If you haven't already known (read here), I was diagnosed with herpes recently. *insert horror face emoji*

It's tongue herpes, a viral disease caused by the herpes simplex virus and I believe it's also the reason for all those long suffering years of recurrent tongue/mouth ulcers.

Rather unfortunate, and to put it simply - there is no cure. I can only prevent it from developing into full blown ulcers when I feel it coming by taking medication.

But it's also some sort of a relief to finally put a finger on this weird condition that I've been having. At least it's nothing too serious! I won't die from it.

After taking the prescribed medicine for a couple of days, my ulcers are clearing up! It's getting better, lesser and not so painful. At least now I can eat and talk comfortably.

Hm I hope I won't spread it to other people though! :x I don't exactly know how contagious this is.

Recently committed myself to a pilates package at Upside Motion also. Really super expensive, and painful to part with so much money at one go. But I need to tone up and I hope this will help me achieve that! Kinda stopped going for sessions with Corinne also so I hope pilates coupled with my weekly jogs and occasional swims will help me lose some weight.

Developed my yearly allergic cough again thanks to my sensitive airways (and also not wrapping my chest and neck warmly enough in Hong Kong). Coughing like no tomorrow! I think I'm annoying all my colleagues. Maybe I should start wearing a mask.

Back from Hong Kong and although it was good - cool weather, great food - but it was too short! 4 days away doesn't feel shiok enough. Hah. Oh well a holiday is still a holiday. The next holiday will possibly be 6 months later. Sounds quite long ah. But then Australia was also 6 months ago and it didn't feel like that long ago that I went. My travel periods are getting predictable. Either June or December. Sigh! Where is the excitement of going on a trip on a whim? Just scooting off because you can, or just feel like it? Or being able to take leave during the school term for that matter?

Somemore in June and December there are only that precious 2 weeks or 3 weeks where everyone is scrambling to go on their holidays... already this year my leave clashed with my colleague's for both months and I think boss is not too pleased about it. 

Travel plans for 2015 looks set to be drastically reduced! Also need to save money. Maybe a short one in June and a long one in December.

Korea was pretty awesome, even though it was very very chilly and my body condition wasn't that good. I've always preferred cooler climes than to be hot and sweaty and I used to be pretty good at taking the cold but as I get older, I find that my tolerance level for the cold has gone down quite a bit. :x My lungs are also very inclined to develop allergic coughs especially when the temperature dips so I gotta ensure that my chest and neck are kept warm. Before I left for the trip I was already nursing a sorethroat and I could feel a cough coming and it worsened in the cold, so I popped a lot of pills while I was there, and got better towards the last few days.

I think my stomach also shrank in the cold, didn't have much of an appetite most of the time (or maybe it was because I've reached my quota for hotpot). We had 2 very expensive dinners though - 40,000 KRW (~48 SGD / or is it 60,000 KRW? #memoryfail) for a Korean BBQ dinner and 65,000 KRW (~78 SGD) for a buffet dinner cruise along the Han River. But never mind, on holiday, just spend first and regret later!
Luckily I didn't put on any weight on my already expanded frame haha if not jialat.

But nose-blowing and frozen fingers/ears/nose aside, I had lots of great memories such as seeing snow fall for the first time in my life! Also tried live octopus, fulfilled my wish of visiting Shinhwa's Kyochon chicken shop and I love the shopping there, especially for skincare and cosmetics. Now that I'm back, I feel like I should have bought more stuff! Never mind about bursting and overweight luggages hahaha.

Am hoping I get to visit Korea in autumn one day, when the trees are awash with pretty red leaves and the weather would be nice and cool! And I'll make sure to go with an emptier luggage so that I can lug more skincare and cosmetics home! Hurhur.

Feeling pretty stoned today. -_-

Flu medicine making me drowsy and spamming Vitamin C to fight whatever virus is lurking in my body while it's still relatively tame.

Wanted to post some photos from the 2 hens' night I attended but I realized all the photos I have from Corrine's hens' party are so cui! We didn't even take a proper photo lor. :(

Haha. Never mind, here's some from Mabel's Hens' night at W Hotel. I expected W Hotel to be bigger and glitzier, but it was still nice. I guess the snazzy decor makes it different from other hotels, but it's still a little overpriced IMO.

We took an Away Room which came with our own private plunge pool!

Even the standing light got zhng-ed

1-2-3-4 Gwiyomi

 Cheers to our bride-to-be!

 And from Corinne's Hens' night last weekend at MBS:

 I believe this photo of the pizza at Pizzaria Mozza is the best photo I took that entire evening because all the other photos look cui. #truestory

We were so chill that we didn't even prepare anything. 

Last minute party stuff courtesy of Xiuhui haha

The 40 degrees hot tub and steam room 

It's gonna be a busy month of May with 2 weddings over the next 2 weeks and then it's Genting and Sundown, then in June there's Phuket and diving! I'm broke but heck. Spend now worry later LOL.

The predicted End of the World came and went, and we're still alive. It is, to be honest, a little disappointing. But well, we have reached the end of 2012, that time when we all start to reflect and take stock of the year's happenings. Every year I write a post summarizing what I did and the more significant experiences I went through. So here's my scorecard for this year.

Overall, I think the lows outweighed the highs this year; Q4 was particularly shitty.

Career
No breakthrough, didn't get my promotion, still in the same job, not sure where I am heading towards. Although I did complete a Project Management course, I'm not sure if that's what I want to do. Basically, the whole building and construction industry does not interest me. I guess this is a LOW for me.

Love
Definitely a down-in-the-pits, deep-in-the-valley kind of LOW. Too much has been said about this. All the wasted time and effort and feelings invested. My eyes, small as they are, have widened; my once giving heart has closed. Occasional bouts of bitterness and negativity still creep up on me every now and then, but it's amazing how fast you have moved on. W said 我放不下，我不甘心，因为付出了还是得不到他。So 2013 better be the year where I let go and move forward. I may end up not entering another relationship ever again, but I need to clear such vermin out of my life. Flush the toxins away!

Health
Not great, I think I developed a cough at least 3 times this year, worst of which was the terrible bout of allergic cough that lasted for 1.5 months. Recently, I've got this boil/pimple/cyst? growing in a sensitive area. Spent so much money on the doctor this year. Le sigh. Well, the silver lining is that I lost some weight, hopefully can maintain. I guess neither a HIGH nor LOW.

Wealth
This one is like a perpetual LOW for me every year since I'm always broke with neither pay raise or promotion in sight. Hahahaha.

Friends
患难见真情。Very thankful to all my friends for all the encouragement and comfort during those difficult weeks. Special thanks to Ade and Shan for the whatsapp chats and offering a listening ear, Karen my MSN buddy for listening and understanding, the Royalties especially the long suffering Gillian who has to bear with my random outbursts, petty complains, rants whenever drama strikes, Viber calls late at night (guess this is when the time difference works in my favour hahaha), and W for the mutual bashing of the asshole. Haha. Who needs guys when you have awesome friends right? HIGH!

Travels
Didn't travel far, instead I took plenty of short trips around the region this year. Hong Kong/Macau in Feb, KL/Genting in June, Kota Kinabalu and then Langkawi in July, Taipei/Taichung in Nov and Bali in Dec. Short trips are a pretty nice way of recharging and getting away from Life. Should probably do more of such trips if the budget allows. So well, I guess a HIGH for having the chance to travel, minus some points for some of the travels which involved the jerk.
I have no concrete travel plans for next year though. Possibly a diving trip and Nepal, but details are still pretty sketchy.

Other Milestones
This one is definitely a HIGH - climbing Mount Kinabalu and making it to the peak! Likewise another HIGH would be completing my first half marathon, and a couple of 10km runs! Also tried out Salsa classes. Hmmm. Seems like I'm the type who needs to have a goal to work towards. Else life gets pretty blah.

Hobby-wise, I think I'm improving on the baking. In other news, a lot also happened to the people around me this year - new relationships, engagements, getting a new home, relocating, losing loved ones... etc. And I haven't seen one of my best friends in 6 months! :( Point is, everyone has their own life and shit to deal with, and that's why I'm grateful for all the friends who have rallied around me in times of need.

I guess if I look back and scrutinize, pretty life changing stuff happened in 2012, one of the more impactful years in recent memory. Even-numbered years weren't that great for me so let's hope 2013 will bring lots of better things (like a new job?).

Gonna start it off the year with a bang by having an awesome KTV session with the pals! :) Gotta run, am late!!! :x

4,753 words, one long-ass essay, a piece of my mind. Signed, sealed, delivered.

That unfortunate chapter of my life shall end here.

In other news, I'm on a 2-day MC, doctor says I have very allergic airways and I'm genetically pre-disposed to allergic coughing. Cold blasts of wind, sudden changes in temperature, dust particles in the air, and all sorts of stuff may trigger a cough. Bleah I have weak lungs.

I've taken more MC days in this year alone than in all 27 years of my school and work life I think. -_- But also good la. Seriously had no mood to work for this entire week. With the coughing and all the shit happening. Plus bosses are away on a week-long business trip. No government. Office laptop crashed yesterday. No mood to work also.

For someone who hardly took MC for the past 3 years or so, today is the 3rd day of sick leave I've taken in this year alone (the other 2 days were in Feb when I was plagued by a very bad cough).

Haha I wonder what happened to my immune system? Is this a sign of the body growing old? :(

Or maybe in the past I didn't quite like to take MC even if I was sick. Dunno last time so geng for what. Not as if we get extra money for going to work every day. Hahahaha. :p


Anyway it was just a mild flu and a slight cough. Nothing too serious. For a while I was worried that my cough would develop into that allergic cough since the haze is back and all (I don't want to spend $100 buying an inhaler again!) but the doc prescribed some wonder steroid and it cleared within a day. So it was pretty nice to stay home today since I wasn't exactly bedridden. Ahaha.

And it was a rainy and cooling day, perfect weather for bumming around at home. Except that I didn't exactly bum around, but did some baking (again). Now baking is like my default activity whenever I'm home on weekends! It's a pretty costly and not to mention FATTENING hobby come to think of it. :x I completed my yearly health checkup recently and gained some weight. Bah! :(

Anyhoooo for some reason I baked a lot in August. Was baking something almost every weekend! Gosh. No wonder I gained weight. This also means another thing. I need more friends! :( I need to go out and do more exciting things! See Saint now that you have left for the States I am bored at home with nothing to do except to bake! :(

Hahaha guilt trip much? Never mind Saint, if you read this it's OK, study hard and get that golden goose, I will entertain myself with my bakes and send you photos of yummy treats and you can feast on them with your eyes LOL.

Erm ok back to what I baked. The last time I mentioned on my blog that I wanted to bake egg tarts, and bake them I did! :) They turned out wonderful - warm and fragrant with smooth custard that melts in your mouth. Tastes best when fresh out of the oven! My mom was extremely impressed with my newfound baking prowess and kept raving about it. Even -I- was pretty impressed by myself and how pretty they turned out LOL :D

 

You'd think egg tarts are difficult to make - it wasn't! It was surprisingly easy to bake them

 

I baked them in 2 sizes - mini and normal. Don't they look like pretty sunflowers? :)

很好吃!

I followed this recipe from Baking on Cloud 9 :)

Some people have asked me to try the Portuguese version or the flaky crust version... I saw the recipe for the flaky crust version before and it looks super complicated and it calls for quite a fair bit of ingredients. I think I'll save that more adventurous outing for perhaps, a long long time later.

Over the National Day weekend my parents were away and I attempted another tart - Blueberry Cheese Tarts. I think the recipe was also from Baking on Cloud 9 - I usually read up on a few recipes and have a lot of tabs open before deciding on one or perhaps a combination of a few.

 

This was from the first batch - looks paler but at least the blueberry didn't "run" all over the place

This second batch looks like a blueberry explosion just hapened LOL

Blueberry Cheese Tart

I like cheesecake but sometimes it can be quite gelat. I've been wanting to bake this lighter version of cheese cake sticks for a very long time ever since I saw the recipe on Hearty Bakes. So I baked them on the same day as I did the blueberry cheese tarts.

 

I had to bake this in a water bath, and thanks to my baking tin which has a removable base, half the bottom of the cake became wet -___-

 

 

Still, I think it turned out pretty OK, with a lemony twang (was too generous with the lemon juice). I think it could have been fluffier though.

Tiramisu was also one of the to-bake things on my list and sometimes when I'm bored at work, I'll surf for recipes (shhhhhhhhh). There are sooooo many recipes out there, sometimes it's really time consuming just checking out recipes coz I keep clicking on whatever looks yummy or interesting.
I also like to keep using up ingredients that I already have so that they won't take up more space in the fridge/containers, and had a big bag of matcha powder left from the matcha macarons I made the last time, so a Matcha Tiramisu it is!

 

 Unfortunately this didn't turn out well. I didn't know when to stop whisking the whipping cream and overwhisked it. Recipe called for stiff peaks but I didn't use non-dairy whipping cream like she did, and I later read up on it and realized that there's a chance of over beating dairy whipping cream and it will turn lumpy. Which is exactly what happened to mine!!!! :( As a result the cheese mixture didn't quite double in volume and the cheese layers were very thin.

 

 Layering sponge fingers soaked in green tea syrup over the marcaspone cheese mixture

 

 

 See the lumpy texture? Heard from my mom that my dad thinks it's not too bad, but I attribute it to him not having tried tiramisu before so he has no basis for comparison haha. One of my lunch kaki was more blunt - she said this was the worst item that I have ever made so far. Evidently she has not tried my rock hard muffins before ahahaha.

This Earl Grey Salted Caramel Macarons was also one of those recipes that I wanted to try for the longest time but I always lacked that elusive ingredient - Fleur de sel. That's French for flower of salt or something, to me it's just atas sea salt. But from what I read, it really makes a difference to the taste of the salted caramel. I finally hunted it down at Carrefour (which is closing down! boo) so I could finally get started on this!

The earl grey was really fragrant, and I like the grey shells littered with specks of tea leaves. Unfortunately my macarons always turn out brown after baking and it ruins the original colour! :(

 

Though the macarons lost their grey colour, they it still tasted great! Earl grey and salted caramel is really quite a fantastic combination. The filling consisted of caramel in the middle and salted caramel cream cheese around it to balance out the sweetness. I would imagine one taking a delicate bite of the macaron and then sipping a hot cup of earl grey tea... ahhh... utter decadence.

The macarons with a tinge of green - those are not mould, nor algae, nor did they mutate, but rather I was trying to create the rainbow effect as seen here.

My experiment obviously failed. I couldn't get the colours to stay on the piping bag because I think liquid colouring doesn't work for this method. I need to get some gel colours before I can try it again. The thing is, macaron making is sooooo time consuming!!! :( The part I dislike most is when I have to sift the almond flour and icing sugar. It takes ages!!! The thought of sifting is enough to put me off making macarons for the next 3 months or so.

Speaking of caramel, this has gotta be the trickiest thing I've made! Maybe I didn't do enough research, but I burnt 2 batches before finally attaining the perfect caramel sauce on the 3rd try. :x

For my first try, I stirred the sugar in the pot while waiting for it to caramelize. Wrong move, because all these crystals starting forming on the side of the pot and the whole thing just became one big brown sugar lump. Bleah.

Very unappetizing photo of the clump of sugar in the dustbin

For the second try, I didn't stir the mixture but I didn't realize that the caramel was so hot that the heat would keep it boiling if I didn't dump in the cream mixture immediately after taking it off the heat. The caramel became chao tah (there was really a chao tah smell in the kitchen) and when it cooled, it hardened into a black rock. :x

 

 The black mess in the pot

Finally got it right on the third time, and it yielded this thick, delicious sauce:

Finally, the desired consistency!!!

The salted caramel sauce is actually pretty good on its own! I used half of it for a salted caramel cream cheese frosting and the other half to pipe onto the macarons.

I still had a fair bit of frosting and caramel left over, and what other better way to finish up frosting than to use it to frost cupcakes? Presenting Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes! One of the best combinations ever. Ahhhh... can life can any more decadent than this?

Aren't they pretty? :) I can't resist eating them nom nom noms :D I don't usually eat a lot of the stuff that I bake but I think I ate like 3 or 4 of this by myself :x

 

Each cupcake comes with a caramel filled centre! Wah I really spend a lot of time trying making a hole in the capcakes using a knife... I need to get one of those cupcake corers in future.

And those silver decorative balls, I foolishly bought them at Cold Storage without checking the price and they cost like $9 for a tube!!! I subsequently realized I can get them at Phoon Huat for $1++!!! Feel so cheated now.

My mom also came back from Vietnam with a bottle of Kahlua and I wanted to try my hand at Tiramisu again - must get it right this time round!

Instead of Matcha, I decided to just stick to the traditional coffee/cocoa powder combination. I use eggless recipes because I'm a little icky about eating raw egg yolks. 

I found this eggless recipe from Noobcook. Tiramisu is actually an easy dessert to prepare!

Here goes!

I also halved the ladyfingers because I thought the ladyfingers sponges were too thick when I last made the Matcha Tiramisu.

 

Layering the ladyfinger sponges over the mascarpone cheese layer

With a dusting of cocoa powder

At least I got the texture right this time round

Unfortunately my family doesn't quite appreciate the more "angmoh" type of desserts so it has been rotting in the fridge for a while now. To date I still have a small piece left in the fridge and it has been more than a week since I made it!!!

Just last week I was browsing through Mad's Itchysole blog and saw a Nutella Swiss Roll that she made. And so I decided to bake a swiss roll on a whim last weekend! I followed Happy Home Baking's Nutella Swiss Roll recipe.

Unfortunately a few things went wrong - 

1) Tray used was not of ideal dimensions. I used an aluminium square tray when I should have used a rectangular tray so that it would be easier to roll the cake up.

2) Because the tray was too small, the sponge cake was too thick to roll. I tried to half it but didn't do a good job (I need to get a cake leveller!!!) resulting in uneven sponge cake layers.

  

The sponge cake layer

 

Cake cracked when I tried to roll it because it was too thin (and too short)

 

Never judge a cake by its looks! It still tastes pretty good - I guess you can never go too wrong with Nutella!

And lastly, my most recent baking experiment today!

Yeah I know this blog entry has been extremely long winded. Haha.

I had leftover blueberries from the blueberry cheese tart bake and I think they were overripe and probably going to go mouldy or something. Better use them before they spoil. But I only had 50g left and what can I do with 50g of blueberries?!

Finally found a recipe that I thought could work with a puny amount of blueberries. Blueberry Yoghurt Muffins!!! It seemed simple enough and the best thing is, I don't need the stand mixer (so troublesome to lug it in and out of the storeroom each time) and I only have to use one mixing bowl so that means I don't have to do so much washing up! I like baking and mixing things and eating them but I don't like washing up. Washing oily mixing bowls and utensils and stuff especially is such a chore!!! :x

Due to the lack of ingredients (in this case, I was limited by the blueberries), I halved the recipe and it yielded a very small batch - only 4 regular sized muffins. I know, seems pretty silly to go through so much trouble just to get 4 muffins right? Haha.

 

Still, the results were satisfactory. Moist muffins literally bursting with blueberries. I suppose they were really overripe and exploded in the baking process hurhur. 

Since the oven was already turned on and the 4 muffins look quite lonely, might as well bake some more. Settled on Nutella Stuffed Cinnamon Sugar Muffins since I had all the ingredients at home.

Glob of nutella

The muffins rose spectacularly! I might have been too generous with the batter for each muffin since the recipe only made 7 regular-sized muffins.

 

The final product, with a dusting of cinnamon sugar on top!

 

The 2 muffins I baked today

 

 

With a Nutella centre!

What a super long post. Wah come to think of it I baked so much in a month! I wanted catch up on a few episodes of Shinhwa Broadcast today but now there is no more time! Bah! I think I should try and update my baking adventures more regularly in future. It is now time to sleep! I have no MC for tomorrow!

On the 350th day of 2011 my true love gave to me....

AN EPIC FALL WHILE CYCLING IN PULAU UBIN!!!!

Do not ever go cycling in Pulau Ubin. It's DANGEROUS. TREACHEROUS. And not to mention it's damn tiring coz of all the rocky paths and uphill roads.
And if you die die must go, I have nothing to say except good luck. LOL! Nah, but please go slowly when you go downhill! Don't be geh kiang like me and whizz down only to lose control of the bike. Yes I know, having the breeze blowing in your face is quite shiok, but losing half of your toenails is not shiok at all!!! :x

I fell at the slope going down while exiting Chek Jawa. There's a big quarry there, and according to the policemen who cleaned my wounds, that is a very accident prone spot. SO YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!! Thankfully a resort van passed by the spot where I had my accident and I hitched a ride back to the ferry terminal instead of walking all the way.

I herewith attach some photos for your viewing pleasure. I think 90% of the people who read my blog (which consists of a grand total of maybe 5 readers) are also on Twitter, so perhaps you have already seen them.

Here you go! All in its disgusting glory!!!


This was taken after the blood kind of dried, but before I sought medical attention. My toes were dripping blood when I fell. Literally dripping blood. The earth in Pulau Ubin is stained with my blood!!!


The next day after the fall, trying to keep my toes dry while bathing. Btw, food wrap doesn't really work that well in keeping things waterproof. Just so you know.


Taken last night, before my mom cleaned the yellow stuff on my right knee away. My left knee as you can see, is doing pretty well. Just a minor abrasion.


Woohoo! Disgusting!
I've not managed to take photos of the wound on my elbow but rest assured that it looks more or less the same as the above. I've also removed the bandage on my toes after keeping it on for 2 days and assessed the damage. Half the nail on my 2nd and 4th toes dropped off, but at least I still have half a toenail left! It doesn't sound as painful as described, really. My toes are relatively pain free, compared to my knees, which are still pretty sore.

The sad thing is that I probably won't have a nice pedicure for CNY! Haha bimbo much.

I've got more stuff to blog about besides my big fall but I shall save all these for another day! It's the last work week of the year (MANY HAPPY CHEEEEEEEERSSSSS!!! :D) and I have a week-long (forced) break next week! Gonna catch up on allll my backlog and update my one-photo-a-day blog.

Oh and I fixed the GIF image of my baking conquests! Scroll down to look! :)

I can feel the strain in my abs. Is it due to pilates, or the incessant coughing?

What! Is my flooble dead again?

Boring week, besides the fact that I've been coughing my lungs out and am on MC today.

First they implemented no-pay leave and off days, and then now they decide to reinstate our pay for the month of November! Which means... NO OFF DAYS IN NOVEMBER.
Wah I was really sian when I heard the news.
I was really looking forward to the next long weekend!!!
Now you tell me that you're taking that away?!

4 more weeks to the next long weekend (which is the Hari Raya Haji PH). 4 long, agonizing weeks! The countdown starts now...

Sick today. Might be some gastric flu thing. Rawrr feels quite horrible.
I will try and sleep early on a Saturday night for once.

Unwillingly back after a very hectic 7 days in Japan. It feels really good to toss all other matters aside and have fun in a foreign country! Felt like I was a vagabond, my job never existed, and my life carefree!

Unfortunately it's now back to reality where I have a job waiting for me :( and the daily humdrum of life awaits. Sigh. I'm down with a fever and a sorethroat too and am monitoring the situation... let's hope it doesn't blow into something more sinister (i.e. H1N1).

Meanwhile I have a ton of laundry to iron after it dries... and I need to give my poor legs some much needed rest after our very xiong itinerary - which resulted in tired, aching and blistered feet. :x Good thing I took leave tomorrow!!!

Oh, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways...

1. You are almost never on time.
2. You made me wait for half an hour for you to come.
3. You caused me to be unable to sleep well.
4. You literally make me want to puke with your jerky movements.
5. You make me late! For work.
6. You are full of annoying oddities who refuse to move to the back.

Yes, I am hating public buses these days. :\

Speaking of annoying oddities, there was this Prick wearing a "I <3 HC" t-shirt on the bus I was on today. As usual, the bus was so crowded that when I boarded, I was smashed right the door, practicing my best "how to flatten self" gongfu. Said Prick, for some inane reason, thinks that the driver's console is a good area for him to lean on. And so he and his equally pricky friend just happily stood there throughout, obstructing considerate citizens like myself from moving further into the crowded bus full of smelly school kids and tired people. Wahlao. You stand there other people don't need to board the bus liao lor. I had no wish to clamber over his smelly self so all I can do was to wish that my churning stomach had more indigested food... then I can gladly spew a trajectory of puke in his direction.

And speaking of churning stomachs, I have been feeling really bloated and queasy for the past couple of days. Made no better thanks to long-suffering bus rides and stupid traffic jams (I got stuck in one this morning just when I was ONE freaking bus stop away from my destination). My usually strong and hardy gastrointestinal system is definitely not functioning at optimal level. I need to burp and puke. :\

I slipped and fell on my way out of the bathroom too. Gah. Good thing I'm not 30 years older with brittle bones. I think I need to start taking one of those multivitamin things. I used to take those up till Sec school or JC, dunno why I stopped after that.

Anyway there's a 10 million Toto thing this Friday, I'm going to sound my colleagues out and hopefully we can strike the 10 mil... 1 million also good lah. I am not fussy. Heh.

*BURP*

This is somewhat mortifying, but the eagle-eyed may be able to spot yours truly in a brief appearance in one of TV trailers...

We were innocent passers-by who got pulled in to be calefares! And this resulted in my 3-second claim to fame. LOL. I myself didn't manage to catch it on TV at all but my fellow-colleague/calefare ripped it for me. HAHA MORTIFYING.

Anyway, took MC for the first time in what seemed like eons... I can't even remember the last time I took MC. I actually went to work this morning but left in the afternoon. Been under the weather recently, not sure if it's a culmination of events - like the "Scream My Voice Hoarse K-Pop Concert", "Scream My Voice Hoarse KTV Session", or "Everyone Around Me Coughing And Spreading Germs And Falling Sick", but whatever, I shall nua and enjoy my sick leave tomorrow!

Parents and little sis went to Genting, so there's no one around to disturb me! Shiok! :)

Just an update to state that I am still alive and thriving. I sat through 8 episodes of Grey's Anatomy today and I'm suffering from some Grey's fatigue right now, so I figured that there's no better time to blog. Hahaha.

Recently I've got this big oozing pimple growing on my right hip. It was a big, bad pimple which hurt and made the whole area swell. Maybe pimple is putting it too mildly. It's more like an angry, inflamed boil. Don't know what it is about my body but it's like a pimple/boil/cyst/keloid attracting magnet. All these annoying pimples are making very regular appearances of late, and it's leaving all these ugly red scars all over my body.

So anyway I went to see the doc about it and also got an update about the lump under my arm. Saw the doc about the lump 2 weeks ago and went on a course of antibiotics but it's still there. The lump's a harmless, non-cancerous one so I'm not going to bother too much about it, though I could go have it removed if I wanted to. So now I'm on another round of antibiotics for the hip-pimple. I guess I'm just one of those unfortunate people who are prone to these random growths. It's not really life-threatening but it sure is not aesthetically pleasing. I mean, who doesn't want to have nice smooth skin?

Haha I remember blogging about my keloid episode long ago. Gosh, it's been 3 years since then! Has it been so long?! The keloids are still there, dammit.

And since I am having a Moment here complaining about my dysfunctional body, can I also state that I hate my oily face. My oil glands are probably the Middle East equivalent of oil production in face-oil-land.

Sigh. Don't we all hate our bodies in some way or another. The Too Skinnys will want to be fatter, the Too Fats will want to be skinny, the Just Rights will still hate their hair or eyes or nose or short legs etc etc...

Half the weekend is over. :( I was telling Fresh From France Angie and Fresh From Interview Gillian about my great love for Friday evenings - 6pm on Friday to be specific. But in other news, I AM TAKING LEAVE NEXT FRIDAY! On a very auspicious date - Friday the 13th! My first time taking leave! Super looking forward to it. It's going to be my motivation from Monday through Thursday. :) :) :)

Need some KTV. I've had 5 months of non-KTV days! WOW.

I'm watching both Sex and the City and 公主小妹 concurrently. That's what taking up the bulk of my nights... watching tudou.

Allow me to say that 公主小妹's plot is just plain ludicrous. Okay, granted that it's frivolous and whimsical because it's a romantic fantasy kind of show, but the acting is horrible and the logic behind their actions is really incomprehensible. Plus I really cannot stand the 彩 guy and his acting. So why am I still watching it?! Haha. I don't know either. It looked interesting enough for the first few parts that I watched but then it got progressively sillier. But I am still at episode 5 so hopefully it'll redeem itself later on!

My cough is back and it's kind of sian. Last night I had a bad sorethroat and my ear hurt whenever I swallow. I hope I recover before CNY so that I can eat all the CNY goodies.

Coughing my lungs out :( And the cough medicine makes my heart palpitate and I feel jittery all over. Feels like a caffeine overdose.

Krispy Kremes from the HK airport!


Sugar overload
And I should have bought more of those walnut cookies... not enough to go around!!!

Cake and macaron from Bakerzin.
The white chocolate slices have a distinct garlic taste. YUCKS! Garlic white choc? Disgusting. I hate garlic.
And the lemon macaron has a chicken rice aftertaste. Seriously. I am not imagining it.
The choc cake and choc macaron tastes alright. Shows that you can't go wrong with chocolate.

The weather's rather chilly nowadays since it keeps raining, and my immune system seems to let down its defenses. My throat feels a little sore and I keep sneezing = lots of mucus. Now is definitely not the best time to catch a virus. Hopefully it wouldn't worsen.

Off to HK in another few hours! :)

Am bloated. Don't feel too good. 上吐下泻也发烧.

Ate pathetically little today. Could feel all the acid churning in my stomach.

Even more unsure about teaching after reading today's ST Insight section. Lagi stress man.

Ding dong I swing back and forth again.

Cough cough cough cough... COUGH COUGH COUGH wheeze clears throat cough cough cough feels itch in throat cough cough COUGH cough cough muffled cough breathe breathe breathe COUGH COUGH COUGH COUGH cough feels terrible cough cough wheeze and itch in throat doesn't go away cough COUGH COUGH cough again...

That's pretty much how I sound like these days. I want to rip out my throat already! Garh!

The mucus is gone now and my nose is clear but I get stuck with a cough that makes me want to rip out my gullet/windpipe/whatever-that-is and pump out all the annoying bits and pieces that is the cause of this non-stop coughing.

Thing is I think there's some phlegm stuck somewhere, but I can't cough it out and whenever I feel like the phlegm's dislodging itself, I make a horrible retching nosie and my food threatens to come up too. Rawrrrrrr.

The other day I was thinking about whether or not I made the right choice in going into FASS instead of just sticking with my first choice (which was SoC) because my computing module is easy peasy lemon squeazy. For once! I actually understood what the hell was going on. And I felt good about understanding too. Finally some self-worth going on for me.

My little sister is screaming in her sleep again. Sigh. When is she ever going to grow out of this very noisy habit?!

Closure. This is a very important word, this is. I want to give myself a peaceful mind after so long.