Firey Dinner

Before you go and discriminate me as a danger in the kitchen after reading this, I should point out that I've been cooking well in the past 6 months and had helped my mum in the kitchen since young and this is just one of those hiccups that happens.

Frankly, I'm laughing this off but I'm putting this in the beginning since if I put this in the end... you won't believe me. Anyway, I'm typing this now since it just happened about 2 hours ago (was watching tv) and I'll post the gap of dates later.

"Today was rather normal. I was rather late for class really... I bumped into Saran at Glenferrrie station and Jake in the train heading to school. By the time, I got to school, I was late for my meeting but I went to the location anyway. Reif, Sarah and Michael were at Lucky Coq. We didn't talk much I guess...

Class was pretty normal and after class, I held a small meeting. Was about 10 minutes really. Wanted to discuss with everyone and made sure it was clear everyone knew what they were doing. Had to send the meeting minutes... Bumped into Derek at Prahran station.

Anyway, came back at 4.30pm, was watching tv and constructing the meeting minutes. I told Evelyn to buy dumplings since she was going to Boxhill. Something told me NOT to cook dinner tonight... Anyway I insisted to ignore that feeling and made pasta.

Here's where everything went wrong... I had one pot boiling water (to put in the pasta) and another pot with oil. Seriously, I walked away from the stove to get to my room to send the minutes off (copy and paste and send it off)... seconds, just seconds.

I came back to the stove and saw that the pot of oil was smoking... badly... The first thing I thought was to move the pot away from the heated stove. seconds... the oil caught fire and [sigh] I was suddenly holding a pot of fire. I must say now that I'm glad that Hanna was there.

First thing to do was to put out the fire... Hanna reminded me not to use water as I was wetting the cloth. I knew that but then I struck me if I couldn't use a wet cloth either. So I grabbed the nearest semi-dry table clothes and muffled the fire. I thank god that I learnt science. All this happened within a minute really.. Smokey room....

I might add that after the fire was put out, I became aware that the fire alarms in the room was ringing. I knew from the orientation, NEVER OPEN THE MAIN DOOR for if the smoke alarms went off there, the fire brigade would come and I would be fined a hefty sum. Hanna was opening the unilodge handbook as I made my way to use her phone... needed to do something about the still ringing fire alarm (I had opened the glass doors so that the smoke will make their way out.

Promptly I called the extension for the reception to ask them to turn off the alarm. When the guy on the phone asked for the room number, I really couldn't remember the room number. Guess the shock kicked in late.. [lol] Hanna told me the room number.

After that, we were in the living room, I kept apologizing for scaring Hanna and she laughed a little about the incident. We sat down and laughed about the incident really. The guy from the reception came at our door and luckily the smoke had thinned out really. Came to asked if everyone was alright and reminded us to not open the main door so as to not trip the smoke alarm outside.

Anyway, here's a photo of the poor black pot... (You'd think after all that, I won't think of taking this photo) Too bad my mind was preoccupied on dousing the fire and turning off the smoke alarm to photograph the fire... I'm not THAT crazy..

Anyway, after the good laugh, I set to cooking dinner... again. You'd think I would give up and buy McDonalds or something. [lol] Anyway, this time the cooking went on with no GREAT incident. [lol] By the time, the guy from the reception came back again (I knew he'll be back to ask who set the fire alarm off), I was already halfway through cooking the pasta

The finished pasta
I was pretty glad that Hanna was with me (she really has a good head of those shoulders and a great stone in the sea of chaos). I'm totally grateful~!

Would say that it pays to be prepared (knowledge and mental state) in this kind of situations. Again, I'll point out that I'm NEVER this clumsy but it sure made a great start to the holidays~! [lol] by the way, I'm totally fine.

On a random note; I really don't know why I was bumping into the guys in the station. I'd like to think it was a warning of sorts... [puzzled]

Anyway, cheers~!