contemplating on which cake to bake for her. For my birthday last October she made me this lovely, moist and pink-ish strawberry cake. So I went through my cookbooks, and looked up for recipes online...but still I'm undecided. Right now I'm choosing between a red velvet cake or the chocolate cake that I made for Seb's birthday. I know I'm confident with the chocolate cake 'cause I've made it before and it was good. I've only made red velvet cupcakes but an actual cake, and last time I made the cupcakes the cream cheese icing was not as stiff as I had hoped. Hmm... I can hear a voice inside my head that's whispering "chocolate chocolate chocolate" (or is that the voice of my hormones?), but then a red velvet cake can be wonderful too... aaaaarrrrggghhhh!!! So not only do I have to stress about my career, dissertation, I also stress about making the perfect birthday cake. Perhaps it's fair to say that I'm a bit of a perfectionist. Or is that euphemism for OCD?