Postprandial Stupor

Saturday lunch:


Bee hoon with mushrooms and eggs.


Postprandial dip followed by postprandial nap (5 hours).


Saturday dinner:


Prawn mee (without prawns) + chocolate mud cake + earl grey tea.


Postprandial dip followed by postprandial nap (13 hours).


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Sunday lunch:


Bee hoon with mushrooms and eggs.


Postprandial dip followed by postprandial nap (3 hours).


Sunday dinner:


Fish (with lemon and herbs) + eggs + fish tofu + tofu + veg on rice + leftover chocolate mud cake + umbrella-shaped cookies.


Postprandial dip followed by postprandial nap (12 hours).


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If the trend continues, I should only need 1 hour post-lunch nap, and 11 hours post-dinner slumber today.


*GRIN*

Smarty Pants

Have you ever forwarded an email, only to be smacked with a response like this?


"Hey, this is old. Had been circulating around about 2 years ago."


That's it.


YOU. ARE. OUT. OF. THE. LOOP. FROM. NOW. ON.


Heh.

Misplaced.

Joy.


Angst.


Embarrassment.


Amusement.


Disturbing.


Nostalgia.


Melancholy.


The spectrum of sentiments as you browse through old rediscovered photos.


And then this:
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Methodically archived, unequivocally emotive, and 5 years forward;
a pact to stay in touch marooned, and mostly, forgotten.


Where are you, people?

Conceivable Crab

So, I've been asked by a couple of friends about this IUI thing.


Without going into too much detail, the steps are as follows (for me at least):


1) period induction via oral tablets.


2) follicle stimulation via subcutaneous injections (for 16 days!).


3) frequent scans to check the size of follicles (in my case, they only found ONE).


4) introduction of lab-prep "swimmers" into the womb through some sort of catheter. (Apparently, MY SUPPLIER was a little too gung ho with THE PRODUCTION, giving well beyond the quantity required. Don't ask me.)


5) more injections to aid presumed pregnancy.


6) wait for pregnancy blood test in two weeks' time.


It's a little bit like IVF except that the egg/s is/are fertilized in utero. With IVF, the eggs are fertilized in the lab.


Now, you might wonder what's wrong with me? How come you cannot conceive "naturally"?


Well, the fact is, I've been diagnosed with PCOS; a condition where my eggs don't mature very well (childish eggs, a friend teasingly calls them). After 7 courses of clomid - a fertility drug that gave me lots of side effects, I've decided enough is enough.


So, here I am....currently at stage 6, and sharing my story with the internet (because I don't have anyone to talk to?). Keep your fingers (and toes) crossed for me, will ya? :P


Ok, so that's that. Let's move on to one of my favorite subjects - food. And guess what? THE CHEF whipped up a surprisingly kick-ass chilli crab dish tonight. Totally blown away because it ACTUALLY tasted like chilli crab. Not just ANY chilli crab but like those you get from along East Coast Rd (at a fraction of the price!). See for yourself! :)

Crab ALIVE.

Crab DEAD.

Thanks to 'Ready-to-Cook Meal Kit for Singapore Chilli Crab Sweet and Spicy Seafood Sauce'! ;)

A Happy Wife = A Happy Life. :P

Now, go clean up all that drool on your keyboard.

You're Not Alone.

"Just the other night,
I thought I heard you cry,
Asking me to come,
And hold you in my arms."


~ M.J.~

In Cahoots

You know you're a golf nut when you ignore all thunderstorm warnings and hit the course anyway, you don't feel bad turning down all dinner invites to play golf; you play another 9 holes after 18 (just because it's not dark yet).

And you know you're are a happy golf nut when your wife does all the above with you, watches golf dvds with you, read all the Golf Digest you borrowed from the library, and is elated when you managed to set up an improvised launch pad in the backyard to practise pitching and chipping.

Yes, the golf widow concedes.

Anyone There?

Inspired by my boss at work....

Pavlova with strawberry yoghurt and blueberries. :)

And no, they're not home-made. Originally, I wanted to get the recipe from her. Then I found out that she just bought the nests and added toppings! So, I was like, hey, I didn't know you could have such delectable "instant" pavlova? Best of all, they're really low-cal (and gluten-free!). Each of these is only less than 100 calories (including the toppings). Not that I'm counting calories but it's always a plus point when you can have worry-free indulgence like that. :)

Anyway, I thought I'd post this up to entice Joe to come home now. He has time to blog but no time to reply to my emails or take my calls. So, Joe, if you want one of these, you'd better get your butt home soon! :-P

It's NOT Joe.

Shirlz
(Plonks down beside Joe on the sofa)
Shall we go to the supermarket?

Joe
(Staring incessantly at the ceiling above)
Is that an insect?

Shirlz
Or should we go later?

Joe
(Continues to fixate on the bug)
Can you kill it?

Shirlz
(Squints hard and long at the ceiling)
Kill what?

Joe
(Pointing to a black dot on the ceiling)
Kill it. Don't like insects crossing our ceiling like that.

Shirlz
(Still squinting hard trying to find where said insect is)
Where?

Joe
(Pause)
Oh wait. I think it's just a black dot. It's not an insect.

Shirlz
(Rolls eyes in exasperation)
Cheh...

Joe
(Eyes darting back to the ceiling)
It's moving! Did you see it?

Shirlz
(Fed up)
There's nothing there! You're seeing things!

Joe
(Focusing really hard on the black dot that isn't there)
Hmm. Maybe it isn't moving.

Shirlz
(Worried look)
OMG. Are you alright? There is no black dot, and even if there is, it can't move! You're hallucinating!

Joe
(Jumps up from the couch, catches and crushes something)
You! I knew it's you!

Shirlz
Oh. It's a bug all right.
(Makes mental note to see an optometrist)

So, as much as I'd like to think the hub has gone a bit bonkers, he's actually away at the moment on the Gold Coast after yesterday's weird hangup. I would be so jealous if not for the fact that it's wet and rainy there. Plus, he's on business (boring).

Ya, I know. I haven't exactly been holding up my side of the bargain when it comes to updating this site, but hey, it's Joecities! And most of time, before I had the chance to blog about what I'm up to, there's always snippets of it on Joe's posts - an excuse I always give myself for not posting.

Anyway, I'm good (thanks to those who have been checking in on me - you know who you are!). I'm still alive and kicking. Though it hasn't been an entirely smooth-sailing year for me, I certainly learn a lot (yes, golf included :P).

Speaking of which, it is an addictive sport. The more you play, the more you want to play (even though my scores are so embarrassing I wonder why I bother keeping them). But that's not to say that I haven't improved since I first started. Most notable improvement is when I drove the ball past 20 metres! Haha. Yay for me. :P

Golf aside, there's really nothing much I have been doing these days besides work. Unlike Joe who seems to love every job he's in, I only like mine to the extent it pays the bills. Of course, the colleagues are a plus factor; most of them make my work days a lot more bearable, but work is ... just work.

Oh look! I finally wrote something for 2008. Till my next annual post in 2009! :P

Renaissance

Ok. So, I have just returned from planet Mars, and I wanted to say that I see I've been kicked out of the page but it looks like I've been disowned by Joecities altogether for not keeping up my side of the bargain. The blogging bug left me one day, and then life took over. Not that I didn't have a life then but more like I didn't have a job. Haha. Anyway, I can't promise I'll update regularly - remember I have a job now? - but I'll try and post whenever the moon is blue.

To start off my 2007 inaugural post, I shall make some restitution and help Joe welcome our latest addition to the family. Say hello to Lucy, everyone. :)

Grapes and Raisins

OMG. Apparently, apart from chocolates, onions and alcohol, grapes and raisins are dangerous to dogs too!

And I just gave Ginger like a bowl of grapes. =PPPPPP

Oops.

Murderous Heat

Woof! Dear Diary! I wanted to update you yesterday but the heat, oh the heat! True to the forecast, the temperature was at a murderous 42 degrees! Bush fires broke out in some places and there were reports that at least 10 homes were destroyed! I felt like I was surrounded by active barbeque pits! The evaporative cooler at home was crap! I had to practically glue myself to it to feel the, oh wait, I wanted to say cool air but it was just hot air being blown around! Mommy and Daddy, like the others, sought relief in the malls where they said the air-conditioning there was strong and, most of all, FREE (are they cheap skates or what?). Anyway, they were there for a long time and when they came home, Mommy complained she couldn't stand the heat again and they took off to the movies. I think they went to watch a show by some nanny whom they thought was convincingly hideous with her warts and bizzare buck tooth. Anyway, when they came home again, I gave them ugly looks because they haven't brought me out for 3 long days. They reckoned it was too hot to go out but I didn't take no for an answer this time. I mean, The Herald Pee & Poo wait for no dog and they archive every 3 days! Just like they enjoy human tabloid, I like my gossip lampposts! In the end, they relented! Dear Diary, humans are so easy to manipulate. Heh.

Air-Con-Less

It's frigging 41 degrees today! It's like the sun is having a fever or something. You ok there, sun? Apparently, there's going to be a statewide total fire ban day tomorrow due to the soaring heat (God help us!). And because of the tormenting temperature, we decided to revoke our joint agreement not to buy an air-conditioner until end of the year. Simply put, we want an air-con NOW! There was this model, a portable one, that was on sale (usual price was $800+) at Harris Scarfe for $500 but as always, the early birds (not us) caught them all. Of course, we could always buy the same model for a higher price somewhere else (like Bunnings) but the thought of paying $800 when we could've paid $500 for the same thing just didn't make sense. Then Joe figured maybe he should call Bunnings who have a policy of matching the competitor's price. And so he did. Unfortunately, Bunnings couldn't say yes because ALL their portable air-con units were sold out! Woah .. Victorians are HOT.


And so, we were left air-con-less because we couldn't afford any other models. We could, however, afford a Homedics BKK-100 2 Speed Therapist Select Shiatsu Spot Massaging Cushion with Kneading Massage because, uh, yes, it's terribly important that we get that shiatsu massage on a day like this where we are at the verge of getting a heat stroke. :P

Night Market

Not bad..seems like Joe is keeping up with the blogging too. :)


As expected, the night market wasn't extraordinary but the food was stupendous. Especially the Dutch pancakes which were wickedly good.


(I've upgraded to a better camera phone but it's still a camera phone so, pardon the quality of the pics.)

Coated in butter, icing sugar and maple syrup, we didn't have to think twice about joining the 100-metre queue (ok, maybe not that long but you get the picture).









Fortunately, the turnover was amazingly fast and we got our pancakes in less than 10 mins. Yummy yum yum. Dig the pancakes.



And then we saw this gigantic chocolate fountain which reminded me of THE Chocolate Factory and I felt like asking "Mr.Wonka" there if I could just rest my tougue against the thing for 5 secs but of course, Mr. Wonka would probably call the security who, in turn, would call the mental hospital.



T-shirts with airbrushed drawings. The drawings are cool but can't say the same about the tees. I mean, look at the cutting - I don't know, just not my style, I guess.



She's very nimble with the airbrush. Her strokes were quick and precise. I stood there for a good 10 mins, fascinated by the way her fingers moved across the fabric with such certainty as if she already knew she could make no mistakes. Kewl.








I don't know about you but I always have such great admiration for people who can draw. Maybe because I have zero creative juice in me so when I see someone with the artistic talent, I become so enchanted like I wish I could have 10% of what they have, you know what I mean? Envy probably but more of admiration, I think.


So, that's part of the night market for you. There were a lot more stuff but not all was interesting. Besides, a long entry would probably bore you to death. Also, need to give the dog a breather now before Joe comes home and asks,"Have you walked the dog?" I'm not good with lying with a straight face so, aiya, just do the deed and come clean with it! Ciao!

Insomnia

Ok, since I promise to update more frequently, here's another one...


So, this is the 2nd week we're back in Melbourne and having gotten so used to the sleeping patterns in Singapore (which was normally 3-4am), I find myself having some sort of jet lag. Joe's been rather annoyed with me but what can I do? It's not like I didn't try to sleep. In fact, the more I tried, the less sleepy I become. In the end, I always give up and let nature takes its course (I'm talking 5am here). :P


Apart from not being able to sleep at night, the days have been pretty routine. Wake up, feed the dog her lunch, clean up the house, walk the dog, check emails, have my own lunch, surf net, study a bit, and wait for Joe to come home. Argh. I really can't wait for school to start.


Anyway, right now, I'm at the 'wait for Joe to come home' part of the day. We'll be making our annual pilgrimage to the Victoria Night Market. I don't expect anything spectacular (since it's pretty much the same every year) but it only happens during summer and on Weds only so the novelty is still there, I guess? Maybe will take some pics if there's anything interesting.


Have a great week, y'all! :)

Navman

Guess what the hub bought for me today?
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That's right. An in-car GPS navigation unit. I think we both have come to grips with the fact that I'm crap with maps and that I've always been a useless piece of sh*t when it comes to giving directions. Now, things are going to change. I'm going to be known as the woman who knows how to get to places without maps. Heh. ;)


Ok, enough of showing off. Time for another update. I know everyone's been slack with this blog (Ginger included) but this year, I'm going to try and write more often so that we won't lose touch with our friends back home. Plus it would be really nice to look back some years later and get a chronological record of events that we know we would feel nostalgic about. Like planning to have a baby and writing about it although it's probably going to be some time next year before we have one, I think. Anyway, we will definitely let you all in when the other thin red line appears. Meanwhile, we'd just have to stick to the boring and mundane things in life like Joe's work - which is still ongoing till God-knows-when-his-upcoming-project-will-end - and my on-again, off-again schooling. Although I'm making every effort to ensure that I won't "drop out" again, it's hard to still want to go to school when my belly starts growing next year. I mean, it's ugly, and totally unhip to carry a backpack, an mp3 and *gasp* a baby to uni. Anyway, will see how things turn out. I'm not calling it quits yet. Just don't have a definite plan in mind at the moment, that's all. Maybe once I get the baby part out of the way, I might have something concrete to share. Right now, I just don't know where I'm heading except to hold on to my dream and hoping it'll come to pass eventually. Yeah, very lame I know. :P

Back from Singapore.

Finally back in Melb after a month in S'pore. Somehow, it's a little different this time. We're no longer coming back here as students (at least not for Joe) but as permanant residents who intend to make this place more like home. And strangely enough, when we eventually got back to the house, there was a sense of homeliness and, perhaps, relief? I don't know but a mere 4 weeks in S'pore tire me out immensely. Maybe because I was insanely trying to meet up with everyone I didn't really have time for myself. Looking back, I didn't even manage to catch up with all my friends - gasp! - apologies to those of you reading this and wondering why I never called you in Sg.


Anyway, it's back to living in Australia and going back to school again. Yay. :) I'm really looking forward to it. No more saying no more. Haha. Will update more later.

Tour of the House by Ginger

Woof everyone! Joe’s busy searching for another job so he’s assigned me to show you our new place. Right now, I’m in the studying room where I like to look out of the window. There’s nothing much to see out there but in case someone comes along and gives me food, I wouldn’t want to miss it!

Joe doesn’t care I look out of the window most of the time because most of the time, he looks out of his own little window too. So, both of us just look out at our own windows when we are in the studying room.



Sometimes, I try to imitate him by focusing real hard on my window but really, there’s nothing interesting out there. I wonder how he can stare at his for hours on end. *shrugs* Anyway, let’s on move to my favourite place in the house…


Nope, not the kitchen (although I do like to hang around there when Joe’s cooking).





It is my cul-de-sac…my humble quarters….my home-sweet-home…



Of course, anyone who enters it enters at their own risk. I do not usually put up warning like this unless absolutely necessary. Grrrrrr…


Moving along, we have the lounge area where I’m allowed access anywhere but the couch. It’s not that comfy anyway (I heard from Shirz).





Hey, what’s that you’re eating? May I have some please? Pretty pluuurrrssseee? *Drools*



Ok, if you think that I can do this when THEY are around, you’re wrong but I do have to show you the WHOLE house, don’t I? So, Joe, if you are angry with me for entering the bedroom (and laying my paws on your bed), you’re being very unreasonable. Remember you are the one who asked me to show everyone the house?



It isn’t fun just showing the bedroom without the walk-in robe, is it? =P



And just to show that it’s an ensuite bedroom, I will enter their toilet just for once. Oooooo…I’m too sexy for my bum…. ;)



Next we have the guest room…where there’s nothing there except the ironing board and iron…



And the guest toilet where the water in the bowl is much tastier but for some reason, I’m not allowed to drink from it (but it’s ok to stare).



And then we have the guest bathroom which is, of course, my least favourite place because, once a week, they put me in that tub and attempt to drown me. But they’d usually let me go after I put up a good fight.



I don’t know what this room is but I called it the temperamental room. It stays quiet at times but if I’m not careful, it’ll start growling at me. Ssshhh...



Oh look! I love this thing! It brings me to places like the park and whenever it starts rumbling, I get all excited. Hmm…I wonder when it’ll start rumbling again…



The legitimate drinking water (which is less tasty). *Grimace*



This is where I devise ways to catapult the neighbour’s cats into the sun (hehe, yeah, I’m one of the dogs in ‘Pooch Café’). They can be found on their roof but until I’ve come up with the ingenious plan, I will just bark at them to death.


When I get tired of barking at the stupid cats, I sometimes lie on my back to tan my bikini line and uneven fur tone around my, erm, perineum. Shiok sia, I tell ya.


Ok, it’s dinner time. I shall finish this house intro up with the following pics…









I hope you’ve enjoyed the house tour with me. Till then, woof!



Xoxoxo,
Ginger

House-Hunting

Heh. I just sold my first item on eBay - a faux pearl necklace which I've never worn before. It's intriguing how someone's junk can become another's treasure. Even though the final bid came up to be about $5, it wasn't too bad at all considering the fact that it was an unwanted article. :)


Speaking of unwanted, our landlord is seriously trying to get rid of this house. After sacking the ex-property agent for what seems like a lack of advertising, the current one has been actively putting up ads and holding house inspections so much so that it's kinda annoying having to stick around twice a week (every Wed and Sat) for the so-called prospective buyers. And to the working individuals (like Joe), Sat can be the most precious day of the week. Even though each inspection only last half an hour, the one on Sat is at 11am, which means we can only go out after 1130am, or go out ridiculously early and come back before 11am to open the door for the buyers. *bitch-bitch*


Well, anyway, the house hunting on our part has been ongoing for about a month now. Have set our eyes on one but to pull the trigger that quickly kinda scares us. Especially when the owner hasn't been able to sell it for some time now, which we can't understand why because the house is spanking new and just a stone-throw away from the train station. The price isn't too unattractive either. So, to play safe, like the true blue Singaporeans we are, we are going to propose renting the place first. And if the house doesn't collapse by the end of our lease, we might just take over the ownership. :)

Favicon

Woof! Check out Joecities' favicon (on the address bar and bookmarks menu) that I've created! Nice? ;)


ps: If you are a Mozilla/Firefox user, the favicon should have already displayed itself on the address bar. For IE users (version 6.x), try bookmarking the page, close the browser and visit the page again.


pss: Still can't view it? Ask Ginger the Techie Dog. =P

Surprise Gift

A surprise gift. :)

"In His Love, "says the note attached.


Suspect the dude above is checking in on me. I really should go to church this Sunday. =P