Ultra-scan

Remember I was talking about this new doctor I visited about a month back for diarrhea? Well, after a brief stomach examination, he decided that there was something that needed further scanning and advised me to take an ultrasound scan. As this is all covered by my company's benefits, I thought, why not, no harm done and it would be about time for me to see if anything's wrong. Besides, there's so much fat in my abdomen area that it should be nothing, right?

So... one month later, I went for the scan... interesting as the experience was, slightly uncomfortable and that gel is not cold but warm, the results came back today and it's all good. Easy money for that doctor!

Myanmar's 6.8

Five days ago, a shallow earthquake hit Myanmar
No tsunamis as it was a shallow one and inland
Thailand, Laos and China felt this too
I can't remember the details, but everyone is still focused on Japan

Jumong

I've started to watch this period epic Korean drama.
My third in so many weeks!
The first few episodes were really draggy, but it's starting to get interesting now.
How am I going to sit through 81 episodes?!

F1 : Australia

The first of the season...

An interesting race to watch (what more in HD!) now that we've actually applied for access to the sports channel. Lots of disappointments and strange timings. Like with every year now, new rules are added. I don't know if it's because of them and this being the first race but I've never seen a race where there were so many cars who were at least one lap behind the winner!

It started with Vettel leading the pack and no one ever got the better of him! In the end, 22 seconds separated him and Hamilton... it was a no brainer kind of race *grin*

Gifts for the dearly departed

The Chinese have an interesting ritual around this time of the year... it's called Ching Ming. Relatives will visit the tombs of the dearly departed, clean around the tomb, talk to them, burn some joss sticks, paper and offer some food, fruits and wine. As I haven't been exposed to this custom since young, it has been a fascinating visit for me each time. There's a certain ritual to follow and I've only learnt about it after following the hubs on his yearly rounds to visit his grandparents and mom.

The most interesting part of this, for me, is the offerings that are burnt. It started with hell money and gold and silver ingots. The Chinese believe that everyone goes to hell when they die. I remember my maternal grandmother doing this... folding many, many gold ingots out of paper. As the years go by people start to wonder if they could burn clothes, shoes, bungalows, mansions, cars with drivers, mobile phones, desktop computers, laptops and branded handbags made out of paper. Every year, I walk by the makeshift stall that's beside the columbarium and scan their wares. It's interesting to see what's new every year. A couple of years ago when the iPhone came out, it was there... this year they are even selling iPads. The thing is, I don't know that the person who's receiving these modern gadgets know how to use them?

Home alone

The hubs is having a wine party tonight which means I have the house to myself!

Managed to finish watching The Great Queen Seondeok, and I have to say that I'm a little disappointed with the whole show. It's 80 episodes long and it was a little draggy in the start, more draggy in the middle and at the end there were too many pause-for-facial-expression kind of scenes. Kind of reminded me of the original Star Trek series.

Anyways, the one thing that the show did give me was heaps of splurting blood! Fierce battle scenes and superb swordsmanship!

Ye old guard

Had a quick catch up with some ex-workmates over lunch today
I'm glad we still keep in touch
There's nothing like finding out what's still happening in your old workplace
Everything's changed
Nothing stays the same
Everyone knows that
But it's still great to reminisce

Divorcing the President

There was an interesting bit of news I read today... the First Lady of Guatemala needs to divorce her husband, the current President, in order to run for Presidency! Rules of that land states that family members and any relatives of the President is unable to run for Presidency. The current President is not able to run for re-election.

So if she becomes President, will she get married to the ex-President again?

Weekend Air Traffic

I was updating my list of flight schedules at work today... seeing that I've always had a GDS system in my previous jobs, having to arrange the travel for the team proved a little disorientating as I didn't have flight details on my fingertips, so a list was born.

Anyways, I noticed that flights on the weekends take a little longer than on weekdays. Do you think it's due to the kind of plane they use? I don't think so, weekend traffic in the skies must be like weekend traffic on the roads... full of vehicles with weekend drivers behind the wheel!

Senator Palpatine

Well, it looks like he can play the piano too! I'm talking about Wilhelm Kempff who looks like Senator Palpatine in the newer Star Wars movies (according to my younger brother, and I agree!). Anyways, Wilhelm died in 1991 and was considered one of the greatest pianist of our time.

He has a YouTube video playing the 3rd movement of the Moonlight Sonata. I've only managed to play the first movement (the slow one which everyone can too!) I love his facial expressions and that he's not a perfectionist.

Useless doors

This morning, the hubs and I decided to have breakkie at our usual place, the Ghim Moh Market and Food Center. They offer quite a few of the yummiest dishes like Chee Cheong Fun, Pontian Wonton Noodles, Duck Rice, Fried Kuay Teow, Chwee Kuey, Big Bao and fried carrot cake to name a few.

Anyways, we usually end up parking at this housing board car park and today we noticed something hilarious which someone has pasted on the door leading out of the car park to towards the Market in both English and Chinese.

"This unnecessary door is similar to drop pants to fart"

Weekend Dinners

The hubs and I have been pretty lazy these past few weeks. We've been ordering KFC for our dinners during the weekend. While clearing the dining table today, I found one too many KFC delivery receipts! I think it started when the hubs was not around and I couldn't decide what to have for dinner, tired of cooking and too lazy to go out. The first batch which came was so delicious that I had to keep having it!

Anyways, after all the meals that got delivered, I discovered that only one shop delivers to my home (because there was one night where they had to stop taking orders and no other shop could be assigned to fulfill my order) and so far they've been really good with my parts demands [thighs and drums :)] and the fact that their chicken is cooked through, no red bits. I haven't found out which branch this is... so that I can eat it fresh. Maybe part of its pull is that I can only have yummy chicken parts when I order in.

World Sleep Day

Today... is world sleep day. Does that mean that everyone went to sleep the whole of today? I can't even begin to imagine the whole world asleep at the same time. That doesn't happen, does it? Yeah, if it does, the world is probably dead. Maybe that's why the world is round and the sun only shines on half of it at a time, making sleep times different for everyone.

I didn't even know it was world sleep day until I read the newspapers! By then, it was too late to go back to sleep as I was in the middle of a work day :P

Anyways, sleep well, sweet dreams, all!

Houjicha

After my trips to Japan and having tasted the various teas that were offered especially in little coffee shops before meals, I tried finding the perfect cheapo tea here in Singapore. My larder is full of variations of Japanese teas (not to mention Chinese and Korean too).

I didn't think I would find the perfect (albeit expensive) houjicha tea from TWG. One kiwi scoop full brewed for 8 minutes in a little pot that will serve 4 teacups.

I've always walked into the shop and sniffed the tea canisters which are on display and prettily packaged. But today, I was introduced to the tea connoisseur and he allowed me to take a sniff of the various teas from the big pots behind the counter. I'd like to say from sniffing their secret stash one is able to tell a good quality tea from another, but I really don't have the nose for it. Besides, I was also told that what I smell might end up different after brewing. But I am amused with the floor to ceiling spinning cylindrical shelf that's used to display the canisters of teas!

Did you know that they carry over 800 teas?!?! But I think there are only over 300 in the shop. Still... 300 different kinds of teas are bit many, no? How would you be able to taste it all? How would a connoisseur know which one is which? They don't call them connoisseurs for nothing, eh?

Pigs fly?

Can you believe that 17% of the Brits think that pigs have wings? It's true, I'm not kidding you! It came out in the newspapers!! Pig wings are a readily available portion of meat at the butchery.

I wonder what they'll come up with next! *giggles*

One child policy

I think of the best things for this blog when I'm at work... is it because I'm reading the newspapers then?

Today's article was about compensation. China has a one child policy because there are too many people residing in the country. Each family is only allowed to have one child.

When Christchurch was hit with an earthquake which killed at least 60 over people, some of the dead were part of China's one child policy. Their parents are now demanding for compensation...

How do you compensate for a lost child?
Where would you start to seek compensation when the earthquake was an act of nature?
Do people have access to the compensation department of nature?

How much would you ask for? That's the thing I'm confused about. Claims are for future income because these kids under the one child policy are their parent's only hope in taking care of them when they are old. What about when these kids get married and start their own family? Don't they now have new responsibilities up until their own kid is old enough to take care of them? Vicious cycle... I wonder if they'll win the suit...

Moving Earth

The Earth has shifted on its axis!!!
Can you believe that an earthquake would be able to do that?!
I guess if you seriously think about it, it would, wouldn't it?

With the earthquake, the land mass has shifted and now Japan is a little closer to the US.
This has started me thinking of the fact that land masses don't move all the time.
Aren't all islands floating islands?
The giant oceans don't have the power to move countries.
I don't believe the islands are stuck to the center of the Earth, right?
If you dive into the sea, at some point in time, you'll be able to hit the end of the island, right?
So why is it that land masses move only when earthquakes happen?

Not only that, this particular earthquake has shortened time.
How interesting is that?!
I wonder if the same thing happened during the Boxing Day earthquake in 2004.
Nothing was mentioned about Sumatra moving from its position or shortening time...

Staying away

Day two of watching episode after episode.
I should really get an exercise bike or a treadmill.
It's better than being a couch potato for 10 hours, isn't it?

The Great Queen Seondeok

Weekends are great for watching drama serials. I've bought a couple of Korean period ones and haven't gotten around to watching them. After watching Dong Yi, I think the period dramas have more substance. This weekend, I'll start with The Great Queen Seondeok. It's 80 episodes long but each episode is only about 45 minutes. Shorter than their normal one hour per episode.

The first few episodes look promising with me liking the evilest person, Mi-shil, a female. Her facial expressions are just classic, bordering on going insane. She's very sweet looking and I read that she's a very experienced actress and it really shows. Everyone else are just amateurs.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking that I should watch the first ten, the middle ten and the last ten episodes. 80 to 30! I'm sure all the actors, actresses, producers, director, cameramen, stunt people and everyone else who was involved in the making of this epic will curse me if I do *grin*

Japan's 8.9

Number 3 or 4?! Just a day after China?!

Where were you when the earthquake hit some 200kms off the coast of Japan's main island of Honshu? I was at work, watching everyone with eyes peeled to the breaking news on the telly unable to stop my goosebumps.

Seeing that Japan is located along the ring of fire and that earthquakes happen more often than not, this particular quake was taken likely at first. But images kept coming and it was soon declared a national disaster. What more the threat of a tsunami was fast approaching! A magnitude of 8.9 was confirmed, just 0.2 points shy of the 2004 quake which hit off the coast of Sumatra causing a massive tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people from around the world.

Today's earthquake brought on a 10 meters high tsunami crashing into the town of Sendai, closest to the epicenter of the quake. Mud, debris, overturned cars, boats, ships, damaged houses, buildings and people. More pictures will be available in the days to come and this won't be the end of it. Where next? :(

China's 5.8

Is this number 2 or 3? Will it ever stop?
Truth be known, I didn't know that China was in the ring of fire until the Sichuan one happened in 2008

Brotzeit

Running out of things to eat, the hubs and I ended up at this German bar in Vivo City. We've eaten here once before... actually twice before. The first time was after our Germany vacation and we were looking for some yummy sausages and more importantly for me, wien schnitzel. The place didn't disappoint then... but tonight it did. Sausages were still yummy the second time we ate here... I guess by and by they've decided to focus more on their beer than food.

On a separate note, I need to go to Wien to try their schnitzel... I wonder if it's the same as in Germany *grin*

Dong Yi - Part 2

I don't believe this, but I'm still in the middle of watching this drama serial!
The reason why I finish a drama really quickly is because I sometimes fast forward certain parts of the drama.
I haven't been able to do that here because every part is important!
It's going to take me longer than usual to finish this drama which is a good thing, as I won't have to look for another one to watch after this *grin*

Computer Fairs

There's going to be an IT fair this weekend... actually starting on Thursday. Every time the hubs tries to venture into the hall, he turns right around and walks out... we don't really need that new printer, computer, hard drive, camera or shopping trolley!

Throngs of people venture into the exhibition halls all the four days and almost everyone walks out with something. After all, they've been shoved around, shoved around many, many people and queued for hours... they can't leave empty handed.

Joyous is the sound of the ringing tills for the exhibitors *chuckle* but since we don't have tills anymore, the laser or dot matrix printing sound of the credit card machines will have to do!

Radio tunes

It's the 90s weekend on the radio this weekend and it's bringing back heaps of memories.
The kind of music my friends and I used to dance to while frequenting night clubs during our uni years.
Good times, good times!

Grow faster hair!

I've been keeping this a-bit-shorter-than-shoulder length hair for slightly more than a year now and I'm already tired of it. There are only so many styles you can do with short hair, can't even tie it properly, so I've decided to grow it again. Long, long, long...

Going to have to wait awhile as I think my hair takes a long while to grow. It's now at the irritable length of just at my shoulder, which means that on some days, it'll not curl the way that I want it to.

Chile's 6.8

About a month ago, an earthquake struck off the coast of Chile. Is this the start of some series of earthquakes around the world? You don't expect the Earth's plates to move and not cause a chain reaction, right? Let's just hope that if anything were to happen, it will be on a smaller scale and not the other way. I don't want to have to think about the fact that the Earth is breaking up...

English

Is the English language really all that difficult to master? As the years go by, I am finding it so, especially when you're multilingual. I've noticed that people tend to spell the way words are pronounced. But the English language is not about that, which makes me a little envious of them little spelling bees who find it so easy to spell words they might not know the meaning of, while under pressure.

Take the word 'than' for instance. I've seen it being spelt 'then' when people really mean 'than' or the word 'this' when they mean 'these' or 'of' when they mean 'off' or 'to' when they mean 'too'.

As everyone relies on the spell check and don't pay attention to the word itself, these kind of slips happen. I used to have a good giggle at lost-in-translation websites, but I've come to realise that I get a giggle out of these kind of mis-spells too.

Gibberish

Sometimes I wonder what nonsense I'm penning. Some entries are great to read, especially when they have significant meaning or a world event. But some... I'm so close to rewriting them! But I guess I won't, it'll just remind me that sometimes, my mind is not in sync with my fingers and out comes the gibberish :)

Old medicine vs new medicine

Well, as predicted the diarrhea has started. Tried to subdue it with some dhamotil and smecta but it didn't seem to work this time around. So I went to see a new doctor today and he's decided that I needed to have some modern medicine to cleanse my system. I don't think it's working because it hasn't helped. Thought it would be pretty instant as it was the only medicine he gave... my usual doctor provides me with 3 different kinds!

I have a feeling that my body's allergic to it even! Guess I'm not taking it anymore...