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.