Sunday, June 28, 2009

My New Found Love: Orange Marmalade



In an effort to reduce the amount of milk I am drinking (the Milk in Europe/Scandinavia is way too rich for me, making me feel slightly lactose intolerant), I've switched over from cereal for breakfast to bread with marmalade or rice cakes with marmalade. Yum! Lately simple food like bread, marmalade, salad, baked potato, tomato soup, etc., taste so much better. I guess I am starting to appreciate food better :)

** Image borrowed from stdalfour

Saturday, June 27, 2009

I Take My Health For Granted...

then I get upset when I am sick.

I mean I do take care of myself, but sometimes you think its easy to adjust to living in a country at the other end of Malaysia - but it is not.

My latest health problem is - allergies. On 1st June (I remember the date as it was a public holiday) I hurt my back in the gym. Now that its getting much better and the discomfort is barely there despite going back to the gym...my allergies have kicked in. At least that's what the doctor said today.

I can't see very clearly lately. My eyes feel really tired, a little itchy, get reddish and then I start to see blurred letters. I can see people, but not far away. If you are standing about 3 meters away from me, I can't recognize your features. It was very scary. The worst part was sensitivity to light. It's summer here - nice and sunny, but my eyes are so irritated by the light. So, after about 2 weeks of trying to leave it alone, I went to a doctor this morning (thank you health insurance!). Turns out I might have an allergy. I have special eye drops to use every 8 hours. Let's hope it works and all is well.

To be on the safe side, I also have an appointment with an optometrist tomorrow. Hopefully I don't need new glasses as they are way too expensive. Sigh, please let me be healthy again :( There are so many things I want to do in summer!

Friday, June 19, 2009

Just Usual Days

I haven't done anything special lately. I attended a beautiful wedding last weekend in a small town in UK. Unfortunately I can't tell anybody at work that I actually attended this wedding because the couple is worried that people might get offended. Only 5 people were invited to the wedding as the couple is British, hence the wedding was in UK. Altogether they only had 80+ guests. I felt so privileged to be invited.

A European wedding is so different from a Malaysian wedding. Mainly in terms of the number of people. For my elder sister's wedding in January 2007, my parents invited almost 1000 people. This was my family's guests and my brother-in-law's family's guests. The reception was half of the people at the wedding - approximately 500 people. So you can imagine my surprise at attending a wedding with 80 odd people. It was so different. You could actually mingle with guests and remember who was who. It was a lot of fun.

They had a classic English wedding - the kind you see in the movies, but it was so natural and not forced. Like you could tell they enjoyed going through the procedure and did not feel it was a burden. The wedding was in a huge mansion, known as Fanham's Hall. It is now a convention centre-type of place, but previously it was a mansion. Imagine how rich the owners must have been, to live in such a huge house. I kept joking with my friends that it must be haunted ;)

Phew, after traveling to UK twice within the span of 3 months, and attending another wedding in Germany in May, I need a break. I need to sit home and read/clean or just go to the gym. The bottom line is I need to start lining my pocket again with savings. It's amazing how many expenses there are some times.

*Tries to be optimistic about saving*

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Seven Minutes to Midnight

It's almost midnight now. As I write this blog post, I heave a sigh of relieve. Just paid rent for my apartment and did my 'daughter' responsibilities :)

Ah, the relief. There are always two ways to look at having to pay bills: "The poor just got poorer" or "One less thing to worry about". In my effort to be an optimist, I shall pick the latter.

I went to the gym today. Starting slow, again. I took about 12 days break, altogether, as I hurt my back on the 1st of June in the gym. I don't know how I hurt it, I was just using a machine I had been using for more than 4 months. Strange huh :/ I just felt excruciating pain and had to go straight home, lie on the floor with my head and knees elevated. The next day I felt better, but its taking awhile to get to the "good as new" stage. I would love to go to the gym 5 days a week or something. I did reach 4 days a week before I hurt my back. I guess I have to keep repeating the word "Moderation" to myself and not overdo it. *SIGH*

Goodnight world!

Sunday, June 07, 2009

25 Random Things About Moi

This has been going around on Facebook for awhile. However, I am more comfortable writing stuff about myself on my blog, than I am on Facebook ;) Way too many work-related people on there. Not to mention family :)

So, here goes:




1. I am a middle child. I have two sisters - one older, one younger.

2. My newfound passion is for shopping. I never liked shopping as a teenager, but lately, I love buying new clothes, shoes, bags, accessories. Somebody please stop me!

3. I love apple juice. I can drink it all the time. It used to be my on-flight choice of drink. Lately, due to my insisting on eating less sugar, I have switched to tomato juice.

4. I love pants. My younger sister always complained about my shopping habits, back when I used to live at home: "You're always buying pants. Stop buying pants. Buy some tops instead." Gosh, she was so right. I do have an obsession for pants. I get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I see well-fitted pants - even on someone else ;)

5. I have a health-freak mode. Some weeks, I am very particular about what I eat. Other times, I just eat everything I see. *sigh* I need to learn to balance it.

6. I have body issues. I hate my flabby tummy and am desperate to get rid of it. I really shouldn't obsess about it though.

7. I enjoy ironing clothing...to a certain extent. If its a steam iron and I am ironing shirts, I really don't mind ironing. Keep those creased pants away from me. Those are a pain.

8. I listen to a lot of Indian music. My iPod is full of it. It's one of the ways I keep homesickness at bay. You see, at home, the TV or the radio is always on, with Tamil or Hindi music. To keep some semblance of that atmosphere, I always have Indian music on my iPod.

9. I don't drink alcohol. Never did, never will :) It's by choice, out of principle.

10. I enjoy cooking. I find it very therapeutic.

11. I like cleaning, but I need to be in the mood for it.

12. I hand wash 50% of my clothing because I want them to look new. It's ironic because in a way, I am actually sabotaging my chances to buy more new clothing. If your clothes wear out fast, you would need to buy new clothes sooner right? Still can't convince myself to throw everything into the washing machine though.

13. I love jeans. I own way too many pairs of them.

14. I dream of being able to wear high heels and walk comfortably in them. I don't think it will ever happen :)

15. I like reading fashion magazines. It's a newfound interest. I call it research. Since I am a kind of writer, the vocabulary used in fashion magazines is like a yardstick for words that I can use when I write as most people will understand them ;) That's the semi-truth. The real truth is I dream of being thin and being able to wear everything i like.

16. I wanted to be a journalist but one fine day, when I casually mentioned it to my mom, she thought it was a difficult choice of career. Later I became addicted to the computer and chose Computer Engineering instead. Strangely I am a technical writer now. Talk about twisted fate...

17. I'm pampered. My parents, despite being middle class, always gave me everything I wanted. When you are an adult, living far away from home, your parents' sacrifice and achievements become very clear to you. I also noticed that once I was surrounded by other parents (my colleagues who have children) I have come to appreciate what my parents gave me even more.

18. I like computer games but I refuse to be addicted to them. So I try to refrain from playing them.

19. My favourite ice-cream flavour is cookies and cream.

20. I used to be a tomboy. I never thought I would wear tight jeans and T-shirts let alone skirts. My shirts as a teenager were bigger than my Dad's shirts :)

21. I enjoy traveling though I never thought I would get to travel as much as I do in the past 3 years. I was going to settle for working in a bank, and living an inconspicuous life. Alas, the opposite happened.

22. I don't miss university life. People always say that work life is more difficult than university. My university life was pretty tough. I don't think I want to go back to that mode.

23. I am somewhat lactose-intolerant. I think it has something to do with growing up in Malaysia, drinking powdered milk for many years. There's only so much milk I can drink in a day. Otherwise I get an upset tummy.

24. I dream of owning an apartment within the next 5 years.

25. I have a driver's license (in Malaysia) but I have never driven other than while learning driving with my instructor.

Friday, June 05, 2009

Shopping is Evil

Don't you just hate it when you try to stop shopping - just for a few days ... and then you notice a sale pamphlet in your mailbox. Esprit is having 20% storewide sale for members. *SIGH* They also sent me a small voucher. MUST...NOT...SHOP....

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Feeling Overwhelmed

There's so much to do..so little time.

So many things have happened but there's so little time to react. I had like 4 days to decide between accepting or declining a chance of a lifetime.

I know I am lucky. But at the same time I want to mourn the loss of my dream. If possible, I'd dress in completely black clothing for a few weeks :( It hurts so bad to be told that you are the best they have, only after you have one leg out the door.

I hope this never happens to me again. I pray that I can foresee something like this in the future.

For now, I am going to just be...

Got a wedding to attend next weekend. A party to attend this Thursday. Another party the coming Friday. *Sigh* Just way too many things to do. If only life would stand still for awhile, for me to catch up. Just once.