For those who want a little something different..

Found by chance this morning during grocery shopping spree. Is it nice? Hmmm first mug made this pm. Pretty nice. I wonder whether it would be nice with milk. Decisions! Decisions!

A calm and green view

The view from the room in Shangrila Putra Jaya

Green is calming. I wonder whether my productivity rate would increase exponentially if this was my view every evening when I return home?

Ready for some music?

Cello resting before being played

I performed for the first time ( okay just realised this is the third time... but first time in a group) last friday evening. It was for charity. No they didn't pay us to stop playing. Some wine was served which was helpful. I was surrounded by very talented muscially inspiring young ( and I DO mean young ) individuals who played the violin, cello, saxophone, keyboard,guitar and flute. The first song was scary but after that, it became enjoyable. We ended with the "can can" song which we played FASTER and LOUDER with the crowd egging us on by clapping enthusiastically. Musician without Borders!

Nice things...err almost

A quiet Sunday....

Why is it ( rule of shopping like murphy's law) that when you're actively looking for an outfit you cannot find one that's suitable? I am just after going through my closet with a fine tooth comb in a sorry attempt to find a totally black outfit. The result...one black dress thoroughly suitable except....I must have been slightly drunk when I bought it. It clings at the wrong places. Then I proceeded to try my OLD dark blue skirts in the hope of palming it off as black. NO such luck. When themed with the black comfy T shirt I like...the faded dark blue skirt....looked decidedly BLUE rather than black. When I switched cupboards I finally found something!!! An old dress I bought a few years back. Never worn. Still fits ( just about) and looks pretty decent. So the moral of the story is this....buy loads and keep. You never know when you might need a dress. 

This was taken before I got CREAMED by Adda:(

On a different note I have to sadly admit that I have been thoroughly and consistently creamed by Adda during our scrabble mini tournaments. ( Usually done at the nearby mamak stall) The Mamaks sometimes ( during a lull in business) stand behind us and silently watch. A bit unnerving at times but generally they leave us pretty much alone. We can go on forever. I am a bad loser and an even worse winner. I think Adda gets a kick out of me MOANING away when I get creamed. 

Reading material FOUND by chance

Can't rotate picture. Chest radiograph is the piece of interest

Look at how much this sold for

Charcoal chicken

What I had for dinner....a week ago

Feeling a little bit like the chicken in the picture this week. It's been busy. The to-do-list is still THAT long and absolutely refuses to be trimmed despite all my best efforts. I'm onto my second Penelope Lively book today. Yes despite moaning about work I've squeezed a little bit of "me" time and managed to successfully finish a paperback without rushing. The last three chapters were read this morning and that caused a bit of a  whopping headache. I've only just gotten rid of the headache. It took ONE panadol, a mug of coffee and a cold wet head of hair to sort this out. 

( update on smurf village: 5 more smurfberries to getting a smurfette....4% more to reaching level 22)

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

THESE rather prosperous looking fuji apples are guaranteed to keep a mini hospital away from you. Compare to the normal sized oranges to the left of the picture. It's the first day of March...should I say rabbit rabbit? See here

Must have!

Bought today

I hope this works. What remains is to buy keynote online ....download onto IPAD....and give it a go sometime this week:) wooHOOO

Family Album by Penelope Lively

At the stage of my life where I experimented with reading beyond the world of Enid Blyton, I found "a stitch in time" by Penelope Lively. I didn't like it when I first read it. Maybe because it was a great deviation from Blyton's world of gnomes and faeries as well as boarding school and midnight feasts. I re-read that book some years later during one of my long breaks back home. There are times where you find a story which makes you want to read slower to make it last longer. That was just such a book. Anyway, the reason why I'm prattling on is Lively's latest novel ( see picture above) is again, just such a book and I'm really enjoying this book very much. The last two books I bought ( and attempted to read) was not nice. I tried and tried. And now the two books have entered the graveyard of books ie temporarily put away. ( to be read later...when I'm really out of reading material).

My new obsession

Smurf Village!!!

I dreamt capcon.com gave me 6 new smurfberries!! And when I woke up....it came true. So now its a grand total of 25 smurf berries. 5 more to go before I can buy smurfette's house. No more egg-ohs for now...I've moved onto my new obsession.

Dinner and books

The crunchy breaded scallops I had for dinner

Huge tasty meat balls.

Despite claiming to be swamped with work ( I exaggerate out of habit) I squeezed in some shopping this evening. Bought FOUR books and got a borders reward card for free. And I also had a yummie dinner. the breaded scallops are YUM. I chose the spaghetti because it had a chef's hat with a thumbs-up sign beside it. And yes..I've give it not one but TWO thumbs-up. I now have no choice but to sit at the desk and do some work...which I have been procrastinating for a week now. Case reports case reports case reports!

Interesting stuff during the week

Hot chocolate with marshmallows 

I've realised for a while now that I'm pretty okay with the "making friends" bit but I fail most times to nurture the friendship as I should. Public holidays are just the thing for me to attempt to make amends. And so I did. Met up with two friends for lunch-tea get-together which was very enjoyable. After which I scouted the two main bookstores for books by Julie Highmore. Would you believe MPH and Borders failed to deliver? I finally found my book at Kinokuniya on friday. ( A little bit of a let-down ...which is my fault for putting the author on a pedestal based solely on the one book I read).

Something brilliant happened this week too....Lisa Gee ( the author of stage mum) replied to my message I left on her blog. Brilliant feeling. I love the book...and am now very glad I've found her site. Looking forward to reading her stuff.