Some pics of my food

This is the ever-popular Bobby's Grilled Chicken. It's named after FMM's fussy MS, Bobby. She has such a hard time feeding him but apparently this is his favourite and she says he even tackles the veggies although no veggies had ever passed his whiskery lips before.... hehehehe... By the way, that's dog food but some of my customers add salt and have it for dinner themselves :D

Here's a pic of my blueberry cheesecake :-)


And this is a pic of some fish & leek pasta I gave to FMM. She took the pic with her hp cam. She's really good with food pics... even I didn't recognise the pasta as the one I made for her :P


The cheesecake and pasta are for humans.. heheh...

What I've been up to lately...

Woofy's Choice, that's what :-P

If you're wondering that that is, here's a link for you to read all about it www.woofyschoice.blogspot.com.

Suffice to say I enjoy it, my customers love it and best of all, I get to combine my two great loves of cooking and dogs :-D

There's been a happy twist to that though... from dog food to cheesecakes. Yes, cheesecakes. I must say my cheesecakes aren't half bad ;) A friend ordered some dog food from me for a birthday party, so as I couldn't go, I made her a cheesecake. The people at the party liked it and started ordering cheesecake from me. My cheesecake sales are currently doing better than the dog food, but of course, it's the festive season so people want something other than the usual log cake. I hope it keeps up though. I would love so much to be able to do a real food business at last.

Too bad I'm not in the habit of taking pictures of my food but some of my friends have done so and posted on the forum. For that publicity, I am very grateful. Thank you fk, nat, SG, YY, anan, dango, bubu, bonshaker, FF and most especially FMM for your unstinting support!

Just checkin' in...

I realised it's been quite a while since I updated my blog. Boy, such a lot has happened since August... now.. where shall I begin?

I worked in an MNC for a while.... man, that place was cold! The people were unfriendly, unhelpful and uninteresting. The only 2 decent people in there were my boss and one of the secretaries. The worst was the person for whom I was hired to help lighten her load - the HR Asst Manager. Hey, I'm an experienced secretary. At my age, any bimbo would know I'm no longer looking for any corporate ladders to climb. If I'd wanted to climb them, I would have done so a long time ago already. But that's not me. Anyway, instead of helping me help her, she not only witheld information from me, but also gave me the wrong information (on purpose as I found out) causing me to ALMOST do things wrongly. I said "almost" cos I've been in this line too long to be not completely reliant on colleagues' information.

Three new staff, including myself, started work on the same day. Within 2 weeks, they had gone. I would have been gone too but my boss travels frequently and I wanted to wait for her to come back to tell her. Anyway, I was out of there in a great big hurry making it a record in my career - 1 month. Hahahahaha....

I've been up to a lot since then which I shall update in the next few blogs ;)

BluAngel has left the building!

Yes, I most certainly have :-)

Today, I said farewell at last to my job. Coincidentally, I had worked there exactly 3 years. I started on 18 Aug 2004 and I ended on 17 Aug 2007.

How do I feel? Right now, I feel exhausted. I have not had a break in all the years I worked there. Not because I did not know how to manage my time or that I was so infatuated with the job that I could not leave. But because there were so many upheavals and changes in management, I did not have a chance to go on leave for a protracted period. The longest break I had was a week last November and I spent that running errands and helping my bro prepare for his wedding.

But there is sadness as well... you don't spend 3 years of your life working with such great people - well, SOME of them are the best, not all, but they are the ones who make the difference - and not feel sad about leaving them. It was such a great place to work at first and I do miss those days. It was what made me stay despite the many upheavals.

But what I will miss the MOST are the horses. I was so busy today cos people suddenly realised it was my last day and they all wanted something done before I left. I did dash out during lunch today to the nearest NTUC and bought a bag of carrots for my favourite Mimo. She is sooo sweet, but only when I had the carrots. When she was done with the carrots, she showed me her butt :-P

Yesterday was the best. Esther, Steff, Angie, Sunny, Fiona, Louis and Calvin bought me lunch at Fish n Co. We had such a fun time. Then I got everyone a pistachio choc cake from Cedele for tea. And when I got back to the office, there was a lovely box of Chocz on my desk from everyone in my department. AWWWWWW..... they really know what I like best! How do you not love a bunch of collegues like them?



And my boss got me a gift. It's an aromatherapy burner. She said she got it cos she thinks it would help with my rhinitis... isn't that thoughtful?

Time for me to take a break, then think about where I want my life to go from here. I am looking forward to a couple of weeks (at least!) of doing nothing but lazing around and beading :-)

7 days and counting...

...to the day I say bye-bye to my current job. Yes, I have quit. I have called it a day. I have thrown in the towel. In short, I have wised up that no matter what and how much I do, it's never going to be enough.

Next week this time, I shall be a free woman! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA..... I can't wait. I already have my itinerary planned out (sort of). It consists at the moment mainly of taking the dogs out, going to the gym, keeping the house clean, some gardening, lots of beading and there's something in there about volunteering at the soup kitchen :-)

I have a sneaky suspicion though that I'll end up sleeping in, surfing the net, chatting on MSN and doing lots of beading. I haven't even given the soup kitchen my name as a volunteer yet...

Oh, my camera conked out. Really bad timing. I can't take any decent pics of my creations now... not that my previous pics were that great but at least you could see the actual colour on the beads. I'm using D's cam now. It's supposed to be higher definition or whatever but it's too fancy for me so I end up taking blurry pics with colours that don't look like they are... eg. green ends up looking black :-(

The girls are playing right now. Tinkerbell turned six 3 days ago, but she's still a puppy at heart. She's always initiating play with Russell or Gypsy. I never get tired of watching them at play.. they're so funny and I just laugh out loud at their antics... heehee...

Results are Out!!

Remember those exams that I didn't have time to study for? Well, the results were out yesterday. I've been having a flu all week and my nose is all stuffed up, making it impossible for me to breathe through it especially in an aircon room. Classes have re-commenced with the next 2 modules but I've missed both the first lessons due to my stuffy nose. While you can make disgusting nose noises at home and even in the office, you can't do it while you are in a roomful of almost strangers straining to hear the lecturer teach.

Anyway, J told me she had collected my results for me and I just said thanks. Then spent the next 5 minutes agonising over whether I should ask her to open it and tell me or not. On one hand, I wanted to do the honours (or disgrace) myself. On the other, I was DYING to know my scores. In the end, I bit the bullet and SMS'd J to slit my envelope. She took forever to do it and finally SMS'd me back to say that I'd gotten an "A" and a "B". My first reaction was utter surprise. I hadn't expected an A at all. B maybe and possibly an F on one of the subjects... but an A and a B!! WOW!! I still can't get over it. I can't wait to see her on Monday so that I can see it for myself!

So that's that. I hope I can keep it up. An A!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... who would have thought?!

It's a pretty boring Saturday for me so far. I was invited to WCDR for someone's (or is it some pooch's) birthday or something but it was raining all last night. I'd just bathed the dogs the day before and I didn't fancy bringing Russell to a soggy dog run. Besides, the weather's really muggy today and with my stuffy nose and dosey head, I don't think I would have had much fun.

Russell's really white now. His muzzle has so much white in it now it's reached his eyebrows. My boy is growing old. He's almost 8 yrs now and has the most another 4-5 years to go. How I wish D wouldn't give me such a hard time about the dogs... they haven't long more to go and I just want to give them the best I can until it's time for them to go. I swear Russell is the best dog I ever had. I wish I were more of a handler so that I could have given him what he needs and deserves. He is capable of so much more than I could ever handle.

Heeheee.. I just gave him a hug which he didn't like at all. It makes him feel very un-macho.

Here's a pic of him. He was barking at the door and I'd thrown my slipper at him to make him shut up, but of course he thought it was a game... hahahaha...

Well, the GST hike comes in tomorrow. 7% now instead of 5%. It's crazy... just when the economy starts to get a little better, they increase taxes. They say it's cos the economy is looking good. Yeah, for the rich maybe... the poor are still, well, poor. And 2% poorer from tomorrow. They gave us a couple of hundred dollars as an "offset". Yeah, right. $100 over a year, that's $8.33 a month, which is about 27 cents a day. Big. Fat. Hairy. Deal. They get that back in a bowl of instant noodles.

And they send letters to people like my MIL who is 76 and uneducated, telling her in 4 different languages she can't understand that they are going to give her some money. And yeah, they include a chart. That works. And they expect MIL to go online and click a button to tell them that yes, she wants the money. For crying out loud... you wanna give people money, just give it to them, man! How the flying f*** do they expect MIL and her buddies to know how this darn thing works. She thought she had to go to goodness knows where to get a letter and then go queue at the bank to get the money out. Oh maaaannnn! There are some people out there who desperately need their bosses to think they are earning their keep. No wonder there's been a hike. We need to keep these airheads employed so that they can set up tripartite organisations to find out why poor people aren't making CPF contributions in order to take advantage of progress packages. Hellooooo.... they are POOR people. Their concern is where their next meal is going to come from, how they are going to pay the rent, how they will live next month. Not put precious cash into CPF and hope for the next big thing, IF there is one.

Ok, I told myself when I started this blog not to go into politics or try to figure out why governments do what they do. It's like they have no common sense. Then, again, my mom always said that common sense isn't so common. So this is just a one-shot thing. No more. Imagine how smart people will look when there are no more dumbasses to compare with. Ha ha.

Exams over!! yipppppeeeeeee

Can you imagine sitting there for 3 hours.. ok, 2.5 hours.. bullshitting your way through your exam paper? I bullshitted till my hand cramped then I decided to spare the poor guy who would have to mark my paper.

Well, anyway, that's that. It's done. Let's talk about something else. Oh darn! I forgot to take a pic of our booth at Mutts & Mittens last weekend! Doh!! Well, it was a great weekend... met plenty of DS people at last and saw a lot of doggies too. Wow, they are really lovely doggies, especially the beautiful Black Eye Pea, an 8-month old Jack Russell puppy. I'm half in love with her and I haven't stopped thinking about her since then. She is absolutely perfect and if I didn't already have 3 dogs, I would adopt her in a jiffy! Well, since I haven't a pic of the booth to put up, here's a pic of the inimitable Black Eye Pea! Isn't she simply adorable??
Lots of people came to support the jumble sale and our jewellery sales. We donated a total of $222 to Mutts & Mittens to help them sterilise their shelter dogs. Not bad for a couple of amateurs in one hot, humid afternoon... heehee..

This weekend is the tournament. It's work and I am not looking forward to it at all, I tell ya! I wish I didn't have to go. I dread standing there in a stupid polo tee with heels (what a fashion faux pas!!) for the whole bloody afternoon smiling at the guests and trying not to sweat. There was a time when we all used to enjoy these events but lately, it's just become a chore for us. Work just isn't fun anymore! I think it's time for me to start looking for a new job already or just hang up my computer and office clothes for a while and hang back, relax and enjoy life as it was meant to be enjoyed! :-)

TGIF!!

Boy, what a week it's been!! I am so glad it's Friday and I haven't a thing planned for tomorrow. Yep... Not. A. Thing. Which leaves me to sleep in if I want to or to bring Russell to the beach for a morning romp and swim.

As it turns out, I have to be at the adoption drive this Sunday after all. I'd thought I could escape it but... so I have been busy with production the past few evenings and these are some of the stuff I managed to churn out.

I just wanted to use up the one leftover tensha bead so decided it put it on this bracelet made with Swarovski crystals and glass beads with a very pretty flower finding, all in a golden tone.

This pic really doesn't do this piece justice. Maybe it's the poor lighting or my crappy cam. Anyway, the whole thing is in white and gold which really reminds me of some Greek goddess' toga (or is that Roman?). Another piece which I created by mistake and comes with matching earrings. Of the 50 odd pieces that I've made over the past couple of weeks, I like this piece best and am half hoping it won't be sold so that I can have it for myself or give it to a special friend :-)

Yep, these are earrings. But not for a person with 3 ears. I got bored with putting them up to have their pic taken so just combined all the 3 available colours in one shot :-) Aren't they pretty?

Just saying HI :-)

Yep... just doin' that... saying HI :-)

And yes, I'm bored. I really shouldn't be as I have loads of things to do like study for my exams and making more jewellery. But studying would be even more boring and I don't feel particularly creative right now. Which reminds me, I have a couple of orders for customised necklaces but I'm so not in the mood to make jewellery right now.

I spent all of this morning and early afternoon at Holy Trinity church helping out at their food and fun fair. It didn't go as well as we expected. J and I were selling okonomiyaki. For the uninitiated, that's a Japanese pancake made with cabbage, egg, a yam flour batter and topped with fruit sauce, mayo and bonito flakes. We also provided the youth ministry with a popcorn and candy floss machine.

Business wasn't that great. We sold less than 60 oko and only popped 5 rounds of corn. The candy floss machine (which is normally a best seller) was also quiet most of the time. At my own parish's last fun fair a couple of years ago, we sold out the oko (200pcs) and the candy floss machine ran non-stop until we had to make everyone wait while we let it rest before it burned out. We had also used the big popcorn machine and corn was continuously being popped.

Strange... this is our 3rd year running helping out at the Holy Trinity food & fun fair and this is the first time I have not seen a crowd at Holy Trinity. They're usually so bustling. We did the same thing the last 2 years and they sold very well.

Ooohh... did I mention that I got a bulk order for my accessories? 200pcs of handphone accessories! I made some simple but very pretty ones with Swarovski crystal hearts. Too bad I didn't take a pic of them. I completed the whole order in 4 hours (was a rush order) after which my hand was stiff for 2 days! I'm going to donate the whole amount to the Mutts & Mittens Adoption Drive. It beats sitting there for a whole afternoon selling jewellery... and I doubt I would be able to make $250 in that afternoon either!!

Ok, I'll stop here now... a post without pics and with a lot of words is boring, I know, so I'll spare all you brave (or super-bored) souls who have read this whole thing up till here. Grazie and ciao!! :-)

More of my jewellery

As you know if you've been following my blog, I make jewellery to raise funds for animal shelters. Well, I thought I'd post some of the recent ones just for the heck of it :-)

I'd told myself not to work with chinese cloisonne beads again, but I just could not resist this when I went bead shopping. I love the colours and how well the green crystals go with the gold tone. It was so popular I sold 3 pairs all in a single day!

This bracelet was made by accident... heehee... I hadn't planned on making it this way but somehow it all came together and was bought up the very next day. I love the colours!

This long and chunky necklace was a long time being produced. I'd received a request for customisation and it took me about 2 months just to find the right beads. I made a matching bracelet too and that also was snapped up the very next day :-)

The blue glass tube was one of the very first beads I bought when I first started beading last November. Inspiration didn't come until recently when I bought those lovely cat's eye hearts. It's also already been sold :-)

Catchin' up...

Wow, has it really been a month since my last post? Time sure flies when you're having fun. Or as the frog said... time's sure fun when you're having flies... :-)

Let's see now... what's happened in the last month? Hmmm... not much except that I got ill a lot. I spent the entire month wrapped in a haze of flu virus that never seemed to go away. But I'm ok now (knock on wood) and have all my weekends choc-a-bloc till end-June.

C's parents arrived end-April and Iggy had a bbq to get the family together. It was fun alternating bbq'ing and swimming.


Last weekend we celebrated Olivier's 1st month. I & C had about 70 guests over and I helped by arranging the catering and preparing some activities for the kids. It was fun doing balloon sculpting. Here's a green dog I made for my friend's kid but forgot to give it to him.

Olivier is doing very well - he's in the 90 percentile in terms of height and weight - but I've never seen that kid awake! Honest! He's always sleeping or drinking milk. But I guess that's how he came to be in the 90 percentile... heeheehee...

Oohh.. I managed to take a pic of him doing his growing :

This weekend, I am helping Fr JF with his parish feast day food & fun fair. He's doing it to raise funds to build the new Divine Mercy Church. Oh by the way, I was the one who suggested that name to him :-) I actually named a church! I'm so proud of myself :-)

The weekend after that, I will be selling my jewellery at the Mutt-vellous Adoption Drive. It's a dog thing and this dog shelter is trying to raise funds to sterilise their dogs. I just went bead shopping today and got $100 worth of beads and stuff. I could have bought more but I wanted to come home to start production. I should have bought more, especially some plastic beads for making bracelets and necklaces. I'll be really busy producing this weekend and the whole of next week. I hope lots of people buy them (fingers crossed).

After that I'm dead as I have exams which I probably wouldn't have studied for. Who has time with such busy weekends?? Then it's work that weekend cos of the tournament.

Then I plan to spend the next weekend at the spa and also have my hair permed. I've been trying to grow it to a decent length for perming and it's getting on my nerves (or rather, in my eyes) already.

Olivier pics uploaded

Here are the promised pics of bebe Olivier being carried by Grandma :-) These were taken when he was just 1 1/2 days old. The pics are dark and blurry cos taken with my hp cam in a darkened hospital room... hehehe...




Here's one of him and his mom. He was crying and I think she was trying out her telepathic powers. It worked though... he stopped crying for a few seconds and started again...hahaha... that bebe has a strong pair of lungs!!

My new nephew

He's here at last... the latest addition to our family :-) Finally, after what seems to have been the longest pregnancy ever, Olivier was born yesterday at a hefty 3.8kg! No kidding!! That's like 8.5 pounds!! No wonder C was having such a hard time walking and sitting and generally moving!

I took some pics of him on my mobile but my mobile's downstairs and I'm too lazy to go get it to download the pics. I'll post his pics another day. Anyway, Olivier's round and chubby and very very pink. He's the cutest little thing and he can turn his head already! At 1.5 days old!! He's strong... in the limbs and in the lungs.. hahaha...

I'm still recovering from the flu so I didn't want to go near him too much and didn't get to carry him, but I will... when he's less floppy :-P

Work's better now. I've moved to a nicer, brighter, bigger spot. It's in general population, but I like it much better than the old place. My replacement for half my job started work yesterday. I like her and I think she will be perfect for the role. Meanwhile, I'm really looking forward to starting out the new department that I transferred over to do. It is going to be an exciting and challenging year. Not like it hasn't been exciting and challenging all this while, but this will actually be fun as well! haha...

Well, that's it for now. Watch this spot for pics of Olivier soon!

P.S. I can't wait for Spider-Man 3 to start. I'm going to watch it May 7th. Anyone wanna come along?

Happy Easter!!

Hey there, friends and fans... wishing you a very happy and blessed Easter!

Well... it's finally Easter and Jenn, Amy and Xavier were baptised last night in a beautiful Easter Vigil celebration. My 1 year's journey with them is over and I shall not be doing RCIA this year. I feel a little sad about that as I do enjoy the journey and seeing enquirers grow in their faith and knowledge and knowing that I have been part of that growth.

I can't believe how quickly Easter has come upon me. The past month has been absolutely awful! I completely missed the whole of Lent as I was too busy working and preparing for the AGM. Oh well, maybe that's my penance. The day following the AGM, I left the office at 6 sharp and rushed to mass and Stations. It was the only weekday mass I had managed to attend and the only other Stations other than Good Friday. On Holy Thursday night, after mass, the RCIA group hired 2 buses and visited 4 churches - Holy Trinity, Holy Family, Queen of Peace and Our Lady of Lourdes. I met Fr JF at Holy Trinity... haha... he said he'd just given a long homily on why we should NOT visit churches and here we were, visiting churches... heehee.. but it was really nice to see him again.

The first 3 churches were ok. We didn't have much time, around 15 mins per church, so I just sort of sat there quietly and blankly. I didn't even pray. I couldn't. Too rushed. Too worried about the time. Fr JF is right.

Until Our Lady of Lourdes. Let me tell you something about this parish. It's a very small church and most of its parishioners are Indian migrants. By that, I mean domestic helpers and construction workers. It is a poor parish. It does not have aircon. The sanctuary is bare except for a huge plastic-looking grotto in front and a simple wooden crucifix at the side. The tabernacle is also simple. Faux gold. Small statues at the side of St Joseph, St Pio and the Divine Mercy. The carpet on the aisle is worn, as is that at the sanctuary. The altar is smaller than my dining table. Unlike other churches, they did not have a spare tabernacle to place the Blessed Sacrament. Tabernacles are expensive things and this parish can't afford it. The consecrated hosts were in a chalice with a pall covering it on a small pedestal with plants around it.

Maybe because the church was small so it was almost full when we arrived. Instead of the usual quiet air of meditation, this church was bustling, with groups of people praying in front of the statues outside and a group of ladies singing a prayer in Tamil inside. It was hot too. And too bright. And noisy.

I made my way to the front as the back was all filled up and slipped into a pew. I did not plan to stay long. I closed my eyes and listened to the ladies singing in a language I did not understand. And I felt God's presence.

It was strong. It was immediate. For the first time in many months, even years - I felt the peace of God. A peace the world cannot give. I felt a strong humility... all the other beautiful churches I had visited and it was here that I felt God so strongly. He truly is among the poor and the downtrodden.

I wanted to open my eyes but I resisted the urge, afraid that I would lose the feeling. But I obeyed the urge and the feeling remained. It was almost tangible - so strong it was! I looked to my right and a man in the choir smiled and nodded to me. It was a nice smile. A reassuring smile. It was like he knew me but I didn't know him. I smiled and nodded back and looked around some more. I looked at everything and everyone. And God was there.

Jesus Christ is risen! Alleluia!!

Snakes alive!!

Ok, so it was 1 snake, but it was still a snake. In my kitchen. This evening. And I was alone in the house.

I had to go back to work today to prepare for the AGM. Goodness... no matter what I do and how much I do, the work just seems to go on and on and on... well, anyway, it had been a looonnnggg day (long week actually) and I'd just come home and was relaxing in front of the telly, too lazy to go upstairs and get out of my clothes and have a shower. Russell started barking first. At first, I thought it was the normal barking but then I heard that tone in his bark that told me he was on to something. Then Tinkerbell started. 2 dogs on to something? Maybe it was the new neighbours but it didn't sound quite like the "hey-newbies-this-is-my-house-so-you-better-watch-it" kinda bark. It sounded more like the "hey-there's-something-here" kinda bark so I got off my butt and went to investigate. Good heavens!! They were after a snake! In my kitchen!! I only got a glance and it looked black so I was afraid it might be a cobra or something. Ok, so it was small, but a baby cobra still packs a deadly punch. I got the dogs out of the kitchen and called C, my friend from the Nature Society. She wasn't anywhere nearby but laughed at my panic and said it was probably a harmless juvenile house snake and told me to pick it up and put it into a bag and then let it go someplace safe. Yeah right... let's see HER pick up a damn snake! Then I called my big bro who was at football with his kid and wasn't ready to come snake hunt with me.

So ok, I was on my own. So I took out a big cloth bag - one of those things your handbag comes in, a long clothes handle and started poking around the rug where I had seen the snake go into. I saw the tail first and I slowly worked my way up to where the head was. I wanted to be sure it wasn't anything poisonous. It was dark grey with light grey markings. I googled house snake but only came up with African House Snake which is brown and big, so that's not it. Anyway, it looked a bit like a mini python. I prodded it a bit but it didn't move. So I prodded it a bit more and it still didn't move. Then I prodded it harder, trying to make it go into the bag, and it LURCHED!! OH F***!! I screamed and got the hell out of the kitchen and went back a minute later but it was gone! Where to, I have no idea. I just hope it doesn't end up in my bed. I've heard of snakes doing that. They get into all sorts of things. Oh man.... I'll have to watch every step I take and especially where I put my butt. I wish I'd taken a picture of it, but photography wasn't really on my mind then, ya know?

Now that I think about it, the snake must have been hanging around in my backyard the past few days, cos Tinkerbell and Russell have been especially interested in the backyard these past few evenings, in particular the planter trough. I'm just relying on my dogs now to tell me if there's a snake on the prowl. As long as they don't get excited and go into hunting mode, it should mean the snake's not in the house anymore. But I have a sneaky suspicion that it's gone into the washing machine. Good reason not to do the laundry then...

I still have goosebumps thinking about it. And my friends and big bro... bunch of snivelling cowards. Laughing at me but not daring to come and face the snake themselves...

AGM Fever

Well, I'd wanted to say something about the stress that preparing for the upcoming AGM is giving me but I've decided that work is so blah to talk about. Ok, there's stress. Ok, there's work. Plenty of it and more. Ok, there's a B**** at work who complained about me - but only cos I was doing my job and she isn't so she needs to cover herself and being tai-chi queen, what do you expect? Haha... like her complaining's done any good... first she did it verbally to my boss which my boss brushed off. Then she sent me an email, cc to both my bosses. And we all just ignored her. Poor her. Anyway, she's complained about everyone already so it's just another wolf cry as far as everyone is concerned.

So that's that for work. One para's already too much blog space dedicated to that crap :-D

Let's see... shall we talk about food? Yes, more food. It's endless! haha... we did Mom's birthday at Lai Wah. I felt like I was 6 years old again the minute we stepped into that old retro restaurant. It was where we used to celebrate Amah and all the Ee Pohs' birthdays. Talk about nostalgia! The food is still as excellent and I'm looking for an excuse to go again. Who's birthday up next?

Oh yes, the Saturday before was Mommy's real birthday. I know we were supposed to celebrate at Lai Wah, but since she'd just gone for Uncle Thomas funeral, she wasn't keen to have a birthday do so we took it as yet another CNY dinner. On her actual day, we went to Aston. mmmmmmm.... yummsss...... was soooo tempted to take the Wagyu beef (grade 7/9) but resisted the temptation out of sheer will power! I really don't need the extra calories from that mouth-watering piece of beautifully marbled steak cooked to succulent perfection..... *drools*

Oh yes, I've been trying to add a counter to this blog but can't seem to do it. Mandy sweetie, can you help your old aunt please? And oh, would you please tell your brother that I've got him 3 Beano and 2 Dandy Annuals. There was a book sale and I got them brand new and real cheap. I've finished reading them so he can have them.

I went bead shopping on Saturday and bought $122 worth of beads and stuff! Well, actually they were mostly crystals as I'm making rosaries for those in my RCIA group getting baptised this Easter. They were the bulk of the expense. I also got some nice new floral beads and a lovely butterfly charm.

And I missed gym session last Friday cos of work... grrrrr... but I did manage to get out on time today and worked out for close to 2 hours. I'm getting really good at this. I hope I can keep at it, especially in April when my course starts. Well, I'll have to make the effort as I'm getting quite addicted to exercise now.

Wow, look at the time! I'd come online to update Doggiesite with my new designs. I guess I got distracted by chatting and carried away by blogging. I'd better go grab a shower now and get to bed otherwise I'll never wake up on time tomorrow!

Oh yes, speaking of waking up, I have been cultivating the habit of sleeping early, around 11.30 or 12, and it's good cos now I can wake up when the alarm rings and I've managed to get into the office 15 mins earlier too. It's a good habit to keep up but not if I spend all night on the puter! Nitey-nite folks!

Feasting & Exercising

Wow... what a week it has been. Plenty of food.... all kinds of food... and in abundance too! Never mind that it's Lent! And quite a bit's happened too in between.

Have I blogged about the cold crab we had for my family's early Reunion dinner yet? I can't remember and I suppose I should check my blog first but I can't be bothered. Anyway, it's worth repeating even if I'd already blogged it.

Iggy's had to work over Chinese New Year, so we had our reunion dinner early, on 11th Feb at Singapura Restaurant. We usually cook and have it in, but no-one could be bothered to do that this year. I'd heard about the cold crab at this restaurant and honestly, it's about the only thing I can remember of the feast we had. Now, I'm fairly ok with crab but you don't normally catch me eating them outside my own home. But cold crab is another matter altogether. I'm not going into all the details but suffice to say I can't resist it. Anyway, it was good... really really good... *slurp*

Then there was the reunion dinner with the in-laws - the usual steamboat, nothing to shout about. Followed by CNY itself and all the requisite eating. I felt totally lousy on the first day. I had a stuffy nose, a splitting headache and the hot weather was simply awful. I pushed on but totally crashed by 11pm. The second day, I felt a lot better and even went to the gym and did 90 minutes work out. I went to the Club this time and it was lot more pleasant than the CC gym. Too bad I can't bring my trainer there as it's only for members so I guess I'll have to stick with the CC until I can get a routine going. Anyway, the workout was rejuvenating and I went on to win $7 that evening playing blackjack with the nieces and nephews. Gambling's a requisite of CNY. The 3rd day, Iggy was back so he came over to visit and have lunch. It was kinda last-minute but I managed to mop the floor and cook a full 5-course meal in just a little over an hour. Thank goodness they were late... hehehe... and after that, we all went over the aunts' place for a bit. Nice.

The few days of work after the hols was pure torture. I just did what I had to do - nothing more. I simply could not get myself into working mode.

Caroline and Iggy moved house on Friday. They had said they didn't need any help but at the last minute, Iggy sms'd for help as the movers had taken much longer than expected to pack and move. I had to cancel my gym session and buy dinner for them after work. But the new place is really nice. I like it. It's even got a beautiful garden and a swimming pool. If I didn't have 3 dogs and could stand being cooped up in an apartment, I'd buy a unit there too :-)

Yesterday was the Rite of Election. It was nice and all our catechemens made it despite having so many doubts and problems in the days preceding this Rite. It shows that the evil one is really working overtime on this - not wanting people to be saved etc. Later that night, mom, the bros and I went to Uncle Thomas' wake. He was 75. He was papa's sister's husband. A bit of a tyrant and control freak despite having had a stroke and a weak heart ever since I can remember. I was always scared of him and I think we were just pests to him. I don't recall him ever having spoken a single word to me all my life. Heck, I didn't even know his name was Thomas until yesterday. Oh well, may he rest in peace.

And oh, I made it to the gym again today. Worked out for 2 hours. Managed to do 80 ab crunches which is the best so far. My target is 100. I'm glad I went as it was a really hot day and I really didn't feel like going out at all. Only thing is that the dogs need a bath and I've been out all day at the gym. I'll bathe them on Tuesday.

Tomorrow's the funeral but I can't go as I've got a training session to attend. Then we're celebrating Mom's birthday tomorrow night. Was hoping for more cold crab, but it seems the restaurant doesn't serve it during CNY season. Mommy just called to say she didn't want to celebrate her birthday cos it felt weird to be going to the funeral followed by a celebration. But I told her to let the dead bury the dead. Oops, I forgot to invite the aunts. Shall ask Mommy to do it tomorrow. I can't as will be at the training.

So that much has happened in the last week or so. Aaaarrggh... just the thought of going back to work makes me sick. I hate work!!

V-day update

Bet you thought from the title of this post that I was going to tell you how I spent Valentine's Day, which is today. But it's not. I don't do Valentine's Day and the reason for the title is cos I'm updating my blog on V-day. That's it :-)

Happy Valentine's Day? Why do people pick 1 day out of whole year's worth of days to get all romantic? Pay 3 times more for flowers, eat an overpriced dinner and make all the single, lonely people out there feel even more lonely and crappy about themselves. Like Christmas, Valentine's Day has been exploited by retailers, restaurants, florists and even spas. That which at its core is a religious holiday has been besmirched by the mark of capitalism. Or maybe I'm just jealous cos the husband doesn't believe in Valentine's Day... hehe...

Let me talk about my haps and mishaps at the gym. Yes, I've finally started going. Twice a week for 2 weeks now. Has it only been 2 weeks? It feels much longer....

After the first session, I thought I was going to die. Honest. Started with the cross trainer and after 5 minutes on the darn thing, I was sure my heart was going to burst. Then I thought my leg was going to fall off. After 10 mins I wished my heart would just burst and get it over with... take me out of my misery. But it didn't. Talk about my cheatin' heart... But I managed to stay on the darn thing 25 mins without embarrasing myself then Sunny made me do a series of toning exercises for the arms and legs.

I ached for the next 3 days after that and was due for the next session before the aches had subsided, so I pleaded to use the exercise bike instead of cross trainer for the 2nd session. Bad mistake. Legs hurt just as much, heart threatened just as much to burst PLUS butt now hurt too.

But the 4th session, I was almost breezing through the cross trainer already. ALMOST but not quite. The other machines were ok. I think I'm quite strong on the biceps as I've no problem there. BIG, HUGE problem is the crunches. I totally suck at ab crunches. I've been doing it flat so far and I can't do more than 5 at a stretch without taking a long break in between. Then Sunny wanted me to use this bench where I had to hook my legs around something and hang practically upside down. No way José! I'm not a bat and I might just roll off the darn thing and have my head on the ground and my butt in the air with my legs hooked around the contraption.

Oops, it's almost 2am already. I better get to bed. I need to go to the market early tomorrow morning to get stuff for the reunion dinner. Goodnite friends and fans!

I've gotten my cold back... and a sore throat to boot. Maybe it's the dogs... they need a bath... and I get a sort of allergic reaction to them if they haven't had their bath too long. But it's been raining these past few days... I don't even have a dry towel to use on myself, much less the dogs. Oh, and by the way, the spraying of pee... as suspected, it was a gross exaggeration. It was just 2 puddles of pee in the kitchen. The husband put ant poison out and there were dead ants on the floor so Russ pee'd over them. I suppose he thinks better the smell of his pee than the decomp of an ant... hehehehe...

The gym session was cancelled. Apparently, the rain got into the electrical circuit and shorted out the whole building. Just as well as I was loathe to make my way there in the rain. Sunny wants to start tomorrow but with my cold and sore throat, I'm not sure if I want to. Let's see how it goes then.

Hmm... I wonder what's happened to G. He's been missing in action for ages. A couple of emails to let me know he's still alive and a promise to catch me on MSN, but that's it. I suppose he's busy.

Today we went to view the perfect dog. It was fun meeting up and the dog was indeed perfect but J had gone with some friends of hers and the guy was pretty much an idiot. He pretended to be an expert and made some negative comments about the dog but completely failed to notice the most obvious thing about the dog... it had cow hocks. But that doesn't matter if J's not going to show the dog. And I suppose J has unrealistic expectations of the dog... she wants the dog to be best friends with her cat. Hmm... the dog and her cat were studiously ignoring each other, which I thought was perfect, but... And J's friend suspected that the age was a lot older as he said the "eyes are cloudy". He must have very sharp eyes then, or maybe his own eyes were cloudy cos the rest of the 6 of us didn't see that. I thought his eyes were pretty clear actually. I would love to have that dog, but that's not possible at this time.

When it stops being so rainy, I'm going to start walking my dogs more often and longer. That's my new year's resolution.

The New Year

A friend of mine asked me what a blog was and I sent him this blog to have a look. He asked who looks at blogs and why do people blog and how do I track the number of hits on my blog. Basically, my answer to him was "who cares".... hehehe... well, maybe some people care, but I don't. It's just free space for me to write crap :-)

As for why people blog... hmm.. why do they? To pen their thoughts down? An online diary? To stay in touch with friends all over the world? To show the world and her brother your naked butt? So those of you who may be reading this... tell me, why do people blog?

So this is my first post for the new year. Nothing much to say except that the husband just came and reported to me that my darling Russell has "sprayed" pee all over the dining room AND kitchen. My my.... how does an 8kg Jack Russell Terrier "spray" pee over such a widespread area... surely the husband jests.. or maybe he's just being an ass (hey that rhymes). Whatever.... I'll go have a look later. Right now, I've eaten too much for dinner and I'd probably puke bending over to wipe up the pee. The floor will have to survive for now.

Dinner. Jan had heard from me about Astons and was keen to try so we tried. And tried. And tried. Hence the bloated tummy. Tomorrow I start my first gym session with Sunny. Hmm.. not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not.

Oh gee, look at the time. It's 1.19am. I'd better go and look at the pee fallout and then get to bed. And oh... it was the most yawningly, hair pullingly, screamingly, toothpick under fingernails BORING day at work today!!! The seconds just c-r-a-w-l-e-d... I was so bored I wanted to cry!! I hope tomorrow's better. G'nite all.