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.

A study of utensils

An experimental shot....while waiting for the food to arrive

I changed the sting of the violins this evening . A whopping RM 175...for a set of dominant strings. For a more mellow sound...there's obligato ( at least it sounded like that to me ) strings for a ( wait for it...) staggering RM 401++. Estimated time it will last 6 months. Ouch! I also got the bridge of the violin shaved slightly. Why? Because the height makes playing at higher positions difficult. Plus my fingers ( like the rest of me presumably) lack strength. Anything to ease the pain of practising. ( But NOT obligato strings...)

I also bought two pens, a notebook a can of vanish and got my toenails painted an AWFUL green. ( Note to self...never choose nail colours on an empty stomach it clouds your judgement greatly) So for the next few weeks I shall be one of those ones with them gawd-awful coloured toenails. The ones you see...and think to self..WHAT THE HELL!!! ( That would be me!) 

An allergic nose

I have been sneezing intermittently  the whole morning and now feel like I've just completed the 3 km KL marathon. Time for a lie down and some chick lit reading. It won't stop the blasted cytokines and chemokines doing their nasties...but it's a GREAT excuse to not do anything productive for the next hour. Happy Saturday morning folks. I have violin practise and some work on the laptop to do this am. A pedicure in the evening and Sushi Saturday for dinner hopefully. Tata

Chap Goh Mei

crackers for the yee sang....picture from dinner at home CNY 2011

It's the final day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. I can hear the odd crackers going off outside. It's also threatening to storm which would explain why there's less fireworks tonight. Weather has been terribly hot. My electricity bill will be high. I have three air conditions switched on for a nice cool effect. So let's just see what I've learnt from googling chap goh mei...it's the 15th day of the new year. Literal translation in the Hokkien dialect. ( being hokkien I can vouch for this bit being authentic) It's the first full moon of the year. And then there's something about unmarried ladies ( presumably premenopausal ones) throwing oranges into the sea in the hope of getting a husband. This sounds like a huge waste of oranges. And the pong of rotting floating fungi-ied oranges must be a sight. I would think the yield would be higher if you aim the oranges at the potential suitor...render him unconscious before you jump right in and give him the kiss of life. (or something equally effective) Therein starting a beautiful courtship:) Happy Chap Goh Mei everybody

My kaya green bag

La pliage

What goes in this bag? LOADs of stuff....including my ipad. Who would have thought that was possible!!!It takes a bit of organizational skills and yes it is a bit of a squish....but when zipped  you get a satifaction in knowing all your stuff has successfully been packed ( like sardines) into a very small space. Yes small bags are in. So ladies best throw out those monster aunty-like bags you have.

Interesting things in the last week

I 'm going to lump together interesting stuff in this one post. You have been warned. It promises to be longer than the usual but the upside is, there will be more pictures too.  We'll start with today....and my happiest moment of the day...which would be " getting an email from Lisa Gee" ( She is the author of stage mum, which if you happen to read when you're in your obsession of the sound of music...would appear to be the perfect book written just for you.) I want to clarify that I left a mail for her first, lest you think for a fleeting moment that she would write to me right out of the blue. I am not as famous as I would like to be:)

Smurfberries to buy or not to buy. That is the question. If you've upgraded your smurf village recently, it is no longer winter. The green grass is here and smurfette is a-visiting UNTIL Valentine's day. Boohoo! A smart move because once you've gotten used to tapping accurately and seeing those weeny sized red hearts appear on top of the smurfs nearby....you can't be ready for a smurfette-less village. It costs 30 smurfberries to buy. I currently own a measely 16 smurberries and am tempted to purchase them berries.

The other more sombre topic would be the slowly increasing things on my to-do-list. Annoying how I've lapsed so seamlessly into the world of procrastination. There it is!!! And what do I plan to do to solve this? Err be slightly more organized and certainly harvest less frequently on smurf village:)

The IPAD and I are inseparable. ( except during clinic and rounds). I've learnt my lesson. I lost an ipodtouch by naively leaving it on my table in clinic or possibly in my bag (also during clinic) two years back. The ipad is a good buy and I use it for everything ....but mostly games. For for those of you who haven't bought one already...you just head right to your nearest apple retails store and get one. You won't regret it.

My kaya green bag is no longer spotless. It has some black marks on it ( boohoo) and pen marks inside it. Because I love the bag very much, these blemishes gnare right through me the first few days.

( I've decided the uploading of pictures will be with another post... lazy)

Found at Mercato

Boysenberry!!! Is it a berry? Or does it actually mean Boys AND Berry??? Happy Monday!!! I'm happy Toosday is a public holiday. 4 day working week is brilliant and highly recommended for increasing productivity

A rather huge tuk-tuk

Found....one green tuk tuk!

I bet I can walk faster than this ....on the road:) I mean..just look at it...!!!

Good morning good morning

Which would you have?

Good morning. Good morning Good morning!!! A lovely but very warm Thursday morning. I miss the rain! On the to-do-list today would be " GET enough sleep" . ( err I mean after working hours of course)

It's still CNY

My card

15 days of Chinese New Year celebration in total. Just want to show you what a lovely card I got. And that the G10 has decided to behave once again...AND my hands are steady once more. My happiest moment of the day: having a lovely dinner with OLD friends and cackling away at the horrendous words we spelt earlier on scrabble. Muton not to be mistaken with the more common ( and well known ) mutton. Go look it up...apparently it exists. Aaah, the things we learn on the ipad....amazing

Toosday evening

Picture of starbucks' mugs ( one of them looks mighty red and CNY-life)

I had a lovely evening after work today. I CREAMED Adda at scrabble. I'm telling you, scrabble brings out the kiasu-ism in just about anyone I know so far.So we're up for another match tomorrow after work. Wish me luck. The picture above has nothing to do with scrabble. I just thought it was a nice one especially since one of the mugs is in blood-red. Nice? My happiest moment today....." Beating Adda at scrabble". Yes *roll eyes*...I know, I know it sounds shallow and juvenile...but there it is...my happiest moment for Tuesday:)

Still Chinese New Year

Yee Sang at home

I can't remember what it was like last year but this year's journey back to KL took a whopping 3.5 hours along the Karak highway. I watched the ENTIRE movie of "Pride and Prejudice" and some episodes of " Boys over flower" ( yes yes..) and still felt a little bit bored. The worse part ( almost standstill) was the toll booths where everyone got crazy and some criss crossing led to very messy path leading to the touch and go lane. I'm still trying to figure out how you can aim for the one lane...and yet deviate so far from it. Directly after this harrowing journey pass the toll, to the left were numerous cars lined up with their car bonnets up....trying to cool down their engines. I felt ( evil I know ) a little smug as I vroomed my engine and drove pass these souls. My joy was short lived as the jam started not quite so far after this. I arrived with a headache and am still coming to terms with having experience my very first CNY jam.

Back to work today:) The break was lovely and I feel a little bit more rested than after the christmas break. Happy Chinese New Year....remember it's not over until Chap God Meh!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!

picture of dad's camera....in the garden

While most people spend the new year pigging out ( we did that actually ) and visiting relatives ( we didn't do that) and visiting friends ( we're anti social)....Dad had us pose for a photo session in the garden with the glorious CNY sun blazing down our necks. We wore shades of blood-red-ong ( good luck ) colour for the new year. I look distinctly well-fed in ALL the pictures. It saddens and amazes me that there are people out there who abhore posing for shots merely because they perceive self as fat. I can see how that happens, you ( the fatties out there ) shy away from mirrors therefore rarely seeing self ever. And then you develop a murky image of a thinner self. This delusional image the camera smashes to smithereens within seconds. So I say.....what's a couple of chins more when you're having fun posing. The perfect shot is when you capture the feeling and the oozing of laughter:)Picture of podgy self to come later:) Happy Year of the Rabbit everybody!!!