Saturday, September 29, 2007

My Wound

This is an update from My Lump. The lump is removed, now leaving a gaping wound on my thigh, and I'm recovering now. But I've managed to take a couple of pictures of my wound to show you guys. erm... Scroll down only on an empty stomach is you are easily queasy.

I managed to get a snap shot of my wound when I went to the polyclinic to get my dressing done. The nurse took out the dressing then left the room for some unknown reason leaving me alone on the bench with nothing to do, so I whipped out the handphone can took a couple of shots. Because of the position of my wound and I can't see it while taking pictures of it, I had to take a couple of shots and wish that one is good. Thankfully, a couple, those two seen here, show the wound clearly and detailedly.

my wound

It surprised me that there were so many stitches, at least a lot for a lump like mine. Okay, the size of the lump was larger than I thought, hence the size of the wound was larger than I thought, and obviously the number of stitches would be more than what I thought before I had the operation done.

The yellow yellow is the iodine that was on my leg when I had the surgery but because I had plasters over it so I haven't had the chance to cleanse my leg of the iodine. Then there's the blueblacks all around my wound. I was quite surprised about that so I asked the doctor about it. He said it's because they had to severe the veins around the area when they operated me hence the blueblacks from the severed veins. urgh, gross...

But when you see me in person you won't see that gaping wound la, it'll be like the plaster over the wound. Actually it isn't that obvious unless you are sitting behind me and I'm walking away from you. Yup, I just realised also, I can't wear pants for the next couple of weeks. Not that I've that many pants to wear, but I realised it after I wanted to wear a pair of pants then realised that I couldn't because the wound was in the way.

The plaster picture was taken just after I visited the doctor at Alexandran Hospital. The procedure was damn dumb. First I got a queue number to visit the doctor, then I went to see him and he proceeded to remove my plaster, then the took a look at it then said it was okay and I should go get the dressing done. The he directed me to another room where I had to wait outside for my turn. It's so bureaucratic. I had to wait for my turn to get my dressing done with my fraying plaster. It's so dumb.

The antibiotics is to show you the medicine I'm been gulping down recently. I took that after I consulted UHWC, then I took that again prior to my operation, then I took that after the operation. Luckily I'm off it already. The pills are so huge. It covers on segment of my finger. I still need to take a whole bunch of painkillers, but my mother was saying that I shouldn't be relying on them.

Yup, I'm recovering. But the stitches will have to stay for another two more weeks. And I need to wait till then for the lab report also. Meanwhile still no chicken, no eggs, no seafood, no dark sauces, not "poisonous" stuff for me. :(

Friday, September 28, 2007

Gone by in a Flash

Before I even had anything done, the mid term break has whooshed by in front of my eyes. Great. I don't even realise that I have not enough time left to do my work and my deadline is like on Monday. 1500 words and 0 words down. Good luck to me.

Let me recount on how I managed to have the time fly by in front of me without me knowing...

Saturday, Sunday: I lay in bed doing nothing but recuperating from my operation on Friday. I can't remember what I did but it should be in the lines of reading blogs and blogging. Yes, my free time is primary occupied by blogs. I lead such a sad life.

Monday: The day was spent in the polyclinic for the dressing of my wound. The evening saw me packing up my bags and leaving for chalet which I'll stay for the next two days or so.

Tuesday: Chalet.

Wednesday: I left the chalet early in the morning and went home to bathe and change before rushing to meet Yanwei for lunch. Then it was dinner with Someone, and there was our little quarrels again.

Thursday, or today: Morning was spent in Alexandra Hospital for check up and dressing, but most of the time was spent waiting and waiting and waiting la. Then I popped by school to return library books, then went straight home. Since I got home I've been reading blogs and blogging. Have I mentioned that all my free time is occupied by blogs, mine and others?

Friday: I have have have to get work done before my driving lessons.

Saturday: I have have have to get work done before I go for Yiting's birthday party. I have her present all ready, I bought it on Wednesday and boy do I like it. I hope she likes it as much as I do.

Sunday: I have have have to get work done before schools starts and that's the end of my break and I need to start working again.

Yes, that's the sad summary of what I had done and what I must do, but of course, what I must do and what I end up doing will be quite different though I hope that would not be the case. grr... I need more time.

Ya, I've not only been blogging and reading blogs, but also have been editing photos for use in future blog posts. I can't possibly be blogging everything down today, but I usually edit my photos in batches. If you can't wait for my next blog post, then here you go. Photos queued up for the sausage blog and photos queued up for this blog. There are lesser photos in queue for this blog because I haven't been doing much things that I've taken pictures of, heck, I haven't even been doing anything interesting at all, so not much pictures here.

Yup, here's the short filler before the next blog which is probably on my wound as you can see in the photos in the latter link I have there. Until then, I shall hope that I can manage to increase my word count from a palty zero.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

My Brand New Baby Cousin

Being the eldest grandchild in my maternal side means that all my cousins are all younger than me, and here comes the youngest one now. Baby Ryan! I don't think there'd be anymore coming up seeing that this is my youngest married aunt, the unmarried ones seem to be not getting married any time in the near future, or at least until the end of their child bearing age. So baby Ryan, youngest in the family who had just celebrated his month old birthdat party.

baby ryan one day old
He was supposed to be c-sectioned on the 16th. It was something quite definite, but as how things go, nothing in life in predictable, and baby Ryan's waterbag burst one day early, and everything went ahead one day early.

He was tiny. 49cm and 2.2kg only and he was very crumply and red. See my mother in comparison to baby Ryan, her palm is bigger than his face!

baby ryan three weeks old
We went to visit him when he was about three weeks old because the sister hasn't seen him up close as she was recovering from her flu. And he's still so tiny. He's so cute, all wrapped up on a bundle, and I carried him for a fair bit of time. He's still very light and I'm still very afraid of hurting him since he's so tiny.

My sister was so afraid of hurting him that she didn't dare to carry him. haha~

baby ryan one month old
At one month old, baby Ryan is less red and more yellow, still quite crumply, and still tiny tiny. He has this frown lines on his forehead which makes him look like an old man. Oh, and he really likes it when I tickle his chin, he'd chuckle and giggle and saliviate.

Ahh... Babies...

Saturday, September 22, 2007

My Lump

For all those who know about my lump, yes, I've just had it removed yesterday at Alexandra Hospital, and I'm now recovering at home. For all those who don't know about it, yes, I've a lump and I've just surgically removed it, and I'm recovering now. For all those who know or don't know, the story goes like this.

Some time during the summer vacation, I noticed a little bump on my thigh. At first I thought it was a mosquito bite or some insect bite because it felt like a mosquito bite only that it wasn't red nor was it itchy. I didn't take much notice of it because I thought that if it weren't itchy it shouldn't be that big a deal. It would heal by itself. And I didn't bother about it.

Since I left it alone, it started growing, bigger and bigger. Then it started to hurt. It came to a time when I have problems sitting down because it was on the back of my thigh, and pressure on the lump hurt me. My parents were telling me to go see the doctor, Someone was nagging at me too, but I procrastinated. I was afraid there might be a need for me to surgically remove it.

But then came a point when I couldn't take it anymore. For my three-hour seminar classes, sitting at a same spot for long was almost torturous. My long bus rides to and fro schools were also a big problem to me. I became this inconsiderate passenger who has to prop her legs up and push on the back of the seat in front of me so as not to sit on my lump and cause me discomfort. I decided to consult a doctor about it.

By then my lump was quite big already, and it was red and swollen. Sort of like a huge mosquito bite only that it has a higher bump and it wasn't itchy. It hurt like mad when prodded.
my lump

To give you a rough gauge on its size, here's a picture in scale to my finger.
my lump size
Yup, it's quite huge.

I plopped down to the University Health and Wellness Centre and asked for Dr Tan, the female doctor. Luckily I went there just before they close for lunch so I didn't have to wait that long. And luckily the female doctor was there. Although I say the lump's on my thigh, it's quite near my butt and it's on the inner sides of my thigh so it's at quite a sensitive area. haha~ Usually I get Dr Tan, but the last time I was sick Dr Tan wasn't around and I got another doctor, incidentally was also a Dr Tan. There's a lot of Dr Tans running about. Anyway, yup, after prodding at my lump and inducing a couple of ouch ouch from me, she diagnosed me as having a abrasive cyst.

She told me there was nothing she could do about it and that I needed to go to a polyclinic to get a referral to go to a hospital and get it surgically removed. I guess there's no other way of getting rid of it. At first I thought maybe can apply some liquid over to dissolve it or something less intrusive about it. My sister told me that it would rupture and after rupturing it would be better. But the doctor said it wouldn't rupture. Damn my sister for giving me false information. In the end, Dr Tan prescribed me some antibiotics to reduce the swelling and reduce some pain only. I still have to go to the polyclinic.

One good thing which I really like about UHWC, it's free! Consultation is free, and some generic medications, including what I was prescribed the other day, were free. I didn't need to come out with a single cent.

It took me another week to finally drag my little arse down to the polyclinic. I was prompted to go because my grandmother had an appointment and my mother was going with her. It was on my free day, so I went along. I asked for a female doctor again, and got this really young looking doctor who gave the same diagnosis as Dr Tan. But well, she wrote me the referral and off I went to make an appointment.

The thing about referrals and appointments with government hospitals is that the waiting time is very long. I needed another one and a half weeks for my appointment at Alexandra Hospital. Apparently Alexandra Hospital has one of the shortest waiting time, so I'm quite lucky to get a slot there.

When I finally managed to see a specialist for my lump, he made the same diagnosis as the earlier two doctors. erm, yes, I had a male doctor for the final diagnosis, and yes, I needed to hear from yet another person what I've already heard from two other doctors. This male doctor was yet another young looking doctor. Think he and the polyclinic doctor's combined age would be the same as the age of Dr Tan lor. Guess all the older doctors all venture private after completing their bond or something.

Then I made the appointment to go for surgery. The date was set to another two weeks later. Yesterday.

The appointment time was 2.15pm, I was to check into the day surgery ward. Since it was in the afternoon, I went down to school in the morning first. But I decided against having my usual coffee and opted for a more soothing Jasmine Green Tea with Honey. I was a bunch of nerves lor. After school, S came down to accompany me to the hospital. We took 33 from Kent Ridge Terminal directly to the hospital. Then we met my parents who were already there and I checked in.

I was directed to a bed, then I changed into my hospital gown and lay there and waited.
And waited.
And waited.

We waited until my dad decided to go back to work. My mum sat by the TV area and fell asleep. I lay on my bed and fell asleep. S crouched over my side and also fell asleep. And we waited.
And waited.
And waited.

It wasn't until 6+pm when I was wheeled to the operating theatre. It was quite cool that I sat in the wheelchair and the porter took me to the operating theatre. The whole nua nua idea of not needing to walk appealled to me, but of course, choy choy, it's only for once in a while la. erm, think don't want la. No, don't want to sit in wheelchair again.

Anyway, I went to the operating theatre and waited there. It was so pathetic, I sat on the chair there with a bunch of outdated tabloid magazines from summer 2006, with cover stories like "Brad says he still loves Jen", "Nicole's so thin her friends fear she's dying" and stuff like that. I read through two of those magazine just to while time away.

I only climbed onto the operating bed at 7.15pm and it was a hell long time of torture. I was awkwardly exposed, and I was menstrating, and it was cold, and there were many people in the operating theatre, think there were a few trainees or something. I was given local anesthaesia so I was fully conscious about what's going on, and I heard everything.

It was like I could feel my flesh being tugged at, and whenever the surgeons accidentally go somewhere further than the locality I could feel the pain. Oh, and I almost forgot the injection itself was goddamn painful. I scrunched up my face and teared lor. Then throughout the whole operation, I could hear the doctors commenting about everything, and even hear their chit chatting, then I heard the *snip snip* sounds of their scissors. I lay on my tummy with my face on the pillow and cried into the pillow.

It's not really because of the pain that I cried, but also because of the stress of the position I was in that I cried. Quite jialat.

Then after the lump was removed, the theatre was left with one doctor stitching me up, but seconds still went by like hours. Even after the stitching was done, my legs were scrubbed with iodine before I could get up. Yes, I could start walking immediately after. Amazing. When I got up, the first thing I notice was a pool of blood on the bed and all over my operating gown. But my thigh didn't hurt that much and I could walk and sit and I was made to sit on the wheelchair to wait for my porter to come and fetch me back to my bed.

And I waited.
And waited.
And waited.
I waited for like another hour before I was wheeled back to my bed. By then it was already 8.30pm.

But in a way, because it took me that long, I managed to see my lump in its full glory. There sitting in a bottle waiting to be sent to the labs to be examined was a lump as shown in the below hand-drawn picture.
my lump real size

There it was, red, yellowy and huge. You can't tell from looking at the pictures of them from the surfact of my skin, now wonder it hurt like mad when I sat on it.

Anyway, I went back to my bed and had some milo and sandwich and waited for my dad to come. Then I changed out of my hospital gowns while my dad went to collect my prescription. Then I was discharged.

I was told to visit a polyclinic on Monday to get my dressing changed, and set an appointment on Thursday to do a follow up of my operation. I don't know if my stitches would be removed them, but well, see how la.

But this morning I was itching to take a shower, so I got my dad to help me change the dressing and put on the waterproof plaster thingie, but the plaster that the hospital gave was smaller than my wound and my dad cut up the plasters and stuck two on me. That was quite a fiasco because I took a shower and the water went in. In the end my dad went down back to get my late grandfather's old plasters to put them on me. That time when my grandfather was sick, my dad had to learn how to do this sort of dressings so that he could do it for my grandfather instead of paying nurses to do it.

My wound's not in a very obvious position for me to see, but just now when the two plasters were falling apart I caught sight of my wound, it was bleeding and I saw the black stitches, one of them was poking out. gross. I didn't take pictures of it but see how la. If got the chance, maybe I'll try taking pictures of it. haha~

Yup, it still hurting a bit, and my dad's told me not to move about too much, so I'm effectively bedridden. Thanks for everyone's concer, if you're concerned about it~ I wish to get well soon. At the very least, I want to get well so that I can ingest food into me. I'm told to stay offlimits from chicken, eggs, seafood, and whatnots. I'm currently on a pork and carbs diet. I'll grow fat~

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Chinese Restaurants Special

I was sorting though my photos on food and noticed a trend of Chinese Restaurants over the past couple of weeks, so I decided to compile them and do a little special on Chinese restaurants, all of those featured have their own cooking styles and specialities.

Crystal Jade Kitchen
chinese restaurants. crystal jade

My family patronises the CJ chain quite frequently and most frequently is the Kitchen line of chains because of its Cantonese cuisine offered. As a normal weekend family dinner, we all had something simple.

1. Congee. I forgot what congee this is, and I don't suppose anyone can tell what congee that is by looking at the picture. haha~ I don't particularly enjoy eating rice and porridges, but my sister loves CJ's porridge. She loves the smooth milky texture of the grains which you can tell that it has been slowly simmering for ages. We can't seem to get that texture cooking at home, but that might be because we are lazy and lousy.

2 and 3. Prawn Dumpling Noodles, soup and dry versions. The dry version is slighly pricier, I think it's because there's one more dumpling in there. I prefer the dry one too, since there's still a little bowl of soup that comes with the noodles, I can enjoy the savoury taste of the sauce. It's also easier eating dry because the soup isn't too warm. lol~ I love the prawn dumplings, they come in full big fresh bursty prawns, and the dumpling skin is nice and smooth and soft. Put them together, and yum yum.

4. Yangtze Fried Rice. My mother's favourite. There's always enough rice and prawns to go around the family when my mother orders that buy shares with us. Each one of us gets a bite of it and there's still enough to go around. I don't know if it's me, me getting so used to it that I can't tell if it's good or bad, it's just so comforting and familiar.

5. Shredded Duck in Tongfen. My dad's favourite. Apparently, standards can differ according to different branches. Think out of the not many branches we frequent, Takashimaya and Parkway ones are the best which little branches in other heartland malls like Junction 8 are not so good, okay, it's only Junction 8 that disappointed, but well, I tend to exaggerate a bit.

6, 7 and 8. Desserts. Rock Melon Sago, some weird promo stuff which my sister ordered, Guilin Gao. Usually I've a hard time deciding between my two favourites, Guilin Gao and Mango Pudding. This time I got myself the Guilin Gao because the father always say that eating that is better for the complexion, so he prefers me to have that even though I don't see any improvement in my face. Or maybe it's because I haven't been eating enough.

In all, Crystal Jade Kitchen is a nice and cosy place to have dinner with your family with reasonable pricings and attentive service, though at peak periods, usually lunch and dinner times you get a bit of a chaotic situation there, and queues are quite long, depending on which branch you're at, there's either a physical queue or a number system.

Imperial Treasure Shanghainese Cuisine
chinese restaurants. imperial treasure

Hearing lots of stuff about Imperial Treasure, and seeing a long queue at Crytal Jade Lamian Xiaolongbao, my dad wanted to try out the Imperial Treasure chain of restuarants at Suntec City. There should have been warning bells going off seeing that the place was not filled with people unlike the other restaurants left and right. The food was not bad, but not spectacular, the pricings were unfortunately a tad too high.

1. Setting. The teacup was quite interesting, rather large for a Chinese restaurant, but I like the elegance of an all-white offering.

2. Hot and Sour Soup. My sister ordered that. The comments from her and the parents who also tried that was that it was too vinegar-y. I know the soup is supposed to taste sour, but the vinegar seemed a tad too strong for the soup.

3. Xiaolongbao. We had three baskets of it. My verdict, those with the soup intact in the xiaolongbao were okay, those without were sucky, and only 30% of the xiaolongbaos I had had soup in them, the rest of the soup leaked out. I don't know what's wrong with the xiaolongbao, or the basket or the waitresses or the chef, but it was so horrendous at which the rate of soup leaking out. A xiaolongbao with no soup is quite a crappy bao.

4. Fried Rice. The fried rice which my mother ordered, no surprises, was surprisingly good. The egg covered every grain of rye thickly, fully, and savoury. The other ingredients were not bad too, just like any other CJ stuff, but we were still overwhelmed by the pleasantness of the rice. Simple but difficult task to achieve, good egg-covered fried rice.

5. Crispy Noodles. My dad had that, I tried a bit, but it was normal, not in a bad way though, just that there weren't any surprises to it. Or maybe we were still blown away by the fried rice that everything else after that became a blur to us. haha~

6. Goubuli Baozi. I had a bite, it was too dry and too little meat, but I never had any of these before so I can't make a comparison. But Someone said that there weren't enough juice in them, I guess like the xiaolongbaos, the soup had all leaked out or something, quite sad.

7. Silverfish. To me silverfish will always mean those little grey moving creatures inside books and old papers, and they never die no matter how hard I slamm the book shut over them. But this silverfish is a real fish, but my sister thought they looked like lizards. Maybe in Chinese they use lizards to make fake silverfish, I don't want to imagine, but luckily this is Singapore, so I have the confidence to say, it's really fish. Most of my family liked it, I don't see anything special about it. There isn't much meat in there, so maybe that didn;t appeal to me.

8. Springrolls. Normal, not enough fillings, too much skin and too oily.

9. Guotie. They were not bad, at least for those which still had juice in them. The meat was also not bad, just that the guotie were small, smaller than those I had at CJ and more expensive, the taste was just about the same, so under such comparisons, I was a bit disappointed with Imperial Treasure.

10. Fried Mantou. The fried part was flakey and not bun-y like those I've eaten at seafiid restaurants with crab. The insides were dense and heavy. It's not really my thing, but I'm not a bread person in the first place.

11. Steamed Mantou. The steamed one was worse, it was everything of the fried one but without any taste at all. Dense, heavy and no taste, but my sister liked it so it's not my problem. But the mantous were so big that we couldn't finish them, my sister had to doggy bad the steamed mantou back to eat the next day.

12. Shengjianbao. I had high hopes of shengjianbaos, and this disappointed me. The same problem again, not enough juice. And the bao was too thick so it was more bao than meat and juice.

13 and 14. Fried Pancakes. Desserts! Think one is hongzao paste and the other one is green bean paste. The hongzao one was not bad but the green bean one was forgetable, it wan't bad, just blah. I'd like to have them in more flavours though, maybe like lotus paste or red bean paste or something more.

In all, price paid and quality didn't add up. If I want to eat similar or slightly better stuff, there's always CJ to go instead, looking at the menu and all the food offered, CJ and Imperial Treasure are exactly the same, so I don't think I'd want to fork out the extra money just for the same thing.

Beng Hiang
chinese restaurants. beng hiang

After Cantonese and Shanghainese, we had Hokkien fare. Beng Hiang is this nice little Hokkien restaurant which serves up some really nice Hokkien dishes. Weekends can see the restaurants very crowded, so it you're going on a weekend, or any special occasions, and for a larger table, always get a reservation. My family's small so we didn't want to eat that many dishes, so we ended up with a super indulgent course.

1. Ngor Hiang Hae Zoh. These are their specialities, and our favourites. We used to go there and eat with my grandfather quite often. It's sad that now our family has dwindled to like this, but well...

2. Roast Chicken. They didn't have half a roast chicken, so our small family went for the full chicken, and we finished it all. Amazing. The roast chicken is well roasted which crispy skin but not too dry meat.

3. Hokkien Mee. The highlight of the day, my absolute favourite, tough fight with the Kong Bak Paus, but that day I was cravvy for Hokkien Mee and so I was more in love with the noodles. You can't get any Hokkien Mee like this is any Zi Char place lor. I tried a few and none came close to the perfection of this. Other places don't have this thick or this dark a gravy, and they noodles just don't taste right. This really is the ultimate signature dish. The thick sauce tastes strongly of prawns, but my dad says there aren't prawns in there, only prok bones and other secret ingredients. I feel like eating that now...

4 and 5. Kong Bak Pau. This is another of me and my dad's Hokkien favourites. We each had three of them that night. For me I don't eat the fats. I know the whole idea of pork belly is the fats, but I'm the tough meat kind of person so I don't really like softer meats, like fats, so I always remove the fats when I eat them. I still like what I'm eating, meaty and porky and with the dark gravy drenching the pau... wahaha~ *cue fireworks*

It was just a simple fare for five people but it was an indulgent one. We just had everything we like and a lot of it that was it. We didn't realise that we didn't have any vegetables until after the meal. Then again, Beng Hiang isn't known for its vegetables. I remember reading 8 Days which said that Beng Hiang is the right place to bring your Hokkien speaking yellow boots wearing contractor clients to go for a meal, and I beg to differ. It's really a comfort zone for the Hokkiens, and a wonderful introduction of Hokkien fare to the non-Hokkiens.

Hua Yu Wee
chinese restaurants. hua yu wee

Hua Yu Wee is not a dialect based cuisine place, but rather a seafood place, mostly really local-styled seafood. My family used to frequent there a lot, but less lately, but we're still considered as regulars so we enjoy all the perks of being a regular. Some have criticised Hua Yu Wee for giving better service to the regular, but no complains here. Some perks includes getting a seat at the air conditioned area even in fully booked circumstances, and 10% off the bill and free desserts. My dad says that his friends name-dropped his name and also had 10% off their bills, but I'm not telling you my dad's name. My name doesn't carry any weight here. haha~

1. Baby Kailan. My favouritest vegetable.

2. Malai Fengguang. Kangkong in belacan. I always thought the Chinese name of that kangkong dish is quite cool, but I don't eat spicy stuff so I've never tried that before. My parents favourite though. We hadn't ordered rice, but upon seeing that they decided to get a bowl of rice to share to slowly savour the goodness of the spicy gravy.

3. Bamboo Clams. I never tried that before, but my dad said it was nice and ordered one for everyone except my mother who doesn't eat stuff like this. My mother is so sad, she doesn't eat clams and abalone, what a waste. Anyway, the bamboo clams were great, nice and chewy texture which I like.

4. Hotplate Toufu. My sister's favourite. I like the toufu, don't know why we can't get this kind of toufu in our own kitchem. I like the egg base in the hotplate. I don't know why but I'm always snatching with my sister for the egg base. haha~

5. Butter Crabs. Nice nice nice. The crabs are so big and fat and so meaty and I ate so much of them. I like the sides most actually, more than the claws. While the claws provide more a more meaty bite, the sides had the butter fried onto the meat and it was so good. Crabs must really eat the big big ones one...

6. Half a Fried Chicken. With so much food on the table we couldn't do a Beng Hiang and get a whole fried chicken. The half was more than enough, and as my memory served me well, the fried chicken was just as good as I had them in the old days.

7. Ee Fu Noodles. It's a nice drier, plainer noodles with mushrooms, but the noodles are great tasting with a tinge of egg-y taste on the noodles. We used to tapao that for dinner when we were younger and when there weren't that many eateries around the house.

8. Yam Basket. I don't take yam, but I do like the goodies inside, like the prawns and the mushrooms. I love prawns and mushrooms. The prawns are so bursty and crunchy and the mushrooms are so big and crisp.

9. Longan with Almond Jelly. Free desserts! I don't take almond jelly so that's my sister's bowl you're seeing.

The familiarity and comfort I get from Hua Yu Wee is really great, since Hua Yu Wee is like an extension of my home. But eating there, this naggy thought struck me. How long more can Hua Yu Wee survive after sitting on a highly coveted plot of land for this long? When I was younger, there were two other seafood restaurants along that stretch of road, now only Hua Yu Wee remains, the other have been snapped up by property developers who want to build high rise expensive condos in that area. Hua Yu Wee in contrast to the new expensive condos looks old and worn down even though business is still booming. That day I was there there were three different birthday celebrations going on. Birthday as in old people's birthday then the whole family go there to eat taking up like 2-3 tables for each group.

With this I've come to the end of my Chinese restaurants special. I hope this makes you feel hungry because I am feeling very hungry now. haha~

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Stupid Spinning Ballerina

(From all my faves but this is not the first place I've seen it.)

Look at the dancer below. What do you see? Is she turning clockwise or counter-clockwise? You just can’t help but love these optical illusions.

ballerina
If you see her turning clockwise (right) then your left side of the brain is doing most of the work, which means you are more of a logic/analyzing person.

If you see the dancer turning counter-clockwise (left) then your right side of the brain is in charge, this means you are the artistic/intuition person.

The first time I saw her somewhere in the world wide web I saw her spinning anti-clockwise. I got my sister over and she saw her spinning clockwise, but after staring for a short while, my sister claims that the ballerina now spins anti-clockwise. But I could still only see her spinning anti-clockwise.

After I came to this webbie again, I still can only see the damned ballerina spinning anti-clockwise. I passed the link over to Someone who proceeds to claim ther he could only see her spinning clockwise. Then I got my sister over just now to examine the gif image again, and she claims that the ballerina sometimes was spinning clockwise then stops and changes direction and spins clockwise, and then stops and changes again, and this went on. Still only being able to see the ballerina spinning anti-clockwise, I protested to my sister that I can't see what she was seeing.

Then my sister went to get a stuffed toy and proceeds to display to me in real life action what she saw, she went and turned the toy first to the left then to the right and to the left and to the right. And I saw none of that happening in that image.

Grr... So in short, I guess me is the artistic/intuitive one while Someone is the logical/analysing person, and my sister is the more balanced person.

What do you see?

Monday, September 17, 2007

Fairprice Finest

Fine but not Finest.

Ever since I saw the advert about the opening of a supermarket selling higher end groceries, I've been excited. I might not be wealthy, but I do like to indulge in better quality stuff once in a while. And especially after my exchange programme stint in Europe, I've come to want to have all the European qualities of life. Hence, I though Fairprice Finest might hold the answer to my wants. Hence, a trip down to recce the place. Hence, ta-dah, this supermarket review!

I knew that the Fairprice Finest was at Bukit Timah, I thought it meant at Bukit Timah Road, and proceeded to go to the only Fairprice I know in Bukit Timah, at Coronation Plaza. But when I reached there and found out that that wasn't the place I was to be at, I was disappointed, and quite humiliated. After checking the sign directories at the bus stop, I summarised that it was more probably to be at Bukit Timah Plaza, which ironically was not in Bukit Timah but at Upper Bukit Timah, and hence my misunderstanding. Anyway, I popped back into a bus and headed up to Bukit Timah Plaza.

fairprice finest
Yes, I finally got the place right.

I was excited when I got there. A totally different sign, with its orange logo plastered tastefully over the trolleys and the signage and nowhere else to lessen the gaudy factor known throughout all the other Fairprices. Nice and clean, with upmarket written all over it. I like.

Going into the supermarket and taking a quick walk around, I was somewhat disappoint. There weren't anything truly exciting, or at least nothing exicted me. The things were upmarket, but not really upscale. There weren't a large variety of good quality stuff, but lots of better stuff selected from the normal supermarkets.

The suaku me thought that there was only one level in the supermarket because I was blind to notice the escalators right smack in the middle of the supermarket. Anyway, the other level didn't really feature much other stuff which made my excitement die down pretty quickly. I wanted to take pictures of everything, and complain about all the lackings, but I was afraid that taking photos would be too attention drawing. Instead I took pictures with my handphone camera.

fairprice finest premium wares

Think we've heard a lot about the square watermelons in the news. Looking at it, they looked quite sad actually. There was a sign pasted above them saying that these weren't for consumption, but only for display. Like what crap? Buying a watermelon and not eating them, what a waste of money that even rich people also won't throw their money around lor. The expensive musk melons look great though, and I bet they're real sweet, I'd rather get that if I've the spare cash. But the musk melons aren't anything new. I know I can get them from Jason's at Raffles City where I frequent. So no biggie.

The portobello mushrooms were also nothing new to me because I know where else to get them, and it's not even Jason's. Fairprice Xtra at AMK Hub carries them also lor, and there's a wider variety of mushrooms at AMK, and a higher quantity of everything in general. Thus say, Joan is not impressed. That caviar seen on the racks were also not the best sort of caviar I can find in supermarkets when I was in Europe. In fact these look quite dodgey even though I read that those were imported from Europe, think one was from Germany because of the language written on the bottle.

fairprice finest upper end stuff

What was great was the wider selections of gravy and sauces offered. I love gravies and sauces because they can truly make or break a meat, so I was quite excited at the sauces offered there. But after looking at them carefully, I realised that they weren't imported, ie they were halal stuff. That's a huge turn off to me because I firmly believe that pork and lard do enhance the taste of food, and I need them in my cooking. Oh crap, I'd still be heading to the German supermarket to get the condiments for pork cooking. I'm seriously wondering if the wine sauces actually contain wine at all, or have I to add them in myself. geez...

The Meiji selections of chocolate were nothing new also la. I saw in a blog about people raving over the black chocolates. I first saw them and bought them from Isetan in Parkway some eons ago.

But there was one thing I've never seen anywhere before. The Alaskan King Crabs. wahaha~ I so wanted to get them, but I don't really know how to prepare them so I'd let it pass. A stop by the butchery disappointed me in fish and seafood. I always thought the epitome of high end eating was seafood, but nopes, not much selection, not premium stuff. But over at the meats section, there lay a Wagyu grade 4 and an Angus. Okay, I can get better at specialities stores but this the best I can get at a Fairprice already ba, I guess.

The hams were pathetic. There were two versions of my much love and cannot be found blackforest ham, but both weren't what I want. A quick check at which butchery supplies the hams there saw that most of the meat were by Hubers which well, isn't what I'm looking for, and it's probably not the best out there. If only Fiarprice could get supplies from the Swiss Butchery instead. The sausages were also nothing special, Cold Storage, Carrefour, Fairprice Xtra all offered more varieties, better quality, higher quantities of them.

You know the poster advert for Finest is the champagne and cheese and the whole idea of yuppie living? I went there in search of good cheese and was disappointed by the lack of cheese. There's just one small little square of normal cheese in the deli, and the dairy rack were normal cheese found in any small little Fairprice outlet. The Xtra had more stuff lor, greater variety, high quantity, better quality. Carrefour, Cold Storage, Jason's had much much much more of offer. So much for high end grocery shopping.

fairprice finest interesting stuff

Even though Finest didn't have many cheese, they did have a cheese slicer, which I learnt to use and come to love after my host family taught me how to back when I was in Germany. I haven't been able to find one here, until I saw the new kitchen supplies shop in Raffles City. I think it's call Zone, think it's either Swedish or Danish I can't remember. Ya, but my point here is that Fairprice was selling a China made one for $15+, but Zone was selling for $7+. Just tell me, which should I choose instead? geez...

But what got me all excited again was that whole rack of gummies. I love them. They were my childhood staples, but I don't know why as we grew up they disappeared from our lives which was very sad. I saw a little revival some weeks back when I bought the apple and orange flavoured ones in Isetan at Parkway, but now there was a whole rack of them in many many many more flavours including my favourite peach! wahahaha~

Funnily, there was a KFC within the Fairprice Finest compounds. erm... Chocz there was great, you know, rich expats and great chocolate cafe go together, but KFC? Is that for the American expats? I don't think so, neither do I think it's for anyone else. It's quite a bit out of place, unless that's what the Finest is targetting their consumers to be.

In all, Fairprice Finest is fine but not finest. Think I'll still go to Jason's and Cold Storage, and the respective speciality stores for the speciality items, and maybe wait for Cold Storage to launch their Select line of supermarkets. I wonder how Select is it going to be...

Thursday, September 13, 2007

My Face

Recently, the doctor prescribed me this acne cream to apply on my face twice a day, which I did it religiously. Because it was skin coloured, when I applied it in the day, I had it on and went out, albeit with concealer and loose powder over it, but it's was okay. The face was less oily, so I thought it was finally one good cream which can cure my face of spots. But alas, that was not to be so.

Then one day, I realised that my face was flaking, and peeling, at the areas where there is acne. Then worse was the T-zone started reddening with little bumps. The first day that happened, I ignored it and continued with the acne cream prescribed to me. But the second day I couldn't ignore it anymore. I don't think it was any other factor because my facial wash was a regular one and I've been on that concealer and loose powder regiment for years already.

Then I decided to stop putting on the cream to see if the face would be less flaky. But it was still quite jialat. Desperate calls for desperate measures. I decided to chang emy facial wash. My normal facial was is for oily and blemished skin and is quite drying, so I thought it might aggravated my this condition. I changed it to a non-soapy deep purifying wash which was mainly for conbination skin which I thought was more suitable for my skin. The nose and forehead were still oily even though the cheeks and chin were dried up.

But it didn't much alleviate my condition. Desperater calls for desperater measures. I started applying moisture cream on the flaking areas. I applied it three times. And thankfully my face is better now.

I don't know if it's the effects of the acne cream waning off, or the change of facial wash helped or was it the moisture cream, but luckily the combination of everything helped.

I was just telling Jasmine today about my vanity regiment. I swear by my concealer and loose powder. I'm so reliant on it that now without my concealer and loose powder, I will not leave the house. My face isn't really too jialat that lorry will langgar, but the spots can be quite red, so I'd conceal the spots.

The thing about concealers is that not every concealer looks natural on the face. I started out with crayon concealers which looks patchy on the face, so it must go with foundation, but that would end up making the face look heavily pale, and blusher and eye shadows only make the face look heavily made up and totally unnatural. Liquid conceals are also not a good choice because they are very light, and hence need the heavier foundation to cover up the spots. Hence, I use cream concealers, from Body Shop, heavy enough to conceal but light enough to smudge.

There's still a bit of patches on the face, so I use loose powder to even out my face texture and to smoothen the patches out. This creates a very natural looking spotless face.

I know some people go all in for a doll-like make up, looking totally artifcial and everything. I agree that it looks nice, and if I've the time to doll up I sure want to look like that, but it's not really suitable for all occasions. Most of the time I still like to masquerade myself as a natural beauty. Many friends have been commenting that my complexion's a lot better than before, but I'm really sad to tell them that I'm a farce. It'd be nice for the normal people walking by me to think that my complexion's good even though I know that under the concealer I'm just a spotty girl.

Sometimes having too heavy a make up is also no good. People will talk about vanity and shallowness and whatever negative remarks that come along with the act chio buay chio kind of girls. I don't like to invite that sort of remarks even though I know that I might just be the vainness of them all just because I think about all these stuff.

Ya, sorry to burst your bubble, I don't have a good complexion. And all those photos of me are not how I look after I bathe. But the great thing of it all, concealer saves me from needing to photoshop. At least I don't photo enhance my face. What you see in my pictures is still what you see me in person, unless u get to see me in my rawest form.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Indulgence

After watching Ratatouille, I had this huge huge cravings for cheese. Watching Remy run around just for cheese, and watching him savour the cheese with the strawberries and grapes just made me crave for cheese so badly that I wanted to eat cheese then and there. And it wasn't just any cheese I wanted to eat, I wanted to eat good cheese, those that come in chunks, not the plastic wrapped normal ones, but really gourmet ones.

And hence, I popped over to Jason's and bought this...
cheese and turkey

I bought 100g of Emmentaler and another 100g of smoked turkey breast. And I wrapped the turkey breast around pieces of Emmentaler, and I ate them together and *crackle crackle pop pop whoosh*. It was a very interesting experience.

Okay, I've ate that combination many times in Germany but every time I ate Emmentaler with turkey breast was with bread, this is the first time I had it without bread, and it's a lot more full with flavour than with bread. I think the plainess of bread do have the effect of toning down the strong flavours of cheese and smoked meat. But this momentarily brought me back to Europe. Those days when Emmentaler, and not plastic wrapped, cheese was my daily subsistence, and turkey breast was as common as ham and bacon. The simple sandwiches were what I ate because they were cheap and not because I wanted to indulge.

Emmentaler (I'm using the German spelling of it because it was what I knew it as) is the classic Swiss kind of cheese, strong cheesey smell, and with holes in them, holes typified by Hollywood as what mice likes. Turkey breast is very common in Germany too because it's a healthier substitute for pork and beef, and I don't know why, cured chicken meat isn't really that popular over there.

Those that are cheap in Europe aren't cheap in Singapore, and my normal subsistent cheap meal turned out to be a luxurious indulgence back in Singapore where I had to go over to Jason's to get what I wanted to complete my fireworks experience. it would have been perfect perfect had I managed to get Schwarzwälder Schinken or black forest ham instead.

Yup, go watch Ratatouille if you haven't, and remember to save a little budget after the movie because watching it will make you hungry and make you want to eat something good~

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Four Weeks of School: A Roundup

With today's class, I've rounded up four weeks of school in this new term and first time as an honours student. I just found of the perks of being an honours student is that I can now borrow up to 14 books for up to 4 weeks. wahaha~ I can hoard! Okay, I don't like to hoard because books are heavy, I print them copy them instead. Lighter to carry. A new habit of mine, I now print double sided because it's lighter. I'm accustoming myself to the whole new life of an honours student! wahaha~

I did the back to school post already but haven't given an in depth discussion about the modules, so that shall be it tonight.


Introduction to Cybercrime
I regretted taking this module, but then since it's not examinable and I need to go a breadth, then no choice. This module is pretty boring, at least to me. I tried so hard to stay awake during the first lecture, then the second lecture I had to bring in tons of sweets and chocolates to entertain myself. The third lecture was the ultimate, I had my laptop with me, so well, you can guess what happened. The fourth lecture I was worse, I was playing handphone game. But at least I did try and listen, multitasking.

Europe of the Dictators
The scope of this module don't seem to be what I expected, or at least for the part on Russia, I thought that there's too little talk about Stalin, and his whole regime. Much of the lectures went on about the Civil War, Lenin, and the Communist Party on the whole. And there isn't anything fresh to be learnt of it, everything seems to be stuff that I've been going through in various different modules. But the tutorial discussion was not bad, with my only gripe that the lecturer talked too much and gave less airtime to the students when I think my tutorial class was filled with very vocal people, especially the year fours, there were plenty of them.

One thing bad is that I don't know why but everytime during the lecture I'd be very tired and doze of a bit. Not much though, just a bit. I don't really want to use coffee to keep me awake because for a 12pm class, coffee doesn't really sound that worthy to be wasted. I must think about other means to keep myself awake. Maybe get Aikhui to poke me or something. haha~

Historiography and Historial Method
The module is very dry. I know it might be useful to me if I intend to do an ISM, but being the only non-history student in the class does sound pretty sucky on paper. But some topics within the Histo class isn't really as bad as the module on the whole, so it's still quite okay.

There are quite a number of gripes about the class, one thing is the lack of discussions, at 60 people in a class, it's not condusive to hold class discussions if there were any, and the lecturer has the tendency to talk too much and go on too long and the students' airtime is then limited. There was once we had group discussions which I enjoyed, but it was only for one week, the other weeks were so pressed for time.

British Prime Ministers
The introductary lessons were a bit of a drag but I must say that they were necessary since I don't bother too much about British politics, but if the presentations to be held every week were to be like what we had last week, then I think the class would be so much more fun. My group had the honour of being the first group to present. It's not too bad a thing other than I was dying in the third and fourth week of school, but clearing that major hurdle would be to ease up my time and space in the future weeks.

The presentations were fun. Okay, I had fun even though I was too rambly and lengthy and didn't get the opportunity to conclude, but I thought it weren't that bad. The Q and A session was a riot man. 4000 classes are indeed 4000 class, everyone has something to say and everyone has something useful to share and everyone discusses. I like discussions! I can voice my own opinion, learn from others' opinions, and better still I can keep my mind working by thinking and talking and not fall into auto-pilot mode. Just a bit of a whine, I got shot left right centre during the Q and A. Either my essay's filled with holes, or my topic's just too interesting, or people hate me.

European Foreign Policy
It's quite funny that I'm saying this is one of my favourite modules. I'm learning a lot from this module which I can't say quite the same for the other modules I'm doing. There's a lot of new things being brought up and I'm interested in knowing more, and I feel like I've gained something when I walk out of the classroom. Perhaps another reason for me to think this way is that we started the presentations on the second week, so presentations means more fun in the lessons. Another probable reason could be that I don't have much pre-knowledge of stuff about the contents of this modules to begin with, so everything is new to me.

Okay, with one essay down, one presentation down, one critique down, next up would be more essays, more presentations, more tests. Jiayou Joan, keep the pace and be a guai guai student this semester!

The essay wasn't that bad even though I sounded like I was dying when I was doing it, in between moanings and groanings, joanings finally completed it almost in time, well, the others were late too so it isn't that bad. The critique was quite a surprise, I actually finished it withing two hours, with footnoting and bibli and formatting. But it's 800 words only la. But I read both pieces of material each twice, and some time before I had already mentally mapped out what I wanted to touch on, though I didn't pen the thoughts down. A bit wasted that it's only 800 words and I found it difficult to be really analytic and go deeper, but I'm still pretty satisfied with my work. At least it's over and done with.

The engine is running for Joan~ Jiayou!

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Tagged

I received an email from a blog reader of mine saying that he tagged me on his blog. I went by his blog and found out that he's this cute young boy from malta. haha~ I shall be nice and do up this meme, I can't bring myself to bully a young boy.

1. Where is your cell phone?
Beside me, switched off because I'm uploading photos now.

2. Relationship?
hmm... What kind of relationship?

3. Your hair?
Black, natural dark brown.

4. Your favorite thing?
I don't know, don't really favour any of my stuff more than other stuff, I love everything

5. Your dream last night?
Last night don't have.

6. Your favorite drink?
Recently it's been ice lemon tea, trying to cut down on the coke intake.

6. Your dream car?
CLK

7. The room you're in?
My room.

8. Your shoes?
I very seldom wear shoes already, mostly slippers and sandals. I swear by my Birkies!

9. Your fears?
I fear losing something dear to me.

10. What do you want to be in 10 years?
Rich, famous, successful. Ya, right...
I want to be 50kg light, now tomorrow, next year, next decade...

11. Who did you hang out with this weekend?
Last weekend? Saturday night was with the German class people, Sunday was with Someone piahing my essay.

12. What are you not good at?
A lot of things, too much to think of at the moment.

13. One of your wish list items?
Food.
I want to eat seafood buffet, international buffet, bbq, bunch, neverending supply of sausages.
And then not grow fat.

14. Where you grew up?
Here there everywhere.

15. Last thing you did?
Flaring up at Someone.

16. What are you wearing?
Clothes.

17. What aren't you wearing?
Bra.
I don't wear bra at home.

18. Your pet?
Don't have.

19. Your mood?
A bit antagonistic.

20. What are you thinking about right now?
Why is he so like that one??? Why he always like that one??? Why???

21. Your car?
Don't have.
But I'm learning how to drive now! But the problem is that my kah (leg) keeps jerking, then the car will jerk. grr...

22. Your kitchen?
It's not mine, more like the mother's. It's very very tiny.

23. Your summer?
It was great, really great.

24. Your favorite color?
Magenta.

25. Last time you laughed?
Yesterday. A big real laugh, because I was too high from my presentation, so I was a bit crazy crazy.

26. Love?
My love has become very selfish. Perhaps as one grows older, or different things happen under different circumstances, one's mindset would change. I used to think that love is sacrifice and tolerance, yet now I'm plain plain selfish and demanding. My heart is hardening I guess... haha...

I don't tag people, so if you want to do it just do it, then let me know or something if I don't already read your blog. Have a nice day folks, and nice meeting you ninuhadida/Jean-Paul~

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Two Ginna Kias

Disclaimer: No pictures in this blog though, all persons will remain anonymous.

Yesterday on the bus heading to school, I had two young-ish looking ginna kias sitting behind me at the upper deck. It was about 1+pm, very off peak, and not the normal going to school kind of time so the bus was pretty empty. I first caught notice of the two ginna kias because of their very lame conversations. First they started talking about Short Street and a possible Long Street, erm, Short Street if you don't know is named after a man with the family name of Short.

But that's still normal conversation. We then went by the Muslim Royal Family's cemetary and the girl called it a house when the guy called it a Mosque. I almost wanted to correct them and inform them that it's a cemetary, but well, I let their ignorant minds be.

Then suddenly, they got up of their seats and walked towards the back of the bus. The moment they walked to the back I knew there would be some hanky panky transpiring between them. I mean, for what other reason would one, no, two people, go to the back of the bus, out of the sight of everyone?

But well, I thought maybe they just wanted to sweet talk or pet or chat, or kiss, or something more appropriate in a public vehicle where there are still about half a dozen of other passengers. I turned around and beo-ed them once, they were chatting quite happily with the only abnorm that the girl was sitted facing the back of the seat to a more frontal position towards the guy. But apparently, they were more than just having normal hormonal rages. Towards the end of Pasir Panjang Road, I'd usually stretch my back and loosen my hips after one hour plus plus plus of sitting in a cramped space, and when I turned around quite innocently, guess what I saw?

I saw the bob of the guy's head, he was bent down. The girl hidden from my side. Then I spotted the bob of her head below the guy's head. And then her head started to bob up and down. And up and down. And I turned away almost at once. OMG. In bright daylight, on a public bus, with another passenger (me!) on the bus and seated directly right at the back of the bus driver's periscope peephole. I wonder if the bus driver saw what had transpired.

And as the bus was nearing the terminal, I actually was worried that the guy wouldn't cum in time to erm, neaten himself and get down the bus without the bus driver noticing anything weird. haha... It's quite dumb for me to have this flash across my head since this is none of my business.

When the bus turned into the terminal, and as I was walking down the steps, I glanced one final time at the young couple at the back. This time the guy was looking up with his mouth slightly open and the girl was hidden from my view.

However, when I alighted from the bus, there was still no sign of them coming down from the upper deck. Really wonder if they were caught in the act. wahaha~

Monday, September 03, 2007

The Social Butterfly

I've been going out a lot on top of piahing my papers. In the span out a couple of days, I had dinner gathering with the girls, my sec 4 class, my OG people, and the German classmates. Following this I'll be having more dinner gatherings with other groups of people, so yes, my schedule is very packed. But in my defence of going out too much and playing too much, I've managed to complete both my essay and my critique due tomorrow, so that leaves me with just the speech to write, but that shouldn't be too difficult to do.

4B dinner at Fish and Co at the Glass House
4B dinner at fish and co

This turnout was a bit sad. Seeing that as time flies by, each and every of us are caught up with out own lives, with out own work, be it school work or work work, fewer and fewer of us actually take the time to meet up with each other. But quite glad that at least most of the girls turned out. Those stupid boys can go and accompany their girlfriends. bahaha~ Seems like to the boys, their significant others are more important than the significant others of the girls to the girls. haha~

It's nice to see people like Xingyi and Jacelyn coming back from their internships overseas. It's even nice to receive presents from friends. Thanks Xingyi for that camel bone hairstick. And Sheena for that cute little pink bikini. It's nice just seeing these close friends who we don't get to meet each other that often, and just catching up with each other on our lives.

German class dinner gathering at Brotzeit
deutsch kommilitonen
and desserts at Häagen Dazs

It's really nice of Danny to organise such a gathering. We've been saying of wanting to have gatherings for so long but yet no one made the initiative and nothing amounted from all the talk, but Danny put an end to that and forced us to come out for dinner. To think that I was still comtemplating about staying at home and doing my work, lucky I didn't do that, if not I'd be regretting.

I've been wanting to go down to Brotzeit for the longest time but have been procrastinating, so this was a good chance to try out their food, and sausages and review them for my sausage blog. It quirkily turned out that every one of us ordered sausages. The girls had normal sausage dishes while the guys when for the sausage platter for two.

After that we were pondering on where to go for desserts, and thought about going to Ben and Jerry's but it was too crowded. We then chanced upon a table at Häagen Dazs. Once we opened the menu, the first thing that caught out eyes was the chocolate fondue. Immediately all of us agreed on getting that fondue to share. It's also the first time I'm having fondue, and it was great! Just that it was too messy, maybe we had too many people to a small table so there wasn't enough space.

It's a pity we didn't get to speak that much Deutsch even though we tried, but well, we tried!

Yes, I am having fun~

Updates

Sorry for leaving my blog here to rot, I really don't want to! I've a whole lot of photos I've taken while out for various outings and stuff, and I've a whole lot more of sausage pictures I want to put up on my sausage blog, but I don't have the bloody time to do anything I want to do. I've just finished with a 2000 word essay and now going to start on my 800 word critique and after that I'll have to do a one page speech based on the essay above. And in the meantime I've to take time out to go to a polyclinic and join a crazy queue. wahahaha~

Ya, I've a lump in my thigh. I went to the University Health and Wellness Centre but the doctor there said there was nothing that she could do about it. I need to either get a referral from a polyclinic to enjoy (what crap a term this is) subsidised rates only 20% the charge for an operation, or she could write me a referral and I pay the full amount. So hence therefore, tomorrow I need to go to a polyclinic. I'm a bit apprehensive, god knows what might happen in the polyclinic and when I can finally get a queue number to get that goddamn lump removed. I'm so tempted to just go private but private healthcare is whole shite of money I can't afford.

In the meantime, you get to see me squirming in my seat a whole lot of time because I can't sit comfortable with that lump on my thigh. And you might see me fingering my lump everytime I stand up because it's becoming a habit for me to sooth my lump after sitting too long, so if you catch me in a compromising position, no, I'm not rubbing myself, I'm just soothing my lump.

I actually have got a couple of pictures of my lump, but they are still in the camera and I don't even have the time to upload them from the camera, so hence therefore, the pictures shall have to wait for another time, while I decide now if I want to go and bathe then continue with my work, or go and bathe then go and sleep, or continue blogging to catch up some lost time. What a difficult decision!

Oh, and several of my friends have been egging me to join Facebook but I haven't got the time to set up an account. Ya, there's no way I'm going to set up an account with nothing inside, so for me to set up an account, I need to have some time to tinker with the settings and profile and figure my way around and have a bit of fun. hai... Either way, I know if I start with that I'd be addicted then I'd end up further procrastinating my work and I'l land up in quite deep shit.

Somewhere between all the work and internet fun, I've been going out quite a fair bit recently. I don't know why I seem to have this neverending group outings, and I'm not even usually the type of person who goes out in big groups. I prefer one on one little dinners or shopping trips or just catching up, but just don't know why I've been asked out so much recently to go out in larger groups with a whole bunch of friends. Yup, I'll post up the photos as soon as I've got the time, and I'll continue to take more pictures when I'm out.

To add on to the no time left for myself, I'm announcing that after a three and a half year almost four years of procrastination, I'm finally learning driving. *clap clap* I've long resisted learning and insisted that I don't need to learn how to drive, but well, I've succumbed into temptations and signed on the dotted line to join Ubi's Comfort Driving Centre. Yes, so taking away time or school, time for work, time for friends, time for driving, and time for sleep, I'm left with no time left. That results in the recent dry spell. I'm so sorry! I also want to blog more often, especially since I've so much to blog about but but but...

Okay, I promise I'll put up something somewhat decent by Wednesday night/Thursday morning. People whom I owe photos to, you can be assured that I'll email you the photos by then too. And now, I think I shall go ans bathe first before I decide what I should do next. Ciao~