Diarrhea

If you're squirmish about bodily fluids gone wrong, don't even read this post.

I'm having the worst diarrhea of my life! I don't think I ever remember a session being so bad! After everything that's been cleared in my bowels, water's just coming out. I now know what an enema feels like and it's not something I want happening ever so often!

Gurgling

It's gurgling!
My tummy has been gurgling for more than 9 hours now...
What on earth do you think it's doing inside???
I'm almost afraid of going to the toilet...
But I know at some point in time, I'll have to!

Clean, clean, clean!

Short post today, gotta clean the house... the hubs is coming back! I know, I know, I've left it too late again, haven't I? Maybe I should think about getting a weekly maid, if only to do the floors and the bathrooms.

Mt Bromo Erupts

There's a volcano located on the ring of fire in Indonesia called Mt Bromo. It's not all that famous (to me, that is) but it has been spewing smoke since mid December last year and there's a wiki article about it.

Today, it decided to spew heaps of volcanic ash, so much so that flights in and out of Bali and Lombok have been cancelled. I guess it's not as powerful as that Iceland one, Eyjafjallajokull.

En Garde!

In the world of fencing, En Garde is like "Fore!" to golfers.

What would you use in light of the new American Idol judges?
Fail?
En Garde! also as a warning to expect something totally different... fairy tales? Where everything is seen through rose coloured glasses.

It's just not the same, is it? Everyone's happy, too happy it seems a little fake. Oh well, I guess it was inevitable that people move on to bigger and better things... After all American Idol is in its 10th season!

Happy Australia Day!

Sometimes I wish I worked for an embassy in a foreign country, only to enjoy both public holidays.
Can't complain, Singapore does have a few more holidays as compared to Australia.
I guess I'll just have to stick to working for an American firm that does not observe US holidays.

Damn You Auto Correct!

Whenever you need to laugh, really laugh out loud... this is the one website you've gotta go to. It's amazing what the auto correct within the iPhone can do! What more, this is only in English, for those of us who speak other languages, it's a whole new world of, "Damn you auto correct!"

Today's one is especially hilarious "Special Cucumber Unit!

The Snow Queen

I don't think I remember reading Hans Christian Andersen's version of this story, and I'm sure there are heaps of versions around, but the Korean's have managed to come up with a sob fest of a story with this underlying theme.

The only reason why I picked it up was for the actor, Hyun Bin. Not liking the way he looked in his most recent drama Secret Garden, I decided to pick this one up and it was one of the saddest k-drama I've ever watched. If you're going to watch it, stop reading now.

The story evolves around two people, the dorky guy, a maths genius and a girl who's been sick all her life. Something about the storyline should have warned me not to watch it, usually when someone has a weird illness, they will surely die. That's just the way dramas are meant to be. I thought my brain was mature enough to handle this, but no... my eyes are all swollen.

To make the story more sobby, the guy's best friend, who happens to be a good-looking maths genius commits suicide when he loses in the countrywide maths Olympiad. He didn't even place second, he didn't even place third. Of course the dorky guy came in first, so he blames himself for the reason his best friend committed suicide. Which if you think about it, is a bit silly, how can you be sorry for being smart? But he's supposed to be a 17 year old...

The story picks up again 8 years later. We find out that the dorky guy leaves school and decides to become a boxer. It was the dream of his best friend to be one, so he takes it on himself to fulfill that dream. Meets up with the younger sister of his best friend without knowing so, falls in love only to discover who she really is. Anyways, they somehow patch up only to have the weird illness claim her life. Such a sad, sad ending because the dorky guy spends most of his life being miserable... and lonely.

Will I watch this again? Yeah, if only for the early scenes between the main actors as they bicker and become steadfast friends.

Korean Tongue Twisters

I can't even handle the English ones and I'm going ahead of myself in trying to learn ones in a foreign language of which I'm not fluent in. I guess it might be easier to remember if I knew what I was actually saying... kind of reminds me of the times I was in school and uni trying to memorise sentences and formulas that don't make any sense to me! That's right, it doesn't make sense ergo it's not easy to remember.

It's a mesh of weird things, doesn't even make sense, something akin to she selling seashells on the seashore.

This is from the Secret Garden Korean drama where in order to take his mind off something the lead actor recites this over and over again.

"Kimmm soo han moo, keo bu gi wa du ru mi, sam cheon gab ja Dong Bang Sak! Chi chi ga po, Sarisarisaenta, Wori wori, sapeurika..."

Storm turns one!

Happy Birthday Stormy!

When I first heard this kid's name, I thought, "Boy, is he going to have a hard time at school!"
I still think that *grin* but the name is beginning to grow on me, the more I see him and the more I call out to him. Cute kid, it'll be interesting to watch him grow.

Handbags and crowded food courts

Your handbag doesn't deserve a seat in a crowded food court. I don't care if you've paid a thousand dollars or ten dollars for it, it doesn't deserve a seat in a crowded food court. It's not eating, even if it is, it should be sitting on your lap or hanging off the table or chair.

I don't know if this is a normal occurrence in Asian countries, but here in Singapore, it's everywhere, something of a culture. With Singapore being relatively safe, the handbag can afford to be left on a seat of its own while the owner eats.

And I love asking people to move their bags to make way for my bum. The daggers I get sometimes are just priceless. I wonder if they know that they're actually shooting daggers for the fact that their precious handbag has to vacate a seat.

My Name is Kim Sam Soon

A legend among all Korean Dramas! It's a series which I have no trouble watching over and over again, a feel-good drama. The writers and producers have strayed a little away from the norm of a pretty girl with a good-looking guy. Instead, the story is about a plus sized girl who's a great pastry chef. She meets a good-looking younger guy who runs a restaurant and ends up being the pastry chef. They somehow get close and against what their brain tells them, start to like each other.

The good-looking younger guy doesn't have a string of girlfriends as he's still hung up on an ex-girlfriend who left suddenly 3 years ago. Anyways, the leads end up being together, a happy ending, the kind that I like. One of the plus bits to this drama is of course the good-looking younger guy. He's none other than one of my favourite actors, Hyun Bin, and I'm guessing that this is one of his early dramas for which he started getting famous for.

Halfway through!

The hubs is away again for work and luckily it's only for 3 weeks this time.
Can't wait for him to get back... then life will be back to normal *grin*
I never knew how much I would miss him...
Always thought I would be ok being alone, it was always ok when I was younger.
Maybe he's just attached himself onto me with super glue, eh?

Wanna Cookie?

It could only happen in this day and age.
Bust enhancement cookies...
Absurd, no?
Just the thought of cookies being able to enhance busts...
Well, just so you know, they exist.
Not that they're safe...
These kind of things are never safe.
But people still want to try...
People can be silly sometimes.

Tidbits Galore

It looks like the Lunar new year is nearly upon us.

Everywhere you go, stalls are starting to display all the yummy goodies; cashew nut cookies, love letters, peanut brittle, pineapple tarts, mandarin oranges, barbeque sliced pork and the list goes on! Hmm... I've got to remember to get a couple of new clothes!

Takashimaya market place

Sunday's are for resting...

I should really clean the house... but I'm just so lazy. One of the benefits of having the house all to myself (and the hubs) is that I don't really care that there's dust all over the place (neither does the hubs)!

Maybe I'll do it next weekend... the Lunar new year is coming up and as a custom, one has to clean the house of all things old, dust is considered old *grin* A couple of weeks will be all I need to clean this place up, right?

Money is a scary thing

What would this world be if we didn't have money? There will be other forms of barter of course, but now that we have to live in a world where money is the major form of barter, we'll just have to make do.

So, how much is enough? Enough to live comfortably. I'm living comfortably at the moment. If I don't want some maids trailing me, a house that's too big for the both of us, a driver in a flashy car, massive jewellery hanging on me and jet-setting all over the world at a whim, I'm alright! Although, that last one would be nice *grin*

Right! Money... as the Lunar new year approaches, the Singapore pools will be preparing for another big draw. Can't remember what last year's one was, maybe it's the same every year, but this year it's $10 milion! Will you be buying into it? Queues have formed everywhere tickets are being sold, everyone's donating to the pool... parting with a little in the hopes of winning big. Would there be a possibility of no one winning?!

Facebook the generation gap

I was having dinner with a few of my workmates sometime last year and I know I should have written about it sooner but it just hit me that there are some things that are obvious with age.

We were all in the middle of discussing Facebook. On the one side, it's a phenomenon which everyone wants to be a part of, and that makes the concept work, because ultimately Facebook is about connecting people. People you haven't seen in a long, long time, people whom you see everyday, but don't have the time to connect, parents who want to know what their kids are up to, parents who connect with their kids on 'their' platform and new/old friends to learn more about that friend.

Some people use it to advertise every moment of their life, I do that from time to time, but not to the extent which some do. It's a great platform... teeming with information, some irrelevant, some surprising... I find that I'm mostly happy when there's an update because it means they're still alive.

So, one of the topics that came up was the amount of information that appears on your news feed. You'll have to remember that these are people you've either asked to be a friend of or have accepted their request to be a friend. Why did you befriend them when you weren't going to like their news updates? Or curse them for updating ever so often.

Would this be considered a generation gap thing? Generation X living in generation Y's era and trying to understand it. If you're irritated with the updates, just don't read them. Apparently, that's easier said than done, some people are really drawn to gossip.

For those of you out there who have Facebook accounts, what do you use it for? I think everyone who has an account should treat it like a marriage with the following vows; for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, till death do you part.

Pasta Dinners

Pasta would be the easiest out of all the meals-for-one to make.
Grill the bacon to perfection, cut them up into bite size and stir in the sauce.
Bought a bottle of cabonara to last me a whole week, and then some!

Cabonara Spirals with Bacon

Touch Keyboards

So an interesting thing happened just now, not something I would've done before and it just took me by surprise. I had to trim the nails on my thumbs (only) as it was difficult to type on my iPhone touch keyboard. Isn't that just the whackiest thing ever? The nails were in the way of my thumbs flying over the keyboard and sent the predictive text crazily into overdrive.

Kindy for toddlers

While I was driving to get my dinner tonight, the traffic was crawling, allowing me to think a little on the side and I came up with this - "Money can't buy you the ability to use your brain."

I've never come across a society that puts their kids through school, private lessons and tuition at a young age of 3. Yes, not 13, but 3. Where's the physical play time? Where's the getting some vitamin D from the sun? I guess if I grew up here and never knew any better, it wouldn't be strange to me, but I didn't. I grew up roller skating on my driveway, cycling around the neighbourhood, climbing over drains behind houses in my estate, don't remember much about the studying part of school as I was usually out for a tournament or something...

What in the world brought this on? There was an article in the newspapers today. Parents queued up for 12 hours in the hopes of getting their child who was born in 2010 a spot on the waiting list of a prestigious kindy in 2013. I don't know about you, but that whole sentence doesn't make any sense to me. It was such an absurd notion that I didn't even bother to read the article in full.

But I do have some points I want to bring up. Firstly, it's a spot on the waiting list. Even if you're number one, if everyone who has been granted a spot (I'm sure there's another criteria for this too) takes it up, where does that leave your child? Kindy-less? I don't think so. These parents would have a back up plan, which means a domino effect, doesn't it? At the bottom of the chain, some kid would be on the waiting list hoping to just get into a kindy, any kindy!

Secondly, would you even take your baby to queue? Is one of the criteria, "Oh, your baby is so cute, let's just grant them a position on the waiting list"? Pure utter nonsense, just pure utter nonsense.

I don't know if I'm furious or just vexed...

Anyways, just on the side, I miss driving to and from work. I remember that I do a lot of thinking while I drive, not to mention catch up on my music! I'm still stuck in the 90s, which in 5 years will probably the 'oldies'!

Blue is the colour of my room

I knew there was a reason blue is a favourite colour... next to lilac... But yes, I've always leaned towards blue when there's a colour decision to be made.

Blue is the colour you want to look at when your brain needs to absorb information. Blue is also a soothing and calming colour. And that's apparent in the sky. Don't you look up to the blue blue sky and feel a sense of pleasant calmness? I guess you can also say that about the sea. But sometimes the sea is more green than blue.

Anyways, when we first moved into this house, I got my own bedroom and I knew I wanted to paint it blue and paint it blue I did. I can't remember the exact pantone colour (a shade darker than reflex blue?) but it's a dark bright blue, not navy. Coupled with the yellow lighting, my nights were pretty comfortable. Then I got married and moved into the hub's room, which was painted a whitish green (lucite green?) and the hubs has now made my vacated room into his library cum computer room. I'm glad we didn't repaint the rooms, not that we were going to after we got married.

Swollen Eyes

So, for anything that you watched on the telly which brought tears to your eyes... who would you 'blame' that on? The actors, directors, screen writers, your own imagination gone wild, your heart, your brain for getting sucked in??? Countless!!!

I'm one of those people who get emotionally involved with a show that I'm watching on the telly, or even in the movies. Sad, but it's not something I can help. I remember when I was young, my mom and I would catch the cantonese dramas which were showing on the telly right before dinner. She would cook a little, come out to watch, cry heaps and serve dinner when the episode was over. I also remember that the old dramas had a lot of sad scenes in it. Must have been its forte because it forced everyone to follow it.

So, for no reason at all, but being too attached to a drama, I've just finished a bawling session after watching the 17th episode of Secret Garden. I think I might watch that episode again, and again. It was just so sad... no one died... well, not yet, but just the anguish, the thought, the plot with which I can relate to, is creating havoc with my brain.

Terminal 1

Singapore has three airport terminals. The recently opened Terminal 3 is now 3 years old. How time flies!

Meanwhile, it has been decided that Terminal 1 was in dire need of some upgrading. Of course, for a place which has been in operation since the dawn of Singapore Airlines... I'm not saying that there hasn't been any upgrading of facilities between then and now, but compared to the newly opened Terminal 3, Terminal 1 was really in dire need of some upgrading. Started in 2008, it looks to only be completed in 2012!

Meanwhile, amidst all this upgrading, the airport is still in operation. It's only the aesthetics part of the airport that is being upgraded. Disruption is kept to the minimum as everything is boarded up and if you don't frequent the place, you won't even know what you're missing. But I've been there so many times this year that I've started to notice certain things, mostly the availability of food outlets. And the fact that there's absolutely NOTHING to entertain you with while you wait to board your flight or are in transit. All the entertainment worthy experiences (the ones that keep you awake enough to wile the hours away while you wait for your connection) are located in Terminal 3. Kind of reminds me of airports from not so developed countries. I guess I've been pretty spoilt in all these years, expecting an airport to be a building full of entertainment too, and not to mention the fact that they should be a shopping mall masquerading as an airport!

Rashes

I can't believe in this day and age, I'm still allergic to certain creams.
I've really gotta go do a skin prick test to find out what I'm really allergic to.
The only reason I've been putting it off is because I'm afraid it's going to tell me that I'm allergic to all things expensive!
I'm sure the hubs would be happy about that tho...

While the chicken man is on holiday...

... the help comes out to help?

I had the strangest experience buying from our regular chicken wing and bee hoon place today. The regular uncle is away for a holiday and had two friends come help him out. It's great that they're willing to help, but it took 3 dudes to do his job. One to cut the chicken wing, one to pile on the regular order of bee hoon, and whatever side dishes and one to place the packets into a plastic bag. The person who piles on the regular order collects the money too, looks like he's the leader of the dude-pack! But he gets help from the dude who cuts the chicken wing with the calculations. With so many heads, I'm not sure if they made money these couple of weeks.

Anyways, on top of that, the dude cutting the chicken wing was carefully cutting it (like he was afraid it would hurt) and the dude who was piling on the regular order was extremely slow and neat. It was strange to see it all as I'm so used to the way the regular uncle packs, cuts and serves his customers. Had me entertained while in the queue, but I can't wait for the regular uncle to come back.

Anniversary Meal

It's been thirteen years since I started going out with my husband... to date, it's still a poignant part of my life. I remember the tears... of sadness and joy and I will never regret saying yes. Hopefully the hubs doesn't regret asking either!

Anyways, today's blog is about food. Again. When has it ever been about anything else...

We were supposed to have a simple dinner of grilled chicken wings, satay and a plate of noodles but the East Coast Laguna Hawker Center was closed. Not sure if they're just doing renovations or are only cleaning the place up. Late as it already was, we ended up having Korean food at Ju Shin Jung.

Loved the atmosphere (big open restaurant with excellent ventilation), the beef and generous side dishes. The short rib beef was gobbled up so quickly that I only managed to take a picture of the belly pork. Will definitely come back again but will only order a variation of cow parts.

Slow grilled belly pork and onion on a slice of lettuce

Organising the iPhone

Is your iPhone inundated with hundreds of apps, most you don't use and has been filed away in folders which take up 5 or more screens? Most people are afraid of throwing away an app they previously downloaded, for free, for fear they might use it sometime in the near future. I'm trying my very best to not be one of those and to keep to three screens. Why three you ask?

Well, there's the home page which is my second screen. This is where all the most used applications are on. To the left screen, I have my games, food, language and miscellaneous folders and to the right, utilities (app store), misc social networks, radio and news. Does that sound organised to you? I'd like to think so. So how do you organise your iPhone?

100 Trillion

That's 100 with 12 zeros to follow
Only in Zimbabwe can this happen

100 trillion Zimbabwe dollars is worth 5 US dollars. That's kind of sad, isn't it? So even if I were a millionaire in Zimbabwe, I wouldn't be able to buy anything or survive, would I?

Sometimes I wonder if the world would be a different place if there was only one currency... what are you talking about?! Of course it would be different.

Firstly, there would be no money changers. What in the world would they do??? I'm just sending this world into chaos, aren't I? Other repercussions would be the people who make money by trading money... they wouldn't exist also, right? Let's not even go there...

Secondly, there would be wars (or hefty words) to decide which currency to use and if they're not able to single that out, a new currency would have to be prepared. IF that is done, how do you peg it? I won't even go there because the money changers and foreign exchange traders would come after me. Anyways, let's call it "world currency"

Thirdly, on average buying a mediocre cup of coffee in England would be the same price as one in Zimbabwe, which is 7 world currency. No one would think that as expensive or cheap as they wouldn't have known otherwise. But then again, 7 world currency could be point zero zero seven cents in current day pounds ;)

Fourthly, and more interestingly would be salary! Yes, it's always been a hush-hush subject, but with the world currency, everyone would be paid fairly, you think? If I were an average maid in Indonesia, I should be paid the same as if I were working in the US, right?

Then, immigration and emigration wouldn't happen as often as it does now. Why would I want to move to another country if not for money... experience? Standard of living? Argh... boggles the mind. I've got to plan this right... but I think I'd like to live in that world... what a weird world it would be!

D7K

I've been itching to buy this since it came out in November... or was it October last year.

I've always been a point and shoot (PnS) camera kind of person for most of my daily pictures, but after playing with the hub's dslr for a week (while I was in Tokyo last year), I was sold. As a camera to bring along while travelling, dslrs are just so much better. There is only so much a PnS can do. Don't tell me it's the person behind the camera, having a steady hand and all that rubbish. Yes, those are important facts, but a PnS cannot give you swoon-erable bokeh.

Being a little sheltered, I only discovered bokeh when I started playing with the 50mm and 105mm lens'. Boy... was I hooked! I started to notice pictures with really, really good bokeh and what you can actually do with it. And when I had finally finished drooling over everyone else's pictures, I sighed to myself and decided that I really needed to get a dslr. At the time, the only worthy camera was the D90 (don't really care for the other brands as the hubs has a Nikon too, interchangeable lenses come in handy), but since there were some announcements that another model of the same size and weight would be coming out, I waited. I didn't want to get the smaller (S size) or bigger models (L and XL sizes) as the smaller one felt like a toy camera in my hands and the hubs already has the bigger one (L size). The M size that the D90 and D7k are sounds about right.

At the moment, I'm still waiting for the price to drop, seeing that I don't have any trips planned in the next month or so. Bringing the camera out on a daily basis just doesn't fit into my bag, however big it is. Hopefully the sellers would realise that people want to spend some money before Chinese New Year (which falls on the 3rd of February this year) and put up some hefty discount. The camera is currently sitting on S$2,100 with the kit lens.

... and a Happy 2011 everyone!

The first of January is just another day in the year but why does it always feel different? This year, there was a slight change in the air... a tiny change, but I felt it, did you?

What did I end up doing today? Well, there was a house warming party to prepare for and I think I was born a food preparer in my previous life... not that I'm supposed to believe that, the previous life thing. When in the kitchen, I prefer slicing and dicing food (especially vegetables) as opposed to cooking, cleaning and washing. But I'm not deft with the knife, unlike how all those professional chefs who appear on the telly do when they're slicing and dicing vegetables. No, I still take the normal amount of time an average person does...

Anyways, when all was said and done, I ate toooooooooooooooo much! But the food was way too good to say no to. Every 15 minutes, "Just one more little bite..." The tummy is still bloated and I'm going to have problems tomorrow... excellent start to the new year!