What A Way To End The Year

I'm not one to kiss and tell (on my blog, I mean. Of course close girlfriends get ALL the gory details.) but I just found out something that has changed my entire perspective of the soon-to-be-ex-husband.

All I can say is that all my guy friends were probably right and I was probably very wrong.

Simple Statistics

I noticed that there's a correlation between the number of friends I have on MSN to the number of blog entries I post each day. The more friends I have on MSN, the less likely I am to blog that day. And likewise, now that everyone is on leave and out of the country for their year end holidays (I miss Yummy and LGG), the number of blog posts *whoosh!* increase.

Too Much, Too Soon

Heart palpitating now.

 

Also, other ways to keep awake? Spam blog.

CYBER-SHOUTING KEEPS ME AWAKE

I'M UP AFTER ABOUT ONLY 2 HOURS OF SLEEP. I AM GUZZLING AN ULTIMATE ICE BLENDED FROM THE COFFEE BEAN AND TEA LEAF IN AN ATTEMPT TO STAY AWAKE.

THANKFULLY I DON'T HAVE ANY PLANS AFTER WORK TODAY. OR DO I? HMM.

HAVING LUNCH WITH EUNICE LATER. HOPE MY COFFEE LASTS THAT LONG. HAHAHAHA.

I Don't Think I Had Caffeine Today, Did I?

Aiyah. It's almost 5am and I'm still awake.

Sometimes My Brain Takes A While To Process Stuff

I just realised I haven't had anything to eat for dinner except for some popcorn while watching the movie. Let's see, all I had this evening was an iced lemon tea, a hot chocolate, and then a glass of grapefruit juice.

No wonder I'm hungry now.

Today (Or Rather, Yesterday)

Wah. It's almost 3am and I'm still up. I'm still up because I just got home about half an hour ago. I can't even remember the last time I got home so late!

Anyway, had lunch with the Alligator today. It's been more than 6 months since I met the boy and (babe, if you're reading this, I apologise) he really needs a haircut. Hahaha. I didn't have much time to spend with him but we had a good catch up- cramming 6 months worth of updates into slightly less than an hour.

Went for a jog at the gym for the first time in forever and managed to get a short run in before my silly knee started acting up. I *think* I managed to cover slightly under 3km in about 20min. Not too bad. Was pleasantly surprised to see Tristan working there, had a quick chat before I had to run off to meet Ki.

Note to self: find out how much PT packages are now. Or take the advice of a certain Martian, and learn how to do weight training properly.

Watched Yes Man with Ki, and even though I'm meeting her more than our quota calls for, we managed to enjoy each other's company still. Lol. The movie wasn't too bad, although I must say we've watched funnier Jim Carrey shows before.

Had coffee hot chocolate with her after. Talked about family and friends, holidays, holidays gone wrong, relationships-you name it. I'm glad we're making more effort now to keep in touch (meeting up TWICE in a year! Wow.) and that we're starting to get close again. *hugssssssslovessssssssssmuacksssssssssssss*

Got chased out of Starbucks when it was closing time and was about to head home when I got a call from the Martian. Since I wasn't feeling tired (too much sugar in the system), we met up and headed down to Club Street for a drink. Ah, Club Street. The place which saw many drunken nights of my past.

It was really odd going back to the area, a place that I used to frequent so often. Settled on Indochine and hung out there till the place closed. One of the positive things that has come out of my split is that I'm now meeting more people, making more friends. Today was a perfect example of how much I've missed in the past 3-4 years, especially so in the last 12 months.

Ah well. Better late than never, right?

Was glad to meet so many people today. I'm very pleased. Wallet is a lot lighter now, but I think it's all well worth it. Time to go to bed. 2 more days to the new year!

It's A Miracle!

I'm actually going to be meeting Ki again tonight! That's more than once a year! Amazing.

Sweat It Out

I've been awfully lazy about working out this past couple of months. Fine. Make it this past couple of years. Hehe.

Wanted to go for a jog but it was raining and I was feeling too lazy to haul my fat ass to the gym. So eventually I settled on a couple of simple exercises that I did at home.

Sit ups, push ups, squats- the usual. Finished up my little workout with some stretching and now I'm waiting to stop perspiring so that I can take a much needed shower.

Feels good to get this creaky body of mine moving though. My sweat glands haven't been used in way too long and now they seem to be on overdrive.

Need to be more disciplined about exercising! I know I say it every year, and each time this is one of my greatest struggles. Pfft.

Oh well. Baby steps, I say. Think I'll pack my gym attire and head on to the gym tomorrow before meeting the Alligator for dinner.

Reflections

It's hard to imagine that another year / 12 months / 365 (ok 362) days have passed. So many things have happened. My life turned upside down in such a short span of time.

As everyone already knows, the most significant thing that happened to me in 2008 was that my marriage ended. Of all the ups and downs, this was the one incident that shook me up the most.

The man that I thought I'd be spending the rest of my life with turned out to be someone I now realise I never really knew all that well. The family that took me in as one of their own, has now become a part of my past and not future. The life I had envisioned, and made sacrifices for, all gone.

I accept what has happened, and I know and understand why things fell apart. But while I'm surely and steadily moving on with my life, coming to terms with the situation, making changes in my life that can only be for the better, I wonder how this experience has changed me.

For one, I now truly understand what it means to have the unconditional love and support of your family. My parents and sister have been wonderfully supportive and kind, giving me advice when asked, and space when I needed to be alone. My relatives have been very considerate, accepting the situation without drilling me on the details.

Friends have been great, with a few of them already lining up potential dates for 2009. Lol. I've cast aside the anti-social streak that plagued me for most part of 2008, and met up with more people in the past 2 months than I have in the rest of the year. (Of course it helps that I'm no longer living in the boondocks.)

I'm still not sure what my outlook on life and love is now though. I've definitely become a little bit more skeptical, looking at my peers who are happily getting married and settling down and wondering to myself how long it'll be before they split.

But I'd like to think that all this will pass. I'd like to think that one day I'll believe that it is possible to have a 'happily ever after', that marriages that last a lifetime are not just a thing of my parents' generation.

Right now, I'm not in any rush to jump into any relationships. (I'm not even legally divorced anyways.) I don't even want to think much about 2009. But now I know what LGG meant when she said that she was content to just drift, to not have any plans, to live day by day.

Things are definitely looking up for 2009 though. Bring it on.

AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!

I was feeling pensive and was reflecting upon the past year and wrote a particularly long blog entry last night. Because it was so long, I got too tired to finish it and so decided to save it as a draft and go to bed.

Or so I thought. Apparently, I was too tired to save the draft properly because IT'S GONE. Argh!

Anyway, now I don't really feel like re-writing the entire thing and I can't even remember what much of my train of thought last night. *sigh*

Merry Christmas!

*burp*

Man, I'm stuffed. We had a gatherng at our place last night, and I ate so much. We didn't really have the typical Christmas dishes one would expect, but my mom made lasagne (always a winner), meatloaf (something she used to make a long long time ago) and the cousins brought roast duck and meats. There was also macaroni salad and lots of chocolate. Yummy.

My sis had bought the DVD for The Nightmare Before Christmas and we watched that last night, while everyone huddled together on the couch. It was such a cold night and it was the perfect weather for lazing in and watching TV. The family proved ourselves to be dysfunctional once again, when we actually educated my 9yo niece on the difference between wines and beers (and yes, we let her have a small glass).

No plans for today. Was supposed to go to a friend's place for Christmas lunch but by the time I finally woke up it was already 1.45pm so I stayed home and had leftovers. Downloaded the Twilight ebook and spent the last couple of hours reading it. Think I'll get back to reading hehe.

Anyway, Merry Christmas!

Rain, Rain, Come Again

It's raining and I don't feel like leaving the house. Hahaha.

So might as well blog.

Things I need to do:

1. Get Christmas presents. Haha. Yes, I know it's Christmas eve already but.. Ok, I have no excuses. I was just lazy.
2. Buy ingredients to bake cake for Christmas. I should have done this earlier but.. Ok, I have no excuses. I was just lazy.
3. Write blog post about reflections on 2008. Actually I've started the draft but.. Ok, I have no excuses. I was just lazy.

*changes topic*

I think I'll grab a cup of coffee later. Can barely keep my eyes open. Hehehe.

Blogging More

Ki says I should blog more. Ok.

 

Here you go.

 

Lol.

An Awesome Week

I must say that this has been a great week.

Watched Twilight with Yummy on Tuesday and I must say now I understand why she was gushing on and on about the show. Yes, LGG may mock us but 1. I want a vampire lover 2. I want a 'vegetarian' vampire family to accept me as one of their own and protect me from the evil vampires. Hehe.

Met Ki on Wednesday and watched Twilight again. It's been yonks since we last met, but some things just don't change. Don't know what it is about watching movies with her, but we always end up in giggling fits. Or rather, this time we were hur hur hur-ing away.

Grabbed a drink at TCC and chatted for the rest of the evening. Having read all of the books, she was able to fill in some of the gaps which made me understand certain bits of the movie better.

Then I had dinner with Paul today and the last time we met was, ironically, at my wedding. Lucky he didn't demand his ang pao back. Lol. Had a really insightful chat about relationships and marriage.

One of the best things about meeting friends who have known you from your school days is that they know the real you. The person not yet jaded by life's disappointments. The person who is filled with ambition and hope for the future.

Have a BBQ tomorrow with the Planet Zork alumni. Yaay! Better go to bed then.

One Of Those Annoyingly Chipper Blog Posts

Hehehehehe I'm so happy today. Annoyingly chipper. Everyone on MSN is asking me why and honestly? I don't know.

 

But who cares? A happy bunny is a hmm happy bunny. Lol.

 

La di da. I feel like skipping but I'm wearing heels and wearing a skirt. So I'll just mentally skip. *skip skip skip* Or should it be *hop hop hop* Hehehehe.

 

Late Night Telly

Watched Love Actually on the telly last night and the show ended only at 1.30am. I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch the show or go to bed (early morning today!) but decided to just go ahead and watch it since I've actually never caught the show, despite the numerous reruns.

 

I'm 5 years too late, but better late than never eh?

 

Anyway, by the time the show was over and I got settled into bed and all, it was really late. Almost 3am. *yawn* So now I need to find me some coffee or red bull. *yawn again*

The Weekend

I didn't do much this weekend. Had coffee with LGG on Saturday and had a really long chat about everything- our divorces, how 2008 has been for us, and how we know that 2009 will be a better year.

It's always comforting and insightful to chat with LGG about this whole experience because she understands exactly what I am going through, even though the details of our situations are obviously different.

She commented that I seem happy now. Happier than she's seen me in the past months. And I must say, I think I am. I think I have come to terms with the split, accepted what is happening, taken the necessary steps to try to move on with my life.

I've been trying to focus on the positive things in my life, surrounding myself with family and friends who care for me. Keeping myself busy. Thinking happy thoughts.

Of course I have my moments, moments where I feel guilty. Does moving on so quickly mean that my marriage wasn't all that important to me? How can I be happy when I don't even know whether my ex-spouse is doing well? Does moving on mean that I am cold and heartless?

*shrugs*

I just have to remind myself that I did try my best, I did want my marriage to work, but it takes two hands to clap. Plus, there are just too many things that are not within our control. I don't have much regrets, and I just have to try not to think so much about the past.

Anyway, spent the rest of the day watching the Secret Diary of a Call Girl which is based on the blogs of an anonymous London call girl, Belle de Jour. I remember reading the blog for a bit last time, but never really followed it closely.

The TV series was so interesting, it kept me up all Saturday night. Which meant I spent all of today sleeping, haha.

Oh well. There you go, my weekend.

This Is What I Chat About

Advocaat says:
have, not has

bon's brains has returned! says:
i guess they havent

Advocaat says:
haha sorry to be the bearer of bad news

bon's brains have returned! partially. says:
LOL

Things I Need To Do

Stop punishing myself by wearing closed toe heels! Ugh. There is a reason why I never wore them last time, and even though Peter Ishkhans from the Style Network channel says that "comfort is not a style", comfort is still way better than pain.

 

*sob*

 

Yeah, I know I don't have any blisters but the crampy toes suck. As LGG happily told me when I asked her if I'll ever get used to this, our nerves will eventually die and we won't feel anything in our feet anymore. But of course, she's had over a decade headstart from me.

 

Dammit.

Bunny's Tip Of The Day

I wore a new pair of closed toe heels yesterday and was so worried that my feet would end up dotted with blisters by the end of the day. To do my best to prevent that from happening, I called upon the collective wisdom of all my heel-wearing girlfriends, my mom and the internet and came up with a plan of attack.

 

1. Wax the inside of the shoe. Mom grabbed a candle and one of my new shoes and rubbed the candle along the edge of the shoes (the parts which are most likely to cause blisters). I guess the general idea is to smoothen out any rough areas and reduce friction between the shoe and the delicate skin of your feet.

 

2. Break the shoe in at home. Put on my shoes the day before and pranced about the house in them. Ok, actually I just wore the heels and sat on the couch watching TV but I was curling my feet in an attempt to simulate walking so that the shoe would stretch some.

 

3. Use an anti blister stick. They're a tad pricy though, I think $12 for a small tube that will probably last the week. What you do is rub the anti blister stick on your feet (not on the shoes!) on the places that you think you might get a blister. It supposedly moisturises your feet as it protects, creating a layer in between the feet and the shoes to reduce friction. Of course, I had to reapply it a couple of times throughout the day as it begins to wear out.

 

The verdict? Number of blisters at the end of the day: half. I spotted one almost forming and managed to avoid making it "full blown" by slapping on more anti blister. Unfortunately, the wide feet were so unused to being in cramped closed toe shoes and walking around for hours didn't help much.

 

There were other suggestions on how to prevent having blisters, such as using a plaster on places you think you're going to get a blaster and also using some of those gel sticker things on your shoe. At the end of the day, all you want to do is reduce the amount of friction between the shoe and your feet and the chances of getting a blister will diminish.

I Cannot Stay Awake The Entire Day Without Help

I was going to brag about how I managed to last the ENTIRE day without having any coffee, and then I realised that actually, I did have a cup of kopi at abt 9.30am and lots of green tea (maybe 5 or 6 cups?) during lunch.

No wonder I managed to stay awake the whole day. Hehehehe.

Anyway, ran into Huda at Cathay in the evening and had a quick little chat with her. Seems like things in her workplace is really, really messy now. Spoke to her about some of mutual friends we have (her colleagues) and seems like everyone isn't very happy now. Sucks.

Oh well, tough times.

Operation Caffeine Overdose

It's almost 11pm and I really should be sleeping. I have an early day tomorrow and judging by how I've been sleeping 10-12 hours each day, I really ought to have gone to bed at 6pm just now. Hehehe.

Anyway, old habits die hard. But thankfully I have a plan to keep awake the whole day. I wonder what time Starbucks opens?

Muallaf And The Rediscovery Of The Wonder That Is Carl's Jr Burgers

Went to watch Muallaf at the Picturehouse on Wednesday with LGG and Yummy. You can read the synopsis of the movie here. Cousin.e recommended the movie and while it's not your typical Hollywood blockbuster type of show, it was a very simple and touching story that really made you think about forgiveness.

As the movie was showing at 7.15pm, we didn't have time to go for dinner, so we planned to dabao food and sneak it in the cinema. The original plan was to go to that Turkish place that we used to frequent in our Planet Zork days, but everyone was running late and we settled on burgers from Carl's Jr instead.

We bought some popcorn to conceal the fact that we were going to smuggle food in, but didn't realise that when they said "no food or drinks allowed" they really meant no food or drinks allowed. (We thought they meant no outside food or drinks allowed.) So there we were, standing outside the entrance to the movie area, trying to finish as much popcorn as we could.

Got to our seats, sans popcorn, and waited till the movie started before taking out our hidden stash of food. We had aisle seats and kept on checking that no one was going to come in and find out we had food and throw us out. Lol.

The last time I had a burger from Carl's Jr was probably what, 3 years ago when the chain first came to Singapore. I remember thinking that the burgers were ok, but balked at paying their higher prices. This time, I took my first bite of their portobello mushroom burger and OMG IT WAS SO GOOD. When I finished my burger, Yummy was only halfway done!

We shared their beef chilli cheese fries, and that was also really delicious. In fact, it was so good that I had it again last night when I was out with my sister. Left the cinema feeling really happy, because I enjoyed the show and had a really good (sneaky) dinner.

Where I Still Do Not Become A Qualified Driver

I could have, but didn't. Thanks to a little piece of concrete along the side of the road that decided that it wanted to be in my way as I made a left turn. Damn you, kerb! Damn you!

Apparently, I did better than the last time I took my driving test, but then again maybe the tester took pity on me because I was crying in the car. After all, I had already failed so maybe he wanted to soften the blow but not penalising me with too many demerit points. Who knows.

Ah well. Third time lucky? 31 January 2009 is the magic date.

My Second Attempt

In about 8 hours time I'll be gearing up for my second attempt at my driving test. The last time I took the test, I didn't hit anything (or anyone) but apparently that's not enough to qualify you as a driver on the roads. Hmph.

Well, I didn't book that many revision lessons, only three, because most sessions were already booked and I had to wait and see if there were any available slots. The advice I was given was that I need to exaggerate some of my actions so that the tester will know that I know what to do. *turns head slow-motion to check blind spot*

Anyway, let's hope I pass this time round. It's expensive having to rebook driving tests and lessons and come next week I won't have as much free time anymore.

Wish me luck!

A Boring Post About My Hair

It's already December! Every time this year, I seem to say the same thing. It's amazing how fast time has passed.

Anyway, I finally got a haircut today and I must say I like it. The stylist who cut my hair actually noticed that my hair was finer than it used to be (and it was my first time going to that salon!) and that I had an oily scalp which was probably cause of all that hair loss.

He gave some explanation about why my hair was falling (can't remember much though- we were speaking in Chinese) and gave some suggestions on how to manage the problem. If I recall correctly, my hair loss had to do with 1. stress 2. oily scalp 3. wrong hair products.

I never knew that we should shampoo our hair twice each time. He called it 2 layer shampooing, or something. Once to wash away dust and grime, and once more to really make sure that the scalp is clean.

And he also advised me not to sleep with wet hair (I don't anymore but used to) because it will encourage the scalp to become more oily. Thankfully there are lots of baby hair, which means that my hair follicles aren't dead and that hair is still growing. *phew*

Well, eventually I got me some shampoo that is supposed to be good to prevent hair loss. Sigh, so young and balding already. It wasn't the one he recommended but I'll just try it for the time being and see how it goes.

Here's a picture of me right after my haircut. I was walking around waiting for my sister to get off work so we could have dinner together.



Anyway, check him out.

Tony Chiang (Day off: Wednesday)
Stylist
Creative Salon
1 Maritime Square
#02-113 HarbourFront Centre
Singapore 099253
Tel: +65 6273 0308 / 6273 0311

My Dream Better Come True

Had this dream a couple of nights ago. Actually it was really short, in my dream I owned a car and was picking a heavily pregnant Eunice up in the morning to head to work together.

My analysis:

1/ Eunice is heavily pregnant. Since her baby is due in April 2009, this means all this happens in the first quarter of 2009.
2/ I'm driving. Which means I passed my driving test!
3/ I'm driving to work. Which means I've got a job!
4/ I'm driving to work in MY car. Which means I get a job and earning so much I can afford a car! (Or dating a super rich man who has extra cars to lend give me.)

Runtime Error

Help! Any idea why this message keeps popping up on my computer? How do I stop it from reappearing?

Sorting Things Out

Wah lau. And I thought just needing to decide what to keep and what to throw was bad enough- now I find out that there are a lot more other things I need to sort out too. Stuff which I can't do now until I learn/find out more. Gah.

Yes, I'm deliberately being vague. But, argh!

The Logistics Of It All

I think one of the hardest parts about splitting up, (other than the fact that the person you thought you would be spending the rest of your life with decides to break your heart) is having to sort through everything. Years worth of memories in the form of photos, stuffed toys, clothes and the general accumulation of stuff.

How do you decide what to keep and what to throw or give away? What about photos, do I delete them all? Keep pictures of me-only? Just leave the folder alone? Is it alright to sell jewelry you know you'll never wear? *sigh*

The Stuff I Do In The Name Of Babysitting

Brought my niece out again yesterday when she came over after lunch. The plan was to catch a movie and walk around for a bit, and we had more time because she didn't have to rush back for any tuition in the evening.

The last time we went out, I managed to avoid watching singing, dancing kids prance about on their graduation day (aka HSM3). This time, however, she wanted to watch magical fairies get gifted with great powers on their graduation day which they will use to save the universe from the dark evil forces. Or something like that. Hello, Winx Club.

The cinema was full of kids, which is expected because it's a cartoon about fairies and evil witches and magical swords. All I can say is, I'm glad she enjoyed it (I'm still trying to recover from the shame). Lol. I have to admit that I enjoyed it better than Madagascar 2, maybe it's because my inner child wants to be a fairy too!

Walked around Vivocity after and got a strange request from her.

"I feel like running," she says.
"Ok, go. I'll wait for you here."
"I don't want to run alone."
"Huh?"
"You run with me?" *expectant look*

So if you saw 2 people running around Vivocity yesterday afternoon with no particular destination in mind, yup, it was the both of us.

After running around and making her do other strange things like sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in Chinese in the middle of the mall, we headed back home for dinner. Somehow or another, she managed to get me to promise to bring her to Timezone after dinner and when we were done eating, she packed her little album of cards and we made our way to the arcade.

Love & Berry Dress Up And Dance! is the game she tried explaining to me which I didn't quite understand till I got to the arcade. Basically, you sit at the machine, feed it money (actually now it's very high tech- you have to swipe a prepaid card) and you will get a card. This card could be one of 4 items- a hairdo, a dress/outfit, shoes, or eyewear.

Apparently different items have different "lucky points" and you swipe these cards in the machine to dress up your character, and if the combination is right, you'll have a really lucky character (Love or Berry- you choose). And then the music starts and you have to "clap" your hands to the rhythm of the music. Of course, the "clapping" action is just you having to push the big bright yellow button.

The luckier your character, the easier it is to score points and if she wins the dance-off, you get to go to the next round. If not, you'll have to start all over again (read: pay more money).

I sat at the arcade in amazement at how kids these think nothing of spending so much time and money at the arcade. Were we ever like that? (And I can't believe I devoted an entire blog article explaining the game.)

Just Because I'm Bo Liao

 Hi Ki!

Jeans it is. Lol. Byeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

It's Almost Official (Yes, The D-Word)

Ah, I guess it's about time to write about what has been going on in my personal life in the past couple of months. I've been rather silent about it here (except to my close friends who have gotten every single detail haha) because I just wanted to see how things pan out. Plus, I didn't want to write anything while I was angry and hurt.

Anyway, it's almost official. The Hubby and I are splitting. The papers have been filed, the first mandatory counseling session has been attended (yesterday) and the clothes have ALL been packed.

I've got nothing tying me back now, I guess, except that I've got to wait for the courts to continue processing the paperwork and make everything official. Plus, I guess I should update my Facebook status too. Hahahahaha.

I sound so calm now because I've had plenty of time to think about things and have come to accept the decision that has been made. The Nepal/Bhutan trip was a perfect opportunity for me to reflect upon the situation and really think about what I wanted and I've also had the support and counsel of my family and close friends.

The reasons are personal, of course, but I must say I have no regrets. I cannot say that I didn't try hard enough, and I can walk out of the door with my head held high and with the knowledge that I did my best. Whether or not I think the effort was reciprocated, I don't know but there wasn't any scandal, in case any one was wondering. No cheating spouses, no illegitimate children suddenly showing up, no physical or emotional abuse.

In fact, it was mostly circumstantial and splitting up was just the most practical solution that we felt would solve the problem. Of course, a split doesn't bring out the best in people, and I was surprised to see my spouse in an entirely new light. Sometimes wonder if I really knew him as well as I thought I did at all.

Of course, it's not been easy and in the last 24 hours alone, I've been through the entire gamut of emotions that one could possibly feel. But like I've said before, I'm surrounded by so many people who care.

Interestingly, the counseling session wasn't as tough as I imagined it to be (it was over in less than 30 minutes!). The counselor asked us why we wanted to get a divorce, listened to our sides of the story, asked us if we were sure whether or not we wanted to try, and when we said "no" she just said that she'll get the paperwork processed.

I was surprised that she didn't try to analyse the situation more thoroughly though, and I can easily think of a number of people who would probably do a better job at least in asking questions and trying to find out what the full story was (cousin.e comes to mind, hehe). Then again, we were rather adamant about going our separate ways.

Well, I'm fine ok holding up now. I've had some really low moments, and it wasn't the easiest thing to say that you don't want to try to make your marriage work anymore. However, I know I'll move on and that things will eventually get better. I know what are the things I need to do now (get a job!) and the steps I need to take to make this entire process easier to bear. *thinking positively*

Hmm

It was an interesting day today.

Jiayee & Joseph's Wedding

I'm so glad I decided to go for Jiayee's wedding today. Made plans to have lunch with Tianxiang before the wedding and we met up at Katong to have laksa for lunch. Wah, it's been such a long time since I've eaten laksa. We had a good time catching up- I think the last time we met up was when he was considering whether or not to quit his job and go into full time wedding photography. Fast forward to 7 months later, I'm so proud of what he has achieved and I'm glad he's doing well.

The ceremony was alright I guess, I was surprised at how preachy the entire thing was. But I guess that was the wishes of the couple. Pingshan, Tianxiang, Yifan, Shiwen, Yuling and Yinming turned up, and it was really good to see all of them again. The most touching moment in the entire session was when the couple gave their thanks to their parents and seeing how emotional they got.


The bride was stunning.

No one brought a camera! So we don't have any pictures, except for the group picture taken by the bridal photographer (which I'm not sure if we'll get). Interestingly, as I was leaving after taking the photo, the photographer looked and me and said I looked familiar. I said I was the bride's ex-classmate and was shocked when he asked me if my name was Bona. Turns out he remembers me from when I used to go to church when I was in secondary school! Amazing.

Didn't stay for the reception and headed to Suntec with Pingshan to catch up. I think it's been 8 years since we last saw each other- how fast time has passed! We had cake and drinks at NYDC and chatted for hours. Funny how you can still be close even thought you've lost touch for so long.

All in all, I had a good time despite being tired from the few hours of sleep I got the night before. It's so interesting to see how different our lives are and how far we've come from our innocent secondary school days more than 10 years ago. Who would have imagined that we'd be where we are today. Everyone is getting married, having babies. We're adults now!

Wedding Bells

I think I finally went to bed at 5.30am and was woken up 5 hours later, when the SMSes started streaming in to ask if I was going for Jiayee's wedding. I was so tempted not to go and to just sleep in, but it's not everyday that you get to catch up with old secondary school classmates.

I'm actually more excited to meet up with Tianxiang and Pingshan than to attend the wedding- so bad hor. I've also heard that quite a handful of others that I don't keep in touch with will be there, so why not. Will see if I can stuff my camera in so I can take pictures. Lol.

Anyway, now to get ready and figure out how to get there. *looks at watch* I have an hour.

Caffeine Is Not My Friend

Argh it's 4.30am and I'm still wide awake. Anyone wants to hazard a guess why? Let me give you a hint. Or two.

Anyway, I've decided to make a list of things one should not do if one wants to keep normal sleeping hours.

1. Do not drink 2 cups of coffee if you know it will keep you awake all night. Different people have different levels of caffeine tolerance and can have espressos right before bedtime and still manage to fall asleep. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them. A coffee in the afternoon is guaranteed to keep me up all night, what was I thinking when I had 2?!?! (Actually, I wasn't thinking. So there.)

2. Do not spend all night uploading old pictures onto Facebook. Although, you might as well check them out since they are up already. Here, here and here. Don't worry if you can't see them though, they were all pictures that were taken from my old blog.

3. Do not start reading a book that you know you can finish reading at one go. This usually happens when I read books that I've read before and enjoy. And just in case it wasn't obvious- one book is bad enough, don't take out the entire trilogy.

4. Do not fight that sleepy feeling and blog about how you cannot sleep.


Oh. Oops.

Good Morning World!

Woo! I'm up early today. But I shall not rub it in the faces of my employed friends who have probably already been in the office for an hour. Hehehe.

Don't know why I'm in such a chipper mood today. But who cares why. La di da!

Need To Sleep

Argh. I have an early day tomorrow and I really ought to be sleeping now. But the coffees I had today are keeping me awake. Wide awake.

Clearly, I do not learn from past mistakes.

Loot = Love

It's been a good day today. Was rather productive and made several appointments, and managed to catch up with some of my girlfriends.

Sharon called me last night and we decided to have lunch today, since I was going to be near her workplace. She bought lunch as a belated birthday celebration and we had a nice time just catching up. Unfortunately we didn't have as much time as we would have if we met for dinner, and she had to rush back to work when her lunch hour was up.

Had coffee with Cheryl who brought along the peri peri sauce that she brought back from KL for me. The poor girl actually forgot to bring it with her, but rushed back home to grab it since she knew I've been anticipating getting the sauce from her for the longest time. Had more time to spend with her, and we had a nice latte and chatted for a couple of hours.

Then I had dinner with Wenzz, who brought me Ghirardelli chocolates from the States. And the timing was perfect too- I had already run out of chocolates at home. Hehehe. We had dinner at this Japanese place in Plaza Singapura (can't remember the name) then coffee at TCC after. *stuffed*

Got back home feeling really full, but really pleased. Chocolates and peri peri sauce make me a happy bunny!

My New Career As A Babysitter

My aunt has been bringing my niece (her grand-daughter) over since it's the school holidays and it's kind of fallen on my plate to entertain the girl and help with her tuition assignments.

I don't really mind, Jean's a really smart kid and quite fun to be around. Yesterday, my aunt suggested that I bring her to the movies.

Decided on Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa because there was no way I was going to sit through a bunch of singing, dancing kids in High School Musical 3. Yes, singing and dancing animals are fine.

The movie was alright, I had a bit of a sore neck at the end because we were seated really close to the front, but I think Jean enjoyed herself tremendously. Plus she was kept warm thanks to my shawl, which the ungracious child called a rag. Hmph.

Walked around Plaza Singapura for a bit, and had fun at Spotlight trying on various hats and boas and silly costumes. Took quite a fair bit of photos as well, but I'm too lazy to resize them and post them up. Lol.

Headed back home and the poor girl napped on the way back. That's what you get for missing your daily afternoon nap to go watch movies and try on silly hats. But we had a good time, and I think I didn't do too badly as a babysitter.

Why I Am Wide Awake

Had a cup of coffee at about 5pm this afternoon. But really, I have no one else to blame but myself.

One of my dad's friends came over today and my mom made a cup of coffee for him. It was the real brewed stuff, not the instant type, and it smelled SO GOOD.

Even though I knew all that caffeine would keep me up, I just couldn't resist and had a cup for myself. It tasted as wonderful as I thought it would, and I savored each and every last drop.

So now I'm wide awake. Hello there.

Still Hibernating

Not sure when I'll be back.

Because I Want This Day To Pass

I will be hibernating today. Add that to the list of things to do to make you feel better.

See ya'll tomorrow.

The Things That Tickle Me

Reruns of The Nanny have been showing on the telly and I was watching it this evening (like I do every other evening). This was one of the much later episodes because the Nanny already married her boss, and was trying to get pregnant.

After trying for a while (I think), someone suggested that she go to the Chinese medicinal shop and get something there. She comes back with some herbs for her husband to take and is in the midst of preparing it in this scene when Gracie comes in to ask some questions.



WHAT IS A BOTTLE BOX OF NIM JIOM PI PA GAO DOING THERE?!?!?!



And I know it's the Nim Jiom Pi Pa Gao because I've been taking it for the past few days for my throat. Here's a picture of the box I have at home.



Same right!

Aiyah, I need to get a life. Lol.

Too Much Of A Good Thing

Oh dear, I think I have overdosed on those yummy spiced cornflakes. I'm down with a sore throat which has developed into a bad cough, and I think I've also caught a flu bug, which has left me feeling feverish, weak and aching all over.

I'm miserable.

Anyway, I'm drinking lots and lots of water and hoping I'll get better soon.

While The World Celebrates Obama's Victory..

LGG and I were celebrating our own little success in the kitchen. We have finally made the spiced cornflakes!!! Not only have we tried out the original recipe, we have also improvised and used some of the Montreal Chicken Spiced Herbs (MCSH) mix that I found in my pantry. YAAAAY!!!

For those who have somehow been lucky enough to avoid hearing me gush and obsess over these spiced cornflakes, here's the story.

Couple of months ago, LGG's friend let her try these spiced cornflakes. It was made using a spice mix of ground cumin, ground coriander, chili powder and salt mixed with some oil coated cornflakes. Simple and delicious.

I remember not being very impressed, and thinking, "How delicious can spiced cornflakes be?"

Anyway, fast forward to last week when we went to watch Tropic Thunder and I finally had a taste of those famous spiced cornflakes. Suddenly, I understood what she had been going on and on and on about. Those spiced cornflakes were DELICIOUS!

I've been obsessing about them for days and finally, we have recreated them ourselves! Instead of using chili powder, we used extra hot cayenne pepper in the original recipe and the final outcome came out spicier than the original (but still very yummy). The MCSH mix was also very tasty- a good mix of salty and slightly citrus-y flavour.

So pleased! Anyway I'd update more, but talking about them is making me drool and I think I'm going to make some more. *slurp*

Woohoo!

I'll be going to LGG's place tomorrow to make the spiced cornflakes! Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

And Sometimes, Things Don't Suck As Much

I think when you're going through a rough patch, you need to know what you can do to make yourself feel better. Here's my list:

*Give yourself time to mope. Let it all out, but don't wallow in self-pity and misery.

*Surround yourself with people who will treat you normally. Yeah I may be having problems, but I don't need to talk about it all the time. Tell me about your latest dive trip and how you saw mola molas, mantas and whale sharks this year alone.

*But make sure they don't take it personally if you don't have the most enthusiastic responses to their stories. They also have to know that any time you want to talk, they have to listen. Hahahaha.

*Talk about things that make you happy. I've found out that talking to anyone about my recent Nepal/Bhutan holiday almost instantly puts me in a better mood. Better yet, shove the camera/laptop in their faces and make them go through every single photo with you, while you chatter on with your commentary.

*Chocolate. Get friends who are going to the States to buy Ghirardelli squares back for you. (Thanks Wenzzz!)

*Buy me stuff. I'll take anything- food, drinks, books, movie tickets, massages. The list is never ending and I have no shame. Gimme gimme gimme!

*Go out. You don't have to spend a tonne of money, but just getting out of the house makes a difference.

..

At the end of the day, you've got to know that things will get better. It just takes time. So look forward, not back, and keep on going.

More Random Updates

Went to Seletar Reservoir with Peggy for a walk a couple of days ago. We were chatting in the morning and decided in a spur of the moment to go out in the afternoon and do healthy activities. I used to go to such places (reservoirs, parks) quite regularly last time, but I guess it's hard to keep heading out there if you don't have someone to accompany you.

The environment around Seletar Reservoir is very peaceful and beautiful- I guess all large bodies of waters are. We just strolled along chatting, while other people jogged by us. It wasn't very crowded though, just a handful of people working out. About 10 in all?

After that we went to the nearby driving range to "practise". Peggy's got her golf clubs in the boot of her car, so she lugged them out, bought tokens for the golf balls and found a secluded corner in the driving range to hit 'em balls.

She let me try my hand at it, showing me how to hold the golf club and the right way to swing, and I must say I'm not too bad! Of course, my posture and everything else is probably wrong, and I only hit a couple of balls. Who knows, any more and I could have injured myself.

Had a good time though, so I sort of vaguely agreed that once I start working again, I *might* pick up golf. Well, we'll see about that. I have lots of plans that I want to embark on when I start working again. Hehehe.

..

Had lunch with Alfred on Friday. He'd just come back from a work trip in Abu Dhabi and we'd been meaning to meet up for yonks so I could claim my birthday lunch. Went to Marche's at Vivocity and was walking around after and since we didn't really know what to do, we decided to hop on the Sentosa Express and go to Sentosa. After all, it was only $3 to enter!

Was walking around Sentosa for barely 15 minutes (in the hot, hot sun) and I could feel the skin on my face burn. Hurriedly made my way to the Island Shop and bought me a tube of overpriced, but much needed, sunblock. Lathered it on and continued on our way.

Stuff we did while at Sentosa: Get burnt (me only), eat ice cream, pretend to be Swedish and ask for directions in what we think is a Swedish accent (yaaa?), took a ride on the new CineBlast, watched a 4D movie thing (really touristy hor), went to the fish spa to let the dead skin on our feet get nibbled off by hundreds of hungry fish.

The fish spa was a really interesting experience. As you place your feet in, the little fishes SWARM towards you and start nibbling. The sensation was so ticklish, we couldn't stop giggling. After 20 minutes of being fish food, we had a 20 minute foot massage and another 10 minute head and shoulder massage. All for $52- not the cheapest massage in town, but not too unreasonably priced either.

Eventually we decided to get the Sentosa Islander pass- you pay $19.50 and get unlimited free entry to Sentosa, as well as a whole host of other benefits (mainly discounts on entrance fees to attractions) for an entire year. All I need to do is go 7 times and I've more than made up the cost!

..

Also met up with Elena who had some news she wanted to share with me. Popped over her place after she got off work and did some catching up and also to see her baby. Baby Eva is so big now!

Anyway, the news she had to tell me wasn't exactly very good. Things aren't exactly peachy and there isn't much I could do. All I can do is hope that things work out in the end.

..

Just came back from watching Tropic Thunder with LGG and some of the girls. It really felt like a secondary school outing because there were 7 of us! Tropic Thunder is hilarious and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Plus, I finally got to taste some of the famous spiced cornflakes that LGG had been raving about for the past few months. Good stuff!

Few of us hung out for coffee at Coffee Club after. Chatted about everything under the sun (ok, not really, but more about stuff like traveling and food- yummm) and by the time they cleared our cups and gave us the bill, it was already almost 1.30am! It's been SUCH a long time since I've been out at night, let alone past midnight. Hehehehe.

Managed to get a ride back, but not before bungling my directions and having to circle Compass Point till I could recognise my block. Man, I really need to learn how to give directions to get home. Lol.

..

Anyway, it's 3.30am and I'm pooped. Time to go to bed.

Busy Bunny

Been meeting up with some girlfriends since I came back from my holiday.

~ Had coffee with Eunice at Starbucks last week- she's already into her 2nd trimester!
~ Met LGG over the weekend- she brought me to this hidden little cafe that she recently discovered where Japanese tai tais hang out.
~ Ching came over to my place since she was in the area- she's got both mine and LGG's holiday pics, all she needs to do is meet up with 222 and we'll have the entire set!
~ Didn't get to hang out with Yummy for as long as we had originally planned because the poor gal spent 1 1/2 hours getting lost on what ought to have been a 10 minute ride.
~ Spent a rainy Monday afternoon at TCC with Wenzzz- can't go wrong with an Azuki freeze.
~ Hung out with Peggy last night at No5- oh it's been such a long time since I've been there!

Also had lunch with my parents and aunt+uncle yesterday. We decided to go to that Japanese restaurant that my dad's friend opened. It was an ala carte buffet @ $33++ per person, and the food wasn't too bad. It's interesting talking to someone who has just opened a restaurant and hearing how much money, time and effort was invested into it.

Anyway for those who are interested, go check it out. It's well worth it.

Irodori Japanese Restaurant
382 Havelock Road
Riverview Hotel #03-01
Tel: 6737 2002

Opening hours
Lunch: 1130-1430
Dinner: 1800-2230

Price
Adults: $33++
Children: $20++

Mama's Words Of Wisdom

"You're not the first, and you're definitely not going to be the last."

"The last thing you want to do is feel self-pity."

"Just treat this as a blessing in disguise."

I'm Stuck!

Gah. I have been working on this puzzle for days (ok, not continuously) and I can't seem to break through. Help!

Sometimes Everything Just Sucks

Excuse the ranting, but Everything. Sucks. Right. Now.

I've just realised that you can't depend on anyone to help you feel better, try as they might. It's limited what others can do. Meet for a coffee? A meal? Hang out with you for the afternoon? Chat with you online?

But at the end of the day, no one can really be there for you 24/7. Everyone has their lives to lead- birthday parties to attend, dates to go on, dinners to cook, chores/work to finish, other friends to hang out with who aren't miserable company.

It's impossible to expect anyone to think about you constantly, to worry and fuss over you all day long. (Yes, even mothers are human too.) And it makes you think, what's the point anyway?

Ultimately, you have no choice but to rely on yourself to hold it all together and not rip apart at the seams. You are the one who has to take care of yourself, and sometimes it's hard to find the motivation to do even the simplest tasks like making sure you eat or sleep.

It's not easy. And it sucks.

Happy Birthday!

Woohoo! It's my sister's birthday today and we'll be having the relatives over this evening for a small celebration. There's quite a yummy feast planned for tonight- the usual fare that appears at our dinner table during family gatherings.

I hear my aunt is going to cook this dish which I'm bummed that I won't be able to eat. I'm not too sure what it's called exactly, but it's fa cai cooked with pork. Man, I love that dish. Oh well, maybe she'll make a vegetarian version this year, although I highly doubt it. Sigh. Oh well, at least I have my mom's beef lasagna to look forward to *slurp*.

Anyway, to my dearest sis: Happy birthday!!! I hope that this coming year will be filled with joy and happiness and may all your wishes come true (we already know one has heehee). Thanks for the advice and support you've given me and for not locking me out of the house when I started to get annoying. Heehee.

I Am Bored

Bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored bored.

I Feel Loved

When times are rough, it's always heartening to know that you have a bunch of people around you who care and worry about you.

Sometimes they notice the things you don't even realise- like how much you're (not) eating, and they get worried when you've not gone online in a while.

To everyone who has been there for me and is looking out for me, thanks so much.

Where I Do Not Become A Qualified Driver

Sigh. Had my driving test yesterday and was actually feeling quite pleased and confident about the test. I didn't stall my engine, I didn't hit down any poles (or people!) and everything seemed to go very smoothly.

Unfortunately, what was smooth for me was not good enough for the tester who decided that I wasn't being safe enough. According to him, I failed to confirm safety while doing some of my parking courses, failed to check for blind spots- or rather, failed to check for blind spots correctly, and failed to keep a safe following distance while driving.

The total number of points I got was a staggering 28 points (argh!) - 10 over the number of points needed to pass the driving test.

Well, on the bright side, at least I had no immediate failures.

So now I've got to rebook my driving test (4 December is the magic date), rebook driving lessons, go speak to my instructor and find out what I'm doing wrong.

The thing that makes me rather rankled is that no one has pointed out that my checking of blind spot was wrong. In fact, the tester himself said, "I know you know to check blind spot, but you're not doing it right." I guess like my friends say, exaggerate the movements.

Let's hope I'm lucky the second time round! :)

A New Habit

LGG would be so proud. All that moisturising in Bhutan and Nepal has somehow become a habit and I'm actually moisturising my skin more regularly now. What next, applying sunblock before leaving the house?

This Is One Of My Favourite Pictures

See more here, here, here and here.

Bunny Is Back And Too Lazy To Blog

Hehehe had the most amazing holiday- a perfect combination of visiting (two) new countries, beautiful scenery, exciting activities, and chill time. I've finally posted my pictures up on Facebook, so go there to take a look. I'll probably add a couple of my favourite pictures here with more commentary.

I've still got the runs, which suck, and I'm going to see the doctor tomorrow to get it checked out. That little sip of fresh cow's milk is causing me quite a bit of trouble, eh?

In other news, I went to the opening of one of my dad's friend's Japanese restaurant this afternoon with my mom. Yummy. All their old friends were there and cooing over how grown up I look now. "So sweet! So pretty!" And my mom had to spoil my moment by telling me on our way out that they had no idea what a little devil I was. Hmph.

I've also got my driving test this coming Wednesday, wish me luck! Let's hope I still remember how to drive and don't follow the Nepalese way of honking instead of signalling. Hehehe.

Anti Social Bunny In Nepal

This is just too funny not to blog about.

 

LGG and I were walking out of an Internet cafe at Pokhara, Nepal and was asked by the guy who worked at the cafe where we were from.

 

"Singapore."

"Singapore? These guys *points* are from Singapore too!"

 

We turned around and saw these 2 guys looking at us, and instead of saying hi or even smiling, we continue walking off and I tell LGG (perhaps a tad too loudly), "I didn't come here to see Singaporeans. I can see 3 million of them when I go home what."

Next Stop - Pokhara, Nepal

We've just completed the Bhutan leg of our trip and I must say, Bhutan is amazingly beautiful. Am now in Nepal and feeling rather shortchanged because it's not so scenic and picturesque in comparison.

 

Unfortunately, I've got a bad case of the runs now. Took some fresh cow's milk when we visited our guide's home. Big mistake. Guess my tummy's too delicate huh.

 

Anyway, staying in Pokhara for the next couple of days and then back to KL on the 16th. We decided against bungee jumping but may try paragliding. Let's hope I recover soon.

Birthday Bunny In Bhutan

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay we found an internet cafe! Hehehe Bhutan has been amazing, it's such a beautiful country. Took loads of pics. Legs are aching now because we hiked for 5 hours yesterday.

Anyway, Happy Birthday to me! Shall update more when I'm back in Singapore. The key board here is grimy. Ick.

Bunny In KL

Whee! I love friends who have brothers who work in KL. We're at his office now, using the computers and getting online. Hehehehe. I'm supposed to be finding out how to top up the value in my sim card but no, I blog instead.

Had a great dinner today, met up with Reuben and I've not seen the boy in yonks. We had a really nice catch up and he's doing well, working in WWF doing some conservation programmes for tiger and rhinos in Malaysia.

I got more to say but no time. Anyway, tomorrow we're off to Kathmandu. Yaaaaaaaaaay!

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

Wow, hard to imagine an entire month of fasting has passed. It wasn't easy, but I'm glad I managed it even though I guess I "cheated" by sleeping a lot in the day and keeping up at night. Anyway, still got to be thankful for the blessings in my life. :)

(And Happy Children's Day to those who still don't want to grow up!)

New Balance Real Run 2008

The-one-with-the-cheena-red-shoes messaged me today and said I should take part in this run. So I clicked on the link and looked at the dates.

19 October 2008.
4km trail + 0.6m sand + 5.4km taxiway / road

"You would have come back from your trip already right?" And I could just sense an evil grin lurking behind that msn message.

I don't know. I'll probably not, but I'm quite bummed that I've been talking about doing these runs for such a long time but never got round to signing up for any. All talk no action. Pfft.

Maybe in 2009. Hehehe.

Counting Down

Ooh I was just looking through some of my old blog entries and found these entries on our last trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Can't believe that trip was in 2005. 4 of the original 6 tomb raiders will be going on the upcoming trip to Bhutan, with LGG and I extending the stay in Nepal for a couple more days.

SO EXCITING!

I'm so thankful for old blog entries. I've lost all the original files for the photos taken on all almost all of my holidays because of computer crashes.

I Need A Brain Transplant, Pronto!

OMG I'm so ashamed. I just caught myself humming the tune of KFed's disaster Popozao. I need to kill myself now. Aaaaaahh!

I don't even have any idea why I'd remember the tune, let alone hum it while pottering around the house. It's not even current! *bangs head on wall*

Well, I understand if you guys want to stop reading my blog. Oh. The. Shame.

Water, I Need Water!

Gah! I just spent the last couple of hours chatting with my dad, and I haven't had a sip of water since 3ish am. Just as I was about to get up and look for my water bottle, I realised that it's probably time to start fasting already. AHHHHH.

Bummer. We all know how talking non-stop for hours on end makes your mouth so dry. Oh well. Maybe I'll go to bed and sleep till it's time to break my fast. Hehehehe. I'm awfully tempted to go for a jog now, but that's just my tendency to want to exercise at inappropriate moments kicking in.

3 more days of fasting! Woohoo! I thought it was 5 more days or so, but 5 more days is actually the number of days till my holiday! YAAAAAY!

Note to self: Make important phone call on Monday afternoon.

Mail to Blogger (4)

Sweet! It works! Now I can blog without having to log in!

This is wonderful. I am a happy camper.

Mail to Blogger (3)

Let's see if sending this from another email account works. *crosses fingers*

Mail to Blogger (2)

And it works! Now I can email blog posts to myself. Hmm I wonder if I have to use the same email account that I use to sign in to my blog, or if I can use any other email account. Mmm shall keep testing. How exciting!

Mail to Blogger

Just want to test and see if this works.

Snap!

I'm so pleased. Was chatting with cousin.e and she casually mentioned that I should bring extra batteries for my camera for my upcoming trip. The camera that I currently own is more than 2 years old and the battery life has been waning, so while I was walking around today, I was sorely tempted to get me a new one. *grin*

Didn't want to spend too much money, so settled on a lower end camera that cost less than $300. The Canon Powershot A580 isn't exactly the smallest and slimmest camera around, but I decided to go for it because not only was it one of the cheaper models, it required the use of AA batteries- so I don't have to worry about having to charge my camera batteries during my trip.

I love buying new toys. Hehehehe.

One Of Life's Simple Pleasures

Standing under the rainshower and feeling the water wash the stresses of the day away.

Anyone Up For A Sweaty Hug?

My mom went for her daily walk in the morning and since I didn't follow her and haven't exactly been very regular with my walks, I decided to go for a quick jog this evening.

Broke my fast and had a fairly light dinner (only one serving of rice!) and a glass of orange juice, watched a bit of telly (to make up for the lack last night hahaha) and then set off.

Did alright and was about to complete one round when I felt my dinner coming up my throat. Slowed to a walk and took a couple of deep breaths but it was too late. Soon I was hurling over the drain and waiting for the heaves to subside.

Had to abort the jog and made my way back home. Feeling rather bummed, but I guess I went out too soon after dinner and didn't give my body time to rest and digest my food. Lesson learned for next time!

I Can't Sleep

I really shouldn't have had that cup of coffee yesterday over dinner. I haven't had any coffee (or red bull or tea) the entire month of September and the caffeine hit me hard and fast when I took that first sip. Almost immediately, I started talking a mile a minute and everyone who called was wondering why I sounded so chirpy.

Unfortunately, the downside to that teeny little iced mocha wrecked even more havoc on my already screwed up sleeping cycle. It's already past 7.40am and I'm still awake. And I didn't even watch any telly last night!

Pineapple Coconut Balls

Here's the recipe for the pineapple coconut balls we made the other day. Hmm actually I just looked at the picture and realised they aren't really balls and are more coned shaped. Lol. Anyway they were a success, and even my picky dad loved them.



Pineapple Coconut Balls Cones
Ingredients:
1 can of crushed pineapple (20 oz can)
1 cup of sugar
3 1/2 cups dessicated coconut
3 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees celcius.
In a non-stick pan, add crushed pineapple together with the syrup, and sugar and cook till brown and dry.
In a large bowl, combine dessicated coconut and cooked pineapple mixture and mix well.
Once the mixture has cooled slightly, add the egg whites and vanilla essence and mix to form a wet dough.
Roll dough into little balls (or cones), about 1 inch in diameter and lay on a baking tray.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown.

Oh Crap

I've not really been keeping myself updated with which "Made in China" products have been recalled, but my sister just told me that Dove's milk chocolate with hazelnut bars are one of the items that have been pulled.

FOOK.

I've been eating that every other day for the past 2 weeks! Is that why my tummy hasn't been feeling well? Have I been poisoned?

Viva La Vivo

Haven't really been up to much the past few days. My sis had to go to the office over the weekend (both Sat and Sun) and I tagged along because I was bored and had nothing to do. Man, if I could choose which office to work in I'd choose hers. I think I've gushed about the ergonomically designed tables and chairs before- everything is fully adjustable (even the heights of the tables! You could work standing up if you wanted to!) so that you'll be comfortable working.

She didn't spend too much time in the office, seeing how it was the weekend, so on Saturday we headed to the cinema at Vivocity and caught Disaster Movie. It was one of those spoof movies and wasn't terribly funny but a good way to kill time till it was time to break fast.

We had dinner at Thai Accent, and shared a platter of spring rolls, fish cakes, wontons and fried prawns. It was quite good and I really liked the dipping sauce that they served it with. We also had a portion of white rice each, and shared a green curry chicken and a tom kha gai. Yummy! I love Thai food.

On Sunday, we walked around Vivocity and bought some ingredients to make these pineapple coconut balls. It was a very simple recipe- crushed pineapples, sugar, dessicated coconut, eggs and a bit of vanilla essence. (Shall post pictures and recipes later). We queued up at Sushi Tei and waited for time to break fast and having all the little plates of sushi roll by on the conveyor belt was actually quite hard to bear. Lol.

Didn't have much to do on Monday so spent the day playing Balloon Invasion. Hahaha. Yes, I love mindless shooting games. Had to run some errands in town again so met my sister for the third time at Vivocity (she works near there, in case it's not apparent) and then had a sandwich at Cedele when it was time to break fast.

Hard to imagine this is the 23rd day of fasting and there are only 7 more days to go. How fast time passes by eh?

Mind Numbing Entertainment

Everyone who has heard about the latest change in my sleeping cycle inevitably asks me what I do that keeps me up till 4,5,6 (and sometimes 7!) in the morning. They look at me incredulously as I tell them I just watch TV all night long.

They ask, "What's there to watch?"

LOTS.

I usually watch reruns of The Nanny and Friends, talk shows like Oprah and Ellen, tattoo shows like Miami Ink, LA Ink and London Ink, food shows like Sugar and Nigella, and of course, e!, my favourite night-time brain killing channel.

Ooh, advertisements are over! Back to the telly.

GuNiang Bunny Goes To Town

Hehehe I shocked LGG and the Yummies this evening when I met them for dinner all dolled up in a cute little dress. This was the first time any of them have seen me so guniang (ladylike) and I think there was a little jaw dropping action going on. Lol.

We met up to break fast at Sakura and ordered so much food. We had beef fried rice, chicken fried rice, butter prawns, lemon chicken, beef kai lan and tom yum chicken soup. *slurp* The food was delicious but we over-ordered, plus we wanted to go for dessert when Mr Yummy suggested going for ice cream. Ooh you gotta love a man who eats desserts!

Headed to Canele's and drooled over their menu. There were so many choices of delectable desserts. I had the passionfruit banana sorbet, LGG had the rose ice cream, Mr Yummy had the praline ice cream and Yummy had the vanilla ice cream. Mmmmmm it was so good. And greedy us even ordered a chocolate crepe to share!

I had napped in the afternoon and wasn't feeling tired, so decided to try and see if Wenzz (hahahahaha new nick!) was free. And yay! She was having drinks nearby and could meet me. Made plans to meet up with her and we ended up at Canele's again lol. By this time I was already stuffed to the brim so just had a pot of tea (I think it was a chamomile + lemon myrtle blend).

We had a very nice time catching up and updating each other on the goings on in our lives. The last time we met up was so long ago, before she went to Europe! But again, this is the kind of friendship that still stands strong even after a couple of months of absence.

Her friend, Stan, had popped over to Singapore for the weekend and was staying in a hotel nearby so we met up with him to say hi and have a quick chat. He was a nice enough guy, friendly and easy going. Made me miss knowing new people through work.

Anyway, after he went back to his room to have his dinner, we continued chatting and left just in time to catch the last (or second last) train back home. I'm feeling so full and satisfied. *burp*

Things You Shouldn't Do Before Bed

Woah I had the most ridiculous dream last night. In my dream, there was one of those support groups for people who had cancer, and in the dream Paris Hilton was diagnosed with breast cancer and was discussing her options.

For some reason, she was very sure she wanted a mastectomy and the doctor and other patients (who somehow were ALL male) were asking her to reconsider. "Because a woman's breasts make her who she is." Huh?!?!

And her reply to all that was "It's hot." Lol.

Finally this woman (who looked amazingly like the SuperNanny) steps in the room. She took a look at Paris and listened to the discussions, then agreed with Paris on her decision. She said, "Anyway your breasts are so small. Even if you take them out no one will notice."

?!?!?!

This is why you should not watch e! and read articles on Women's Weekly about breast cancer just before sleeping.

Sunset Grill & Pub

Peggy called me this evening saying that she was in the area and asked if I wanted to hang out for a while. It's been a while since we met up and I was free, so I got ready while she came over and picked me up.

She suggested going to the Sunset Grill & Pub, which is located within Seletar Airbase. I've heard of this place and there were quite good reviews on the food, so I looked up the phone number and we made our way there.

Man, it was so hard to find! We drove round and round in circles and finally found ourselves at the gate of Seletar Camp. Thankfully, a lot of people have difficulty finding the place and the guard at the gate managed to give us relatively clear directions in.

We ordered half a dozen mussels, some fries and their "famous" buffalo wings. There are 30 levels of spiciness to choose from, and they usually recommend level 2 for first timers- a mix of sour and spicy. Level 3 (which is something we considered) was made with chilli padi. I can't imagine the higher levels.

I'm so glad we didn't go higher. Peggy found the wings ok, but I thought they were spicy enough. I couldn't finish more than 2 wings! All in all, the food was OK but not particularly fantastic.

Still, it was good catching up with Peggy and hanging out. We've known each other for 5 years now and it was good to have her perspective on some issues that I'm going through. Chatted till about 10 and then she sent me back home. (Wen, this is how you get to meet up with me. Lol.)

Whee!

Just got back a while ago from my daily walk around the neighbourhood with my mom. Decided to take my Nike+ sensor to track the distance that we walked and I must say I'm quite impressed. Got to try jogging this route next time.

Distance: 4.52km
Time: 51min

Sugar And Spice And All Things Nice

Helped my MIL bake cookies this afternoon and now I smell like butter and sugar and all the wonderful smells that one associates with baking. I'd lick myself but I'm fasting. Lol.

Have a very very very very simple recipe for these delicious cheese cookies, but I'm not too sure the quantities so I'll post it up later. Can't wait to break fast and have a bite of those cookies!

Walk Walk Walking

One of the things my mom and I have been doing is to take daily walks around the neighbourhood. It's really quite pleasant as I get to familiarise myself with the area and spend time with my mom chatting and just bonding.

Hanging Out With The Sis

Went to Takashimaya today with my sis and accompanied her while she did her shopping. Amazingly we managed to go through her list and got the stuff she wanted pretty quickly, so we had time to catch a movie and have dinner.

Step Brothers was hilarious although there were some bits of the movie that started to get rather tiresome. But when I did laugh, I laughed till there were tears in my eyes, so I guess all in all it wasn't too bad.

Can't remember the name of the place we had dinner, but it was one of those Billy Bomber type diner places. Food was OK, rather reasonably priced and oh so filling. We were so tempted to go for the chocolate buffet at the Fullerton, but felt too full so didn't go. Had a drink at a nearby Starbucks and chatted some more before heading home.

Oh it's so nice to go out with my sister. I can be myself and we can talk about anything and everything under the sun. Sure, we have moments where we fight and scream at each other but you know that at the end of the day all is forgiven (though not necessarily forgotten).

One Man's Junk Is Another Man's Treasure

LGG is moving to a new apartment and is in the midst of packing up. She messaged to ask if I wanted any books or knick knacks, so I'll be going over tomorrow to loot her stuff. Yay!

Can't Go Wrong With Sugar And Cream, Just Ignore The Calories

One of the things I remember my mom baking quite often when I was young was bread pudding. It's a perfect way to use up stale bread, and a lovely and hearty dessert. Felt rather nostalgic and was hankering for something different, so I asked her how it was done. "Very easy!" was her reply.

Made it last night, and wow wow wow it was so good. I polished off maybe 1/4 of the pudding!

Very Easy Bread Pudding
Ingredients:
1 loaf of sliced white bread, preferably "stale"
600ml cream
4 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius. Grease a casserole dish.

In a medium bowl, mix cream, eggs, sugar and cinnamon together. Tear chunks of the bread into the mixture and let it soak. Pour into casserole dish and bake for 30 minutes.

Serve warm.

Bunny Goes To Bhutan!

YAY! We've finally booked all the flight tickets for our Bhutan trip! We had originally booked the Kathmandu - Bhutan - Kathmandu leg, but found out later that all Singapore - Kathmandu - Singapore flights were FULLY BOOKED.

We had quite a few nerve wrecking moments trying to change flights and book tickets and finally managed to find flights from KL - Kathmandu - KL. Yippie! Since we'll be up in KL, LGG and I were planning to go a little earlier and spend a few days there. Heehee.

Our tentative travel dates are:

1 Oct: Singapore - KL
4 Oct: KL - Kathmandu
5 Oct: Kathmandu - Bhutan
10 Oct: Bhutan - Kathmandu
15 Oct: Kathmandu - KL
16 Oct: KL - Singapore

Sweet! I'm so excited!

What I've Been Up To

Met up with Sharon and Linda for dinner last night. Sharon's birthday was coming up and we decided to meet up to celebrate. We headed to Takashimaya and decided to have dinner at Breeks, and we ordered SO MUCH. We shared one of those platter things, with buffalo wings, calamari, prawn fritters and waffle fries. I had the baked dory with lime chili sauce, with spaghetti on the side and since it was a set, I had a soup and ice cream as well.

By the time we were done eating, the place was closing so we decided to go on to the nearby 24 hour Swenson's. Even though we were already stuffed, we somehow managed to find it in ourselves to order more dessert. Lol. I had some sundae while Linda and Sharon shared an apple cobbler. *burp*

It was such a fantastic evening. We haven't seen each other in months and had a blast catching up. One of the wonderful things about friendships like this is that no matter how much time has passed in between, we always manage to pick up and continue from the last time we met.

Then I had a catch up with Trina this afternoon. The poor girl had a flu and was heading home to rest. She thought I was too far away to have a meet up but turns out I was only 3 stops away (since I'm at my parents' place). Popped down to Kovan and accompanied her while she had lunch, and then we walked around for a bit before she went back home to have a rest.

I was quite pleased to find that there was a nursery at Kovan, so I might go down there one day with my mom to see if there are any plants she wants to get. It's not as big as the ones at Thomson Road, but I guess it should do.

Got back home and my mom wanted to go for a walk. We went to the shop and she bought a pair of running shoes and then she brought me along the route she normally walks. We had a nice stroll, chatting along the way and just enjoying each other's company. Not surprisingly, I was constantly lost and would wrongly point out the way to go, much to my mom's dismay. Hehehe.

Ooh time to go, going to bake a bread pudding with mom now. :D

When I Was Young

This is one of my favourite pictures. It was taken more than 20 years ago when I was 3 or 4 years old. *cue gushing of how cute we used to be*


Me and my sister

Mama's Apple Crumble

Every time I come back to my parents' place, my mom always seems to have an apple crumble baking in the oven. Turns out, both mom and sis have been trying to "perfect" their apple crumble recipe (hence all the experimenting). They've finally succeeded.


Excuse the crappy pic. Using my phone camera and poor lighting.

Mama's Apple Crumble
Ingredients:
For the filling:
8 granny smith apples
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

For the crumble:
1 cup plain flour
1 cup instant oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
125g butter, melted

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Grease a casserole dish.

Peel, core and slice apples. Add brown sugar, ground cinnamon and balsamic vinegar to apple slices and mix well.

In a medium bowl, mix flour, oats, brown sugar and ground cinnamon well. Add in melted butter and continue to mix. Mixture should look like wet sand.

Place apple mixture in casserole dish and top with flour mixture.

Bake in oven for one hour. Let it cool slightly before serving.

How To Screw Up Your Sleeping Cycle In One Easy Step!

All you need to do is watch e! and while your brain atrophies, you'll lose all track of time and finally doze off at 4am in the morning.

Under One Roof

I must have too much time on my hands. I just spent the past couple of hours transferring recipes from my old blog to here. And I'm only halfway done.

Anyway, you can find them under the label "recipes". Moved a couple of my travel entries as well, which can be found under the label "travel". Needs more cleaning up though.

Ohhh and I'm so happy with my links list! *points to the right* The old blog on Livejournal only allowed me to have up to 10 links or something like that, but now I can have as many as I want! Hehehee cheap thrill, yes, but as Sheryl Crow happily belted out, "If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad!"

To Do List

- Clear out books. I just found out that the National Library takes used books! Sure, you don't get any money back, but at least you know that the books will (hopefully) be well taken care of. I'm not sure which ones I want to keep, but most of them will have to go. There just isn't any space!

- Rearrange cupboard and store bags away. After Monday's spring cleaning session, the room is noticeably neater and I think I'd like to keep it that way, for now at least. I'm trying to get into the habit of cleaning out my bag after using them, so that I can just put them away and take them out again when I need them. One only needs one bag at a time, after all. [ETA @ 1.40pm] Done. I feel so productive!

- Find a place to keep our grill. There's no space anywhere else in the house, so we've had to keep the grill in our bedroom. Not that we've used it yet, since the electrical converter plug thing keeps blowing up on us. Said grill is a lean mean grilling machine that we got from the States, and thus has a US voltage plug thingamajig. We've bought the plug thing that you need to convert the voltage to Singapore standards but it doesn't seem to work. Sigh. And as you can tell from my copious use of the words "plug thing", I don't really know what I'm talking about. Lol.

- Sweep the floor. It's disgusting how much hair I shed each day. Enough said. [ETA @ 3.32pm] Done! So pleased.

- Change the bedsheets. Hmm I think I'll wait till my desk comes in and I finish cleaning up the room.

To Curl Or Not To Curl

Ooh! I was looking at some of the old pictures that I uploaded on my Photobucket account and found this.



Trin had a voucher for one of those chi-chi hair spa and salon places at Wheelock Place and we both decided to give it a try. An opportunity to have a taste of the lifestyle we can't afford and just enjoy ourselves.

I can't remember what exactly what treatment we chose, probably something to strengthen and nourish our locks, but we were asked how we wanted to style our hair after. I decided to ask the lady to curl my hair with those curling tongs, and this is the result.

As Trin said after we left the salon, "I don't think I've ever seen your hair look so nice before!"

Taking It Slow

Seeing how the only times I feel motivated to work out are when it's totally inappropriate to do so (like when I'm fasting or when it's the middle of the night or when it's storming), I seized the moment when the thought sneaked it's way into my head this morning.

Yeah it's the fasting month, but I'm exempt these few days (read: I'm having my period and the latest technology by feminine hygiene products promised total freedom and protection) and the time and weather seemed just right. I changed into my running pants and t-shirt, put on my shoes, grabbed my iPod and headed out the door.

I just wanted to take it slow, check out the distance of the jogging route and see whether my joints could hold up. I turned on my music, did a brisk walk to the park, and started my jog and the workout timer on my Nike+ when I reached the entrance. There weren't many people there, which was surprising because it's a Saturday (it is, right?) and I thought the park would be filled with families and joggers and all sorts of people.

Anyway by the time the first song on my playlist was done, I was already at the end of the loop! Which means it only takes about 3 minutes to jog from one end to the other. I turned back and when I reached the end / entrance my second song hadn't even finished playing.

Looked at the timer and was not surprised that I only took about 6 minutes to do a loop, and it was only slightly more than 1km. I contemplated doing another loop but laziness got the better of me, so I walked back home. Hehehe. Was feeling good though, knees held up OK and the shoes provided much comfort and support.

New Project: Blog Housekeeping (Maybe)

I'm thinking of moving some of my old entries onto this blog, mainly the recipe and travel entries so I can have them all in one easily accessible place. Not sure how I want to do it, though.

Was even toying with the idea of creating a separate food blog, but I've not been cooking much recently. Hehe, plus starting a food blog during fasting month will require a lot of discipline to overcome any temptations.

Anyway, it's the weekend. I'll think about 'work' on Monday. *grin* Have a great weekend!

Vroom Vroom!

I'm one lesson away from fulfilling all the requirements needed to take my practical driving test. Of course, this doesn't guarantee I'll pass, seeing how I had 2 immediately failures on today's final evaluation lol. But I'm improving!

I managed to park successfully (not perfectly though) today without hitting down any poles and my lane changes aren't as dangerous and reckless as they used to be. (So says the uncle instructor.) Hehehe. All I need is practise, practise, practise.

I'm not sure if we want to buy a car though. While we can afford it, I'm not sure if we want to. There will be pros if we get one, convenience being the biggest advantage considering my in-laws aren't getting any younger. I also don't want to have to battle lugging a stroller and what-not around when I have a baby.

But owning a car in Singapore is just so expensive, and the rising costs of maintaining one, ugh. Plus we'll have to give up the little things we enjoy now, like being able to go away for a quick holiday without having to worry too much about putting a dent in the bank account.

Decisions, decisions.

Complete Again

Yippie! I'm at the HP customer service center and I've just picked up my laptop. The optical drive was faulty and they've replaced it. For free! Yay for extended warranties. It would have cost me $269 otherwise, so I'm quite pleased.

I was also intending to get a new adapter for the laptop, because it was quite wonky before, but it's working now and I'm reluctant to fork out $63 for something I might not be using for long (am thinking of getting a new computer).

Anyway, I'm glad I've got my baby back. Time to go home!

Yay Yay Yay!

Three things to be happy about today. Ooh, four actually.

1/ My SIM card is back in working order! I can receive calls and sms-es now. Sweet. Went to the shop and the lady used my SIM card on her phone and it worked perfectly. Which was rather embarrassing for me, but who cares! It works!

2/ My MIL cooked beef rendang for me. Slurp. She says it's because I've only been having oats and bread for breakfast (while everyone else eats rice) so I can eat the rendang with my bread tomorrow. Unfortunately I don't think she knows that I'm making a conscientious effort not to have too much salt in the mornings so I don't get so thirsty in the day. Oh well. *love*

3/ Hmm. I can't remember what the other 2 things are. Lol.

Argh!

If there's anything harder for me to tolerate than the temporary absence of my laptop, 2 things would make the list. Firstly would be the permanent absence of said laptop, and secondly would be having a not functioning phone.

(Of course personal tragedies aren't in the same category yah.)

Well, technically my phone is working fine. That's why you can see my periodic blog updates and occasionally see me on msn. However, I can't seem to make / receive phone calls or smses!

I've tried changing my SIM card to another phone, rebooting my phone, turning it off for a couple of hours. It's still not connecting to the network. How frustrating!

To make things worse, I'm expecting a couple of calls and no one will be able to get me. *sigh* I need to pop by the shop later to see what's going on.

Anyway, yesterday was the first time (I think) that I've sat down with majority of the family at the table for a meal. Everyone was present except my fil who was at work and the sills hubby, who was also at work.

Have to say, I've it was nice to have everyone sitting down having a meal together.

Why Do I Do Things Like This?

I've just spent the entire day cleaning my room and shifting furniture around in anticipation of my new desk. I dusted everything, wiped every surface, threw out junk, swept and mopped the floor.

And I think I really did a good job of it. My floors are almost sparkling and my shelves are no longer a dusty shade of grey. (Yes! I can finally see the surface area!)

This cleaning frenzy might strike some who know me, especially ex-colleagues, as strange. In the office, my desk used to be well known for being the messiest around. So why the sudden change?

I reckon it's one of the traits of being a Libran. Contrary to popular belief, the scales don't represent a balanced character, but one who swings from one extreme to the other in trying to balance oneself. I think. Lol.

Anyway, after an entire morning and afternoon of hard work, I shifted the last piece of furniture to it's new location and realised with dread that MY NEW DESK WON'T BE ABLE TO FIT IN!!! And the new configuration didn't quite look as good as I had imagined either, so I had to shift everything around. Again.

(But not after collapsing on the floor in despair and slapping myself for not taking any measurements. I guess my sense of spacial judgement is just as non-existent as my sense of direction. No wonder I cannot parallel park. Or reverse vertical park. Or judge the speed of vehicles coming from behind.)

So I'm almost back to square one, except that everything is all clean and I've managed to clear a little bit more of floor space. I'll wait for the Hubby to come back before I continue though. *exhausted*

I'm A Klutz And I Don't Even Know It

I think I'm the only person who can lie in bed, grab the water bottle from beside me, spill water all over my chin and neck, and not only have a delayed realisation that I'm getting wet, but can actually think to myself how pleasantly cool it suddenly is.

I really need to sleep.

(Happy Teachers' Day to all teachers out there! Have a cyber apple, on me.)

I Miss My Laptop And Why Procrastination Is A Bad Thing (In Some Cases)

It's only been slightly over 2 days and I'm feeling the withdrawal symptoms of not having my laptop with me. It may sound silly but those who know me well will understand how attached I am to my laptop and how addicted I am to being online.

Anyway, one good thing about my laptop being away is that I've discovered that I do not need to constantly connect my phone to the wifi at home, as long as I've not connected to some other network elsewhere. And interestingly, the wifi connection on the phone seems more stable and stronger now that I'm not constantly logging in.

Went to check out some desks to put in my bedroom. The Hubby and I finally decided on one which matches the rest of the furniture in the room and seems to be of the right size- not too big and not too small.

The problem is, now that it's fasting month, it'll probably be even more of a hassle shifting furniture around. Imagine stirring up all that dust and not being able to have a drink of water to clear your throat. But it'd be nice to have everything settled before Hari Raya comes.

I also used my 'natural toothbrush' today! I unwrapped it from the vacuum sealed packaging and was suprised to find that the stick wasn't as hard and dry as I had imagined.

The outer bark was easy enough to shave off with a penknife- much easier than using a penknife to sharpen a wooden pencil. Following the instructions, I removed about half an inch (or maybe slightly more) of the bark from the tip, washed it thouroughly and chewed it to soften the fibres.

It was exactly how one would imagine chewing on a twig- woody with bits of wood chips flaking off in your mouth. I spat them out and rinsed my mouth, of course.

Seemed like the outer fibres were the bits chipping off, revealing softer 'bristles' inside that I used to brush my teeth. It was soft enough not to harm my gums, and my teeth felt clean enough after, but it was obviously hard to clean the back of my teeth.

My verdict? It's really OK but not something I'd care to use long term. I'm not sure if you can re-use the brush or if you'll have to keep trimming it, but I reckon for hygeine purposes it'd be better to trim it. Doubt a stick can last more than 5 trimmings though. I'll stick with my handy electric toothbrush. (Haha, 'stick', geddit?)

Got to wake up at 4ish to help prepare breakfast. Don't think I really want to eat much but let's see how it goes. I've already had about a litre of water in the evening, and I'm hoping I can down another litre in the morning. Hydration hydration hydration!

Alright, shall ramble on tomorrow. Bedtime.

Fasting Month

Ramadhan, or the Islamic fasting month, starts tomorrow. I was in the kitchen preparing lunch with my mil when she asked if I was prepared for it.

How does one prepare for fasting month? I think she means if I was mentally prepared for it, because I doubt there's anything physical I can do right now. And of course, we've got to pray that we'll be able to cope I guess.

I'm not too worried. Going to enjoy my last daytime meal in a month and not think too much. As long as one stays properly hydrated and watches food intake- not too much salty stuff or caffeine that can make you dehydrated.

Yikes. That means no red bull. I guess now's a good as any time to kick the addiction. Lol.

I'm more concerned about how I'm going to pass my time, and I half suspect I'll be spending quite a bit of time in the public library. After all, no food and drinks are allowed there.

Guppy's also asked if I was available to help temp for her, so I've got to check when my driving classes are and confirm whether we've got tickets to Kathmandu. We're on the waiting list so it's a rather nail-biting time, since the flight tickets from Kathmandu to Bhutan have already been paid for.

Oh well, I've got to find access to a computer. Blogging on the phone is all well and fine, but it's so limited, the things I can do. Need to check email and driving schedule, and I can't seem to load the BBDC website here.

Last day of August. How fast time flies!