Got my package!

i got my small package from my sister! The good gal sent me Xenical and also a book to record my food intake vs exercise!! Damn. She is really making it obvious that I am damn fat fat now. I get heart attack knowing how expensive the postage is. It is crazy! SGD 30 for that small pack of stuff! Singpost is definitely charging too much! It is even much more expensive than UK's delivery fees. No wonder people tell me it is impossible to do international e-bay business there. £10 for that small packet is nuts.

The past few days have been busy. This nu cai just try to be a good nu cai as possible. Do my work, that is it. Pretty heck care about every other thing. I left early on Monday because we were rewarded for the extra hours of work we put in, but have been working late in the past few days. I am trying hard to work smart here. Sigh. sigh.

I will be meeting ET this Friday but still no idea of where to take here! Totally have not time to research about where to play. Lets hope that the car would behave itself.

Today we talked about the 5p bridge, and we had so much fun talking about it. It cost a car 5 p to cross this beautiful bridge, but the queue is so long that people sometimes are tempted to tell them to take a pound and spare the next 20 cars. http://www.eynsham.org/tollbridge.html
It is supposedly a beautiful place.

Got to call home tomorrow, cos on saturday and sunday I will be out.. playing.

Aging

Nope, i did not go for the kill today. Plans shelved. Too tired/lazy to get up.

Thrills
Even when hubby said "horse!! There are horses going pass!", I only managed a "really??". It took some excitement of his part to get me stir from my cozy bed and decide to grab the camera and take some photos-but it as too late. The horses went pass already.

My sister is gonna send me some foundation!! Woo hooo. After 2 months of appearing orang-y or brownish faced, I now can look normal again. Thank goodness that IPSA is created. Thank goodness that I wished for a sister (my mum thinks that it was my fault that the baby in a tummy turn out to be a gal, when she wanted a son!! I was chanting I want a sister, i want a sister. She must have thought I am a Harry Porter or something). My brother will never understand why I can only use THAT foundation, and wont be convinced by my orange-ed face story to pity me and fork out SGD30 to post me those stuff.

Worries
Just found out that my dad was admitted to the hospital again. I wish I am nearer, so that I could play around with my diary and head home.

It is "dizziness" again. Mum still doesn't understand that it means a possible/LIKELY TIA-transient Ischaemic Attack - a jargon that is used to prevent the patient from going into further shock hearing doctors talking about his stroke. She still treat it as the usual dizziness that we gals have, and almost get used to dad's hospital episodes. Worries me like hell.

His blood pressure was 150mmHg during admission, but mum chose to focus on the fact that it became 120mmHg again the following morning. :P This worries me. It really worries me.

I feel like flying home now and play the role of the irritating all knowing control freak daughter/ta jie role. Count his tablets, query his medication taking habits, check the booklet where he is suppose to record his bp levels, ie essentially threaten to place him under "close surveillance" blah blah blah.

That is my unique role at home. He will not answer my mum's naggings, but with his daughters, he softens. My sister would play the reconciliatory role, pleading him, or joking with him so that he takes his medicine on time-she can't be irritating like me. I am the hard one, she is the soft one. When we attack together, my dad is quite defenseless. Heheheheh

So, when will I go home again? I am aging. My parents are aging.

To go for the kill or not go for the KILL (offer-lah!)

Damn! I am regretting when i am supposed to be gloating of my purchases!

I went to boots, used a £5 voucher, and bought 2 N7 lip and eye suncare. Each of them costs £5.50, but since there is a "buy 1 get 1 free" offer (BOGOF) going on, I paid 50p! 50p for something with a value of £11! I did think of trying the buy 6 get 1 free thingy, but I was just too scared. Chickened out!!! &^%*^%&^~# whack whack........

And I was walking on sunshine blah blah blah.... until I realised so many other people did the buy 6 get 1 free thing, and they also used other vouchers blah blah blah! Hmmmm.. now I feel silly-loser!!! I could have grabbed another 4 pieces and paid the same amount 50p (the cost of a pee in some touristy London areas).

You see BOOT;s have this "glitch" or "sale" going on for some weeks already. One of their brands offer buy 2 get 1 free. And the suncare within the brand gets a buy 1 free 1 special offer. Somehow, both promotional codes goes trough the system, and taadaaa.. people walk away with paying next to nothing!

Shall I try?? 6 for 1!! For the thrill of it! For the fact that I will pay something like £3-5 (after a £5 voucher) and easily get £40-$60 worth of products!!! And N7 stuff are one of those rare things which will not irritate my skin and on the slightly expensive side. Shall I?? I still have a £5 voucher with me, and 2 pieces of £3 voucher for hair stuff!

Whatever, I will go back again to get more Botanics stuff. Got to use up my 100 Advantage points, and got to get another free tub of moisturizer. I got 2 tubs so far. I for buying cleansing wipes, and another for buying hair dye. Hmmmmm

God give me courage...................please. Shall I try???? Awww The feeling is horrible. I am whacking myself for not daring to try a good offer, and get I got no guts/feel damn guilty-as if stealing if I do!!

Dilemma!!!!!

Err... Can I do it, and then run to any church/temple to confess??

My blueberry muffins...

...are damn good.

I will never buy from Starbucks and company again. For less than £2, I got really yummy muffins!! Hubby took 2 photos of them, and I shall upload it later.

Baking in my oven...........Blueberry muffins!!

New life mantra- "can cook= can roam"

I am supposed to be try baking some egg tarts, but ended up doing blueberry muffins because........

• I cut my thumb-again. 2nd time in 1 month :( - may be i should get a feng shui master and check out the reason for this "loss of blood".
  

• I need a good egg tart recipe....most of the recipes i see look very Western-is not my kind. I get angry/irritated when I eat ang moh egg tarts-I dont know why. I just get angry with people adulterating good food generally, but I know I am being unfair this time. It is the Hongkies adapting the egg tarts probably, but they did such a good job that I wonder why people still egg those "egg custard" versions. Ewwwwwww I remember buying those when I really cant take it, and ended up totally pissed off. I want egg tart. i want egg tart. Everyone is laughing at my msn nick, but I want egg tarts!!! And only the version with crispy, flaky crust will do!! I dont like those with "butter shortbread" crusts!!
  

Until i get my egg tart recipe... the muffins will have to do. Gonna ask my mum for kaya recipe tomorrow. Sigh.....

Blue berry muffins..........

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour-190g
• 3/4 cup white sugar (150gm)-1/2 cup will do!
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• *1/3 cup vegetable oil(80ml)-tried 70ml. It is ok. next time try 60ml
  
• *1/3 cup milk-(80ml)-tried 90ml --- top up these 2 to 160ml
  
• 1egg
  
• 1 cup fresh/frozen blueberries
• pinch of cinnamon powder
  

For the topping

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• Some broken, left over cereal/muesli crumbs
  

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

NUTRITION INFORMATION

Servings Per Recipe: 8

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 383

• Total Fat: 16.1g
• Cholesterol: 43mg
• Sodium: 341mg
• Total Carbs: 56.9g
• Dietary Fiber: 1.5g
• Protein: 4.3g

using 1/2 pack of the frozen blueberries I bought :) Hope it turn out ok. Will try this recipe next time, because the milk to oil ratio is much higher!!

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C). Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.
2. In a large bowl, stir together milk, egg, and oil. Add flour, baking powder, sugar, and blueberries; gently mix the batter with only a few strokes. Spoon batter into cups.
3. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Servings Per Recipe: 12

Amount Per Serving

Calories: 182

• Total Fat: 7.1g
• Cholesterol: 19mg
• Sodium: 98mg
• Total Carbs: 26.3g
• Dietary Fiber: 0.7g
• Protein: 3.4g

Sorry.. photos missing!

For some reasons, the snow photos are not showing up.

Now I am seriously thinking of abandoning this blog! Loading good quality photos is a pain!

Wanted to blog about my BOOTS sweep, but my mood is totally spoiled now.

LONDON SNOWED!!!!!

And guess what, my bones told me that!

I woke up at 5 plus am, with my bones aching all over. I felt DAMN!!! It is acting up again. But then I realised, it is that type of feeling when it snowed last year.

Believed me or not, I actually got myself out of the bed, go the the window, and pull up the blind.

Taaaa daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Since I slept at 2+ am, could not believe my eyes! I saw things flying past the street lights. And Blink blink.. rub rub eyes.. gosh! The houses in front are covered with something, the trees look fat.. and wait a minute! It is SNOWING!!!! And I yelled to hubby

"It is snowing. It is snowing!!!"

Of course he thought I was pulling his leg, until he saw me pulling out the camera. heheYeah, that is the street light which alerted me of things "flying past"..." I was so tempted to go out, but gave up the idea as I was dead tired.

After a few snaps.. off I went back to bed. I was just hoping that snow would still be there.

The moment I woke up this morning, I rushed to the window and had a very pleasant surprise!!!I was like.. the reward of not living in central LONDON!!! Woah ahahaha. Another photo from my window.....

And these are taken on my way to work.Walking in snow and slush is not fun. Lots of efforts just to ensure I dont slip and fall. So tiring.


And because someone had time to kill.. he went to take photos in the canals nearby.UNFAIR!!!These are my favourites..................love the reflections on the water...

And hubby says it is gonna snow tonight. BBC says"

Wednesday 24 January WEATHER WARNING Ice will be a widespread problem tonight and through Thursday morning's rush hour across much of central and north-eastern England. Valid until 1000GMT.
Wednesday 24 January WEATHER WARNING Heavy snow showers are expected to affect parts of Kent and East Sussex this evening and overnight. By Thursday morning's rush hour there could be a covering of 5-10cms of snow in a few places. Some travel disruption is possible Valid until 1000GMT. "

Sure or not? Anyway, my bones have not detected it yet! But to play safe, i shall sleep early!!! Woahhahahah. I suddenly love london again.

Pork ribs in cold day...

Today I made BBQ pork ribs.

Yummy. Finished portions meant for 2 days in 1 day.

Standard?? Still not up to standard like my aunt's, but I think I will soon overtake many takeaway restaurants :) I still lack 1 orange, 2 spring onions and some aniseed to make mine perfect. Anyway, BBQ ribs in a cold winter day is super super comfort food.

Hubby aka as the joker will depend on me for happiness..... I shall not be trifled with. Nasi lemak, BBQ ribs, curry, BBQ chicken wings... etc etc..

Today is damn cold but no snow. Walking 30-40 minutes in subfreezing temperature cause your blood flow to get haywire and I get giddy when I walk into a warm building. No joke. I forgot the science and explanation of it, but I can confirm that i am a wimp.

The joker goes shopping again......................

someone wants to buy another gadget thing........
Kingston Technology 1GB Elite Pro Secure Digital (SD) Card 50x
for 7.41 quid, it is a good buy.

He is also getting this mouse..............

I wonder if he would add this cool Kingston Technology 2GB USB 2.0 Flash Pen Drive
into his shopping basket, considering he had yummy home cooked nasi lemak yesterday, and char siu pork ribs are being marinated. It is less than £14, and comes with a free delivery for purchases of > £15

If the wife is worried about not able to cram her things into her flash drive... pork ribs may get burned.

There are certain things that maybe people will not do... like offending a person who could cook you nasi lemak in London.

snow, sleet, and a profound code.............

This means SLEET.. and the bottom means SNOW!!
The weather prediction says SLEET, but I am hoping mad that it would snow!! After all I moved out of the darned central London atmosphere where all snow turn to sleet, thanks to the heating and pollution!! Last year, it sleeted when it was supposed to have rained, and it snowed when it was supposed to be sleeting.

It is supposed to be sleeting from about 7-9am tomorrow, and I will be a good gal, sleep early, and be ready to catch the snow/sleet. Sleet is still fun, there is something fun about ice raining on you and then melt.... ahhhh..

Why cant they have a snow storm and announce the closure of school/businesses? I got good supply of hot chocolate. It better snow and sleet as much as needed, cos when ET comes, we need to go out to play.

Today, the bitter cold chilled my brains to think....

nu cai jiu shi nu cai. zai na li dou shi nu cai. bu ru zai ge leng qing de hou gong li, bei yi ge bian tai (qi shi hao ke lian) de tai jian qi fu, hao guo cao zhe yao huan xin zhu zi. Xin zhu zi de gong li ke neng hui you geng duo bian tai de tai jian, mei tian dou zai zheng feng chi chu....... and OMG, what it some of them are jia tai jian???? Da dao ni shi wo huo....Bu shi geng ke pa ma?? Wo zi shi qiu you yi xie jian jian dan dan, ping ping an an, kuai kuai le le de ri zi, bu xiang gen ta men xua zhe me duo hua zao.

Hahaha.. with all the broken han yu pin yin, whoever can decode what I wrote is definitely my good friend. Hahaha

Yeah, it was so cold that I felt dizzy when I reached the office this morning. No kidding. It was damn cold!!!

I wish I have................

Isn't it cool?? It is a can opener.

Kenwood CO606 Chrome Can Opener 40W

• 40 Watts
• Soft-touch rubber handle grip for increased comfort
• Lid retaining magnet for safe disposal of lid
• Full feature table top can opener opens all shapes from small and standard domestic cans to large 1.2kg cans
• Automatic start/stop, hands free action means the blade starts cutting with a light push of the lever and stops when the lid is removed
• Removable blade allows for easy cleaning and ensures hygienic operation
• Non-slip feet keep the opener securely in position for extra stability and safety
• Cord storage prevents trailing flex on the work top
• Integral knife sharpener
• Built in bottle opener

Can you get any more lazy than that??

Blue and white................

Do these look familiar???

Introducing.........Happy!!!

Of all my doggies, she is my favorite. I think that she is good natured. By sister thinks she is stupid.

We call her Happy, as she is always "smiling" and wagging her tail-that is why her photos usually have the tail part blurred. She is also the one to always give in, or get bullied by her "sisters". When Kopi (don't know why she responds to that but not to "Brownie" or any other nicer names! She will also not respond to any more high class sounding ones like "coffee"! Onl KOPI will do) & Honey are lazing around and sleeping, Happy is the one who would be keeping watch. Lazy as she is, she would still do her job, whether we are in the living room or not. The other two would skive, and when my dad comes out and ask them what are they doing, they will run to the gate and pretend to bark at passer-bys. As soon as my dad goes back into the house, Kopi and Honey will go back to their favourite spots and snooze.

By the way, Happy is racist, like the rest of my dogs :). She is annoyingly friendly, and likes most people-will lick them, and wag her tail like crazy.

Happy is no angel. She also loves to sleep and eat! The lazy pig became so overweight that we had to put her on a diet!!! If you scold her too much (for eg. the incessant nagging from my mum!), she would "talk back" after being apologetic for a while. Yeah. She would first admit her mistake by wagging her tail, and give you the "I am sorry" look. But if you keep on scolding, she would make noise!

I tend to humanize my dogs, because I know dogs are more human than human. We these 3 little devils, my family members almost became dog behaviorists. I know that there are skivers around too! Honey, the 1/2 sized "baby", always get the best treatment from everyone, just because she is so small! Just got to act fragile.... Does that sound familiar???

I miss my doggies!!!! Another price that a roam-er has to pay. Unless we are damn rich and afford all those blah blah blah.. the dogs cant follow me. Sigh. One day, I will have a nice place and keep my own doggies!!!

More baking and cooking!

Saturday is the day you spend $$$. I have been happily window shopping, and fishing for bargains. I went to try some Gap jeans and realized that they do live up to their expectations for the ability of their cuts to HUG you and make you look like you lost 2-5 kgs!

However, I will have to buy a size which I think is reserved for pigs. Shit. I can only fit into pig sized jeans now!!! No way I am going to buy anything like that and keep it in my house. Now I got to remind myself that I need a new pair of jeans, and I got to lose 2 sizes by CNY if I want a new pair of jeans. It got to be Gap this time. Aw...

At the end, as usual, no clothes, but bought stuff from Boots. It is difficult to resist buying when you spend £3 on cleanser and get £6 worth of moisturizer. And as I managed to spend £5 today, I got £8 worth of vouchers. I LOVE BOOTS!!

However, the problem is going to be difficult to solve as i just discovered a nice site for cooking and baking!! I bought some foren blueberries and want to make some muffins, some low fat ones. This nice little link from BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/get_cooking/main/index.shtml?section=6&id=../recipes/xml/057.xml
"Video recipes". haha. The profiteroles look easy enough to do. I would have "skipped" the whole thing if I "read" the recipe.

My kid sister is back from her meeting in China, and she is going there again in April! Darn. I have not even been to China. At the rate she is going, she is going to get enough miles to visit me soon.

Poor English

We watches as the wind uprooted the shed, and see it slowly crumbled and finally flattened.

What did I write?? Other than poor "style" & sentence construction, I had 2 major grammatical errors within one sentence! Miss Chang, my over worked primary 6 English teacher, would be vomiting blood if she sees this! And she thought she "saved" most of us! She did save me. I really have no idea when it all started to go down hill again. Shall I blame Word for it, or have I been trying to hard to sound "singlish" ? Darn. If i were to take my GCSE O-levels again, I think can only manage a C5 for English now.

Cant even spik and rite engrish porperli, how to talk French?

Message to hubby.....

I have a craving................. EGG TARTS!!!!

For CNY, I want to eat EGG TARTS!!!!


Well, last CNY, the two poor things (us-only had some HK "food" for "celebration"). This year will be a great improvement, cos we now have FRIENDS here!

But.. i still want to eat egg tart. If the craving is not satisfied, you risk having me buying a ticket to HK and get it from THAT shop!!! It is not my fault, ok. The landlord have not fixed the oven. I cannot even learn to make egg tarts here.

World class education!

Work is shit (BUT I am now convinced I am product of "world class" education system... haha....)

I got the ultimate proof that A**hole is really an "empty vessel". However, i also discovered how much my boss loves him. Gosh. That kind of mistake also she could let go, despite being shocked with what he did with the statistics. She tried to hide how shocked she was, and did not want to correct or ask him (at least in front of us?), to protect his ego?? When he said it is "the same" (yeah rite, he was so shocked when boss mentioned something, he seemed like he have not heard of it before!!!), despite looking unconvinced, she said he was probably right!

Perhaps i should have done the same with his classification-turn a blind eye of his classification of China in the same group of UK and US as "high income countries", and Singapore with Ethiopia as "low income" countries. What do I know? I did not graduate top of my class, and came from the "far east". Bloody idiot used GNP as an indicator of people's standards of living. Maybe he thought I was making life difficult for him, and just trying to get Singapore (and Hong Kong!) from being lumped together with India or Indonesia when he did the "Asia" and "Africa" thing yesterday. And today, I protested again when he classified these with Africa. or maybe he is trying to tell me something? huh? Playing Big Brother with me, is it?

For the "usual person", if you don't know what is GNP or GDP, it just means you don't " read" (or "study") the newspapers. But for a "consultant" like him who was a "top student", and working in this field, it "stunt" me- yeah that is the word, "stunt" me. Even a stupid non top of the class student like me knows!!! why???? Woo..... hoo...........I now know why I am product of "world class" education. [puke..... I wish they stop embarrassing everyone with the "world class" thing. My colleagues definitely don't think it is world class at all!!]

The "storm" .............

Today is all about the wind, the storm.

I went to work late, as I did not feel like walking 30 minutes in strong wind and rain. The wind was shockingly strong this morning, that I felt "pushed" back by it. I think that was probably the milder part of the morning. Once I arrived in the office, the wind just picked up.

From the office window, I got distracted with the sound of the wind and also the sound of the sheds in the allotments cracking. The nicest shed, the most posh of it all; white metal type, was blown off and flattened. No kidding. We watches as the wind uprooted the shed, and see it slowly crumbled and finally flattened. To our surprise, the wooden "poor" looking sheds which looked like they were put together with scraps of wood were alright! Sounds like something from the 3 little pig.

"suck-up" post

I had udon with miso soup tonight. Hubby was so SWEET. He bought the miso soup base when I complained that I regret not buying it on Saturday. I was suprised!! Cannot imagine him walking into a Japanese grocery shop and buy miso! Difficult to imagine him walking into any shops, unless it is to get his instant noodles.

Miso base + vege + udon + prawns + seaweed = simple healthy fare done under 5 minutes. Yumm.

(must praise praise, otherwise next time he wont do this again)

Just a plain day

Today I did 1 good thing:

post the link of the paris buy 1 free1 in a forum. The gals then can save some $$ in their europe tour??--> 1 brownie point to go to heaven

Today I also did 1 bad thing:

post the link of the paris buy 1 free1 in a forum. Oh no, they might compete with my friends for booking and take up all the spaces??? ---> one step nearer to be burnt in hell.

So, heaven or hell for me today?

Work was hell. All else deserves heaven.

I must I must decipher Eu's code:
"London is out of the question for me". That bad?? Eu the "adapter" found it tough. I need to pour her more sake and decode it!!!

Speaking of sake..........

Paris?? & dealing with a closet A...hole

I am feeling ill these few days. Flu coming?? Not much energy for anything, and yet as usual, got to play tai chi with the closet asshole.

As usual, the closet Asshole is delaying my time, with his usual tactics. I am used to these and cant be bothered if I get back stabbed again. I have given up fighting with him, because that adds lines to my face. If there is anything he is not happy about, he could go and tell the BOSS himself. If boss say can, I wont say cant. If boss dont know, I wont know too. If he, the Asshole doesn't know, why then I know? I am stupid, remember?

I am a "Tai Tai", remember?? I can sit a home and not work. Can he?? Of course he could- that is why he is an asshole, thinking that probably everyone else would need a job more than him, and therefore suffer in silence.

Anyway,that is the beauty of this place, relative cost of living is LOW!! You get by with small income, small expenditure. And since we are easily happy and contented people, forget about me fighting it out in the office. I don't need to!! I not happy---> I sit at home. That for me, is FREEDOM.

Like I observed in my last job, things at work could be really sad and perverted! Why?

Once you don't need to work, people don't go overboard when they bully you. They are worried that you might blow up, resign, and drag them down on your exit interview. Therefore you are dangerous, and they wont touch you. In contrast, the harder you work and try to keep your job despite all the shit, the more they think you are desperate for it and have a high threshold of shit.If you can withstand shit, they give you more shit. That is life. Sad?? That is a very important lesson in life. Tried telling my sister and brother, but not sure if they could "see" it.

Paris?? Good price. Thinking hard. But timing is really bad. No no unless I am quiting!

Brown show

You tube again. cos I am damn stressed!!!! But this guy made me laugh, hahahaha

順流逆流

The song with a soul. This song walked with me through my most difficult times in life.

typing with gloves on

I was caught "under-dressed". Got a shock of how cold it was when we came out the from the tube and waited for the bus. I just had my jacket, a think short sleeve T and an old "thermal" camisole. The weather prediction said Ten-ish. But we thought that should be at least 5-ish and it was only like 7 pm?? We were not alone. I saw other guys "hopping" around at the bus-stop too. I must always remind myself that where I live is at least 2-3C cooler than central london.

I am damn lousy. Only a bit of exposure to cold, and now I am wearing gloves and my fleece jacket at home. Still waiting for the house to totally warm out. I decided to give the heater a break, and had opened windows when we left since it is supposed to be a relatively warm day. Bad decision. Now the room is warm, but as I am typing near the walls and windows, I still feel the coldness radiating from the wall and window!

wah.. I think my fingers are more agile than I thought. I can type with my PINK gloves on. should have bought more of these 69p gloves. damn cheap and comfy. SO sad GOrdons is closing down. I managed to get another blouse at 4.99 (Dorothy perkins, with labels removed!!) and an armani exchange T-shirt for my sis. I know it is AX cos it is printed there. And I know it is DP, cos I bought the blouse during the sales for £10 (and I thought it was a bargain!!!). The difference?? one is pink. One is baby blue. I will miss Gordons.

I hope my sister is warm enough. Chengdu is cold now. And that gal is not prepared. She has no thermal undies. Hmm. And I think I love u tube, I can listen to those songs I listened to when i was a kid while typing. Sad. Anita mui died before i got a chance to see her concert.

似水流年

and 似是故人来



孤身走我... the theme song of a traveler??

life lessons

Cantonese songs are valuable lessons for life. They used to came out with really meaningful lyrics, which would grow with you. Grow with you, as the more days you spend on earth, the more you will understand and love them. Taught me so much about life!

Their fashion was a joke. What were they thinking??Sigh.Taught me stay away from any over the top stuff.


For my own entertainment, and a revision of life lessons:

And this is a song, I wish others will never truly have a chance to understand. If they will ever understand it, understand it when they are still young.






Yeah, I love old songs. Songs with a soul.

I miss my piano.

Machu picchu??? My heart sank..

My heart sank when I saw this picture. The official limit per porter is 25kg/person, as the load is weighted at the start.

25kg!!! It is not even 25 kg on a flat path! I believe that this will be the minimum as it seems there are many ways to load them more! Gosh!! Are we talking about humans or cows??

This photo is already making me so queasy. Will I be able to withstand actually seeing it happen? Will I be helping them when I go? Or will I contribute to more problems? Pay them well--> social instability when they earn much much more than anyone else. What will a simple man do when he suddenly has so much money? I shudder at the thought.

Pay them little-- exploitation exploitation!! Whether you pay more or less, I have no idea how they came up with 25 kg as the "law". That is still back breaking! I remember my 25 kg day hike. Flat road. After a few kilometers, the 1.5 litre plastic water bottle started to feel heavy. After a while, I was dying to finish drinking it to lighten the load, and yet did not dare because that means I would have no more water!

And can I trust those companies talking about porter welfare? Can I trust a company which say the main problem about bringing more food is the weight??

Weight or no weight, you got to eat means you got to eat. So what if you bring one more porter, just to carry the food? How does one more porter in the group determine profit or loss when they earn so little? Why don't they earn less profit and carry more food? 1 porter's pay is so little! Even poor me could afford to pay an extra porter all by myself, for 4 days!!

This is sick!!! And this info is supposedly from a company which has above average welfare! Argh.

This article, Inca Trail - Through the Eyes of a Porter is a nice account, but can we just take everything the porters say at face value?

Before I die, I MUST Trek Machu Picchu

The route is about 33km long, and we will reach a high point of 14,200 feet (4,200M). Our two nights acclimatisation in Cuzco should temper the effects of altitude. The path is not technically difficult, but sturdy boots, strong legs and good cardiovascular fitness are essential. Prepare well for this amazing challenge. Our porters will carry equipment; you will only need to carry a daypack

To take part in this exciting event, we require a non-refundable registration fee of £199 plus your commitment to raise a minimum of £2,750 in sponsorship. Full details are available upon application.

Learned from my colleagues that you can travel and make your dreams come true without putting in £££. But you got to put in the effort. No problem!! What is more meaningful than doing something for charity?? Action Medical Research is one which I support!

The link: http://www.action.org.uk/get_involved/trek_machu_picchu.php

How can I raise £2750!! And who wants to come with me or donate $$$??

Shit, suddenly I feel like doing something which I dont want to do-- pass a resolution to do one trek a year to ensure my bum stop getting bigger. Better not. If the almighty politicians who are so clever and smart never turn those "resolutions" into facts, how can I?? Stay away from resolutions.

Hubby the shopping KING

I think my hubby is the shopping KING!!!

Hahaha. I think he got a taste of how great it is to know you got something for 1/2 price after getting the camera. Now, he look out for other sales too!!!

Yesterday night we bought loads of gingko and ginseng from Healthspan. On top of the 1/2 price thing, hubby also managed to find a code on the internet that gave us and extra £5 off every £8 of purchase! Can you believe it?? I am not sure... I only know if it is true, someone's job is in trouble.
One year's gingko + ginseng supply for 2 of us, for £10!

Today, I sent the link to my sister, are we are buying more! Definitely cheaper than Sg!

A "packer" thing??

There might be a "packer" thing going on. I doubted it many times, tell myself not to be too imaginative.... but.... but..... today I am convinced. Should have trusted my instinct from Day 1.

That is going to be really difficult for me.

I can only be blind, deaf, and totally obedient, aka keep my big mouth shout.

Chiang Ti Ming - a real star now

Chiang who???

Chiang Ti Ming- IQ exceeded 180. Genius. Child prodigy. Record breaker in CalTech and Cornell.

There is a saying that dead people turn into stars. Ti Ming is now a star.

I heard a lot about him when I was in school. As the world is really small, I had friends who knew his family-that was why his life did not seem to be too far away from mine. In school, my friends and I followed his progress closely, and were "cheering" him on, hoping that he would "get it". Of course, we were envious of him too.

A little boy trapped by a brain of immense capacity, or a brain trapped in the body of a little boy. A genius born into a country where merit did not and still do not count as much as your color.

We heard of his mega giga capacity brains and him endlessly. We listened to stories about how this kid was so respected by his classmates in school who were much older than him. We heard of his struggle to gain a place in a Malaysian university, and the problems he faced because he tried to sit for the A-levels equivalent at the age of 12. He was too young, and his country had not place for someone like him.

The universities in his own country had rejected him, and the only way out for him was a foreign university.We followed the story, and relieved when his family eventually raised enough funds for him to go to Caltech, supported by private organizations and some the Malaysian Chinese communities who felt the injustice this guy had to endure. Not only he was rejected from local universities, he did not get any official help in the form of scholarship or university placements when hundreds of "good" students were dished out scholarships every year!

We heard of his parents' despair at the death of their daughter, reportedly a genius too. And soon, I will hear about his parents' grief of the death of their only surviving child from my friends. Two children. Both geniuses. Both...stars-then and now.

I used to wonder why I was not a genius! It would be nice to just sit, look, and know everything (that is what people say about him absorbing everything in classes!). But now I begin to love my " mediocrity". What an irony. 16 years would have change a person's perspective totally about intelligence.

His death generated only 2 mentioned in the newspapers, and some blogs. For someone like him, I thought he deserves at least one more mention. Whatever the cause or reasons for his death, this was a guy who had beaten more odds than you or me.

Being "gifted", especially when the gift is huge, is a "burden". Some bloggers say some unkind things about him pushing boundaries and doing things inappropriate for his age. Some blamed his parents. Sigh... is this the darker side of human beings-- again???

I know others who I would consider as "geniuses", and can see how difficult it is for their parents to raise them. It is much easier to manage and nurture an idiot, than a genius, and this guy was a super genius!

Below is a newspaper article about his death.
___________________________________________________________

Monday January 8, 2007

‘Boy genius’ Chiang dies

SEREMBAN: Chiang Ti Ming, the boy genius who was the youngest student ever to be admitted into the prestigious California Institute of Technology (CalTech) almost two decades ago, has passed away on Saturday morning.

Chiang: Had achieved many firsts at CalTech

“He passed away peacefully,” said a family member yesterday.

The family declined to reveal other details while Chiang’s parents, father Chiang Chick Liam and mother Lee Soo Hoon, were too distraught to talk to the press.

Only his family members were seen entering the house here yesterday afternoon and requested that privacy be given to them.

Press reports in 2002 said that he had been admitted into a hospital in Kuala Lumpur, for depression and withdrawal symptoms. The family also suffered a tragic loss when his sister Eei Wern, drowned at the swimming pool of the Seremban International Golf Club in 1993. Eei Wern was then four.

It was reported 16 years ago that Chiang, who was 15 at the time, was not only the youngest student to be admitted into CalTech but also among the top five percent where his results were concerned.

Chiang had achieved many firsts while at CalTech, including being the youngest ever student to receive the Undergraduate Students Merit Award two years in a row.

He was also an honorary member of the Tau Beta Phi, a national engineering society.

He had been accepted to study for the second year of the four-year Physics degree course at the university in 1989 when he was 13 after sponsorship from several organisations.

The prodigy later pursued and graduated with a doctorate in particle physics at Cornell University in New York.

Bag of lies.....samsoon-ing again...

Today, I had an "argument" . Well it was almost like an argument. And it is because....
since the store was quite empty, and I did not get any RED points again (and again and again), I turned back to the cashier and said....

"err, I think am supposed to get a red point here".

Damn ah neh. He told me that I had to bring a TEXCO Bag for Lies. I thought he made a mistake and pointed out to him it should be "any bag", and he insisted it wasn't, until I pointed out the big advertisement right in front of him. Then he changed tactic. No, it is any plastic bag! I looked again?Where got plastic?

(the picture just acts as an illustration, as the exact wording happen to be the same as this company's.)

Any plastic bag??? It is any bag, not any plastic bag!

He pointed to the pictures!!! Then he got the cheek to say that my handbag is not a "bag" (what is it then? I wish I could say, you are right- It is an LV, not a "bag"! too bad, not LV :P....), I don't need a bag etc etc. I showed him- 2 pints of milk, 1 big loaf of bread and 1 big sinful packet of biscuit- I would have needed a bag if I did not put them in my handbag. I was thinking, "you expect me to pile them high on my head and sashay home, is it?"

I was very angry , but swallowed my anger. I did not know the exact wordings of the green club card thing, and he might be really right. So, either he got the rules wrong, or the rules are really not according to what seemed to be advertised, which is not his fault. Even if he got it wrong-bad training? Not his fault too.

I had been a cashier for 2-3 months before my A-levels, and know what it is like to be a cashier. There are many abusive customers in this world, who would bully people like cashiers. Therefore, never in my life, had I been rude to cashiers or sales assistants. I know sometimes they have to follow stupid rules. And I would not want him to lose his job or something. (yeah, that is me. I know his name, but I am not mean enough to do something that endangers his rice bowl).

So I told he guy,

".....well, it is ok. It is not your fault if the rules are that way...".

I turned and was going to go off, but he was not about to let me off so easily. As I type this, i am telling my husband he reminds me of A, my ex-housemate. He was exactly like that.

Imagine Wong fei hong (if you don't know who he is, time to watch some Cantonese films) and some thugs. Thug in the wrong, but wanted to fight with Wong fei hong. Wong fei hong won the fight, but let thug off. Like all villains and cowards in films- the moment Wang fei hong turned his back, the thug crawled up and tried to stab Wang Fei Hong from the back.

I had my Wong Fei Hong moment.

He thought he was winning the "war", and had the cheek to tell me that i was not helping to save the environment because I did not bring a plastic bag, and recycle it. His colleagues stood around me- arms folded, or on the waist, putting on pressure. All darker, taller and meaner looking than me-of course. I can recognize the pressure tactic. .. Expect me to run off?

That made me really angry!!!

I was like... are you saying customers like me, who makes a point not to take a new bag whenever possible and would rather walk home with their milk and bread in hand not saving the environment? If we put the purchases into our bag, and not a "recycled" plastic bag, we are not saving the environment? We are saving a plastic bag whenever we do this!

I tried to leave, while he continued provoking me, winning, because he was not giving me a point, and his colleagues stood next to me with hands on the waist pose. It was aggressive. It was bullying. One stupid woman told me that I got it wrong, my hand bag is not a bag. Finally, a man, seeing me "surrounded", asked me what was happening, and I told him all I did was asked about my point, and I was given all those "reasons".

He looked at my stuff, my biscuit jotting out of my bag, and told them off! Ridiculous! They were "thieving".. blah blah blah.... and told me that this is a situation where people would have yelled "fuck you!!" to them. haha. He really got tactic. Say it in a way where they can obviously hear, but cannot complain that he is an abusive customer. And the dogs? The dogs were wagging their tail and smiling when a moment ago, they were so aggressive. 1-2 years ago, I would have cried, feel helpless, being bullied. But now, I recognized that it was a bullying tactic. I don't want to get into trouble, but don't want to break down and cry either in front of them either. Gosh, did I grow up, or just got old?

Hubby is really worried about me now. Because the man would have angered them, and might want to take out their anger on me. Sigh. He was in a TXXXX when someone argued with a cashier (the man was quite abusive), and they pulled down the shutters, dragged the man to the back. Anyway, glad that he was not there. He thought that he might not be able to withstand that kind of provocation, and got into trouble. Yeah, I know, many people that I know would have.

I know this is a foreign country. I should stay out of trouble. But at the same time, I know that if I were to just cry, or worse still apologise when I am not in the wrong, the moment I am bullied-every other gal or woman of my same built or skin color will get the same treatment from these beasts. I cant win them, I know, but I am not prepared to take this shit without saying a word either. They should know once in a while, there will be a crazy woman like me who would have told them off.

Enjoy their "any bag" promotion here. Again, TEXCO being very small, don't have any website where I can do a link. So, you can see a similar promotion here

Texco said:
"We all know we are using too many carrier bags. That's why from now on, we'll give you a RED Clubcut Point* every time you re-use a bag. It really doesn't matter what kind of bag it is. As long as you're helping the environment by not using new carrier bags, we'll give you Red Clubcut Points in return."

Any lawyers?
Can my big hand bag be considered a bag?

Any English Teachers?
If my hand bag is not a bag, what should I call it then? It is brandless, so I cannot call it "my LV", or "my Gucci".

Any environmentalists??
Am I helping the environment by not using new carrier bags if I carry my milk in using my bare hands? Would I burn calories this way and therefore release more CO2?

Digital camera 50% sale!!- Just bought

we also just bought a digital camera... minutes ago. Hubby bought from the kodak website. 50% off!!

The cost of my camera is about errrr... 1/4 of my sister's camera! hahah.. but hers got 2 x my megapixel, and maybe 1/2 my size. It is a Kodak, Z730 Digital Camera [5MP, 4 x Optical Zoom]

Of course it is not as cute as as my sister's.. But how can you complain when it is ...........

£53 including delivery-www.kodak.co.uk- sales only last one. Since I "only eat and never do work-work will break things", at least this one is one which I can happily drop here drop there without any heart ache.

Hubby is so happy now. He feels like he has "accomplished" something....

work...and the road

NOthing much to blog about today. The past first week in the year did not have much interesting things, except hubby's little needle, and work.... The needle has been blogged, and work is ...work.
Like what is mentioned again and again in War and Beauty, when you have more people, naturally there will be cliques. I would like to add, when there is one person who makes all the decisions, naturally there will be people going all out to.....(fill in the blank with your favorite way to describe!)

I have started watching War and Beauty.Really slow, I know. I would have delayed further if they are not showing it in a certain channel. I was like, "what? They are showing it on channel X? Wow! Then I must watch before that!" Hubby was "forced" to find the videos, but now he is happily enjoying it.

On Wed am I saw flowers at the pedestrian crossing, for someone called Ann, I suppose. I wished her peace. I hope the flowers will make hubby take my nagging seriously-NOT to cross the road unless using the crossings!

The "grandma" at the bus station taught me "dignity"

I was reading about a granny in her 90s selling home made malted sweets in the corridors of one of the "hippest", richest, coolest "village" is a very prosperous nation. The granny has been there since the 1990s. She was already very old then, but very strong. In recent years, she looked much more frail. The gals in the forums I haunt are wondering where she is these days, as she is seldom seen. Perhaps it was the bad weather, or her ailing health. Either way, there were concern among netizens if she is alright. I hope she is alright too.

I was so touched to see other caring souls around.

I don't know much about that "granny", not as much as that feisty soul near my home, whom I regularly obtained my supply of tissue paper.

I care about her, I realised. Last year, I knew she recognized me and probably cared a little bit about me too. I could see it from how her face lit up, and pleasantly surprised when I stopped by to get some tissue paper from her. It is the face that of someone who is really happy to see you, as if your appearance answered her questions/doubts/worries about where you are. There is an unexplained warm fuzzy feeling when that happened.

This granny, who had never spoken more to me other than "thank you"s and pushing more tissue paper or change into my hands whenever I "overpaid", suddenly started talking to me!!! Alas , for the first time in my life, I really hated myself for not being able to speak Hokkien!!! I could not speak Hokkien, and she did not seem to be able to speak Mandarin. So, "our conversation" ended with the granny pressing a packet of tissue into my hands--hard. I told her I don't live there anymore, take care; and hoped that she understood me. Granny must have been wondering what happened to the gal who needed so much tissue paper (cry baby??), and then "disappeared". I had been away for a year.

I am really worried about her now, since I am overseas. I wonder if she is still healthy enough to fend for herself. Is she sick? Does she see a doctor? Can she understand the instructions from doctors/pharmacists about how/when to take her medicine?

A few years ago, she would walk around the bus terminal, asking if people want to buy tissue from her. Unlike the typical tissue paper seller, this granny will not push you to buy, or hang around gaining your sympathy if you say "no", or just shake your head.

If you are like most of her "fans" who try to pass her a 2 dollar note and make away with only 1 packet (the BIG packet, containing 12 packets of tissue, which she was selling for $1, and costs about $1 in shops!!-how much profit could she get???), she would run after you, and insist that you
a) take another packet of tissue
b) take the change

Out of these, I figured out it was best to get 4 packs of 5 per bundle tissue. 4x5=20. If you get two big packs, it was 2x12=12 packs of tissue. So, I would offer her a choice (c).

It was quite funny when one day, she was "negotiating" (the above choices) with me, and one man slipped a $5(or $10?? Cant remember) note into her bag. She turned around, found out, and gave chase! Ran after him. That guy got to stop, because he was obviously worried that she would fall down. And if he did not stop, with a granny running after him, people might think he had robbed her???

Well, that is her history. I always told my hubby, if I am old and poor one day, I will be like her. she really got "gu qi". Even if you are poor, you can still keep your dignity!

In the last 2-3 years, she no longer walked around the station, but would sit there on the sidewalks, on her stool, displaying her wares: tissue paper, towels, sponge, on the floor. She looked really weak compared to last time. If you pay her 1 dollar, and take only 5 packets (normally sold for 50 cents), she would push you another 5 packets. But if you say no, and go away with just 5 packets, she would call out to offer you change. If you insist on paying $1 for a 50 cent packet, she would no longer chase you, and just keep on saying thank you in hokkien.

I admire this grandma very very much. I suppose you could get a glimpse of her character from how neatly she "packaged" her towels and sponge. She was still charging 5 packets for 50cents when I saw her last year. With the inflation going UP, does she earn less these days from a packet of tissue?

"Ah ma" is too old weak to run these days, which really saddens me. My heart breaks. It takes a lot for someone like her to accept the extra 50cents from strangers. Something in her dignity must have been chipped away by the time-a thing called old age which will visit us all.

Will I manage to keep my dignity with me in my last years/days on earth?

p/s: if you pass by BB station, please buy from her, yeah?

Secret leaked after 4 years of marriage......

After 4 years of marriage....






..... I just found out............







....that my hubby....







actually..............................







errrr...... show I say it here???






Well....







actually....








hubby don't know how/too scared to put eye drops. Sigh.




.................................................





those were my blood...... yeah. blood dripping.... no energy to vomit it out.

A&E.......because of domestic abuse

You know the chinese think that you should not be saying how good your life is because something will go wrong?

Well... I spent my afternoon in the A&E today.

Hubby called right after my nice long lunch (well, you need a nice long lunch after a long battle aka meeting)......blah blah blah.

In short; he got something in his eyeball, he think it is a needle like thing stuck there and he cannot get it out. It hurts. No blood, but hurts. Position? right in the margin between the black thing and the white thing. Blink means hurt.

Needle in eyeball????

So, what do I do? Check with my boss, where the nearest clinic is, and ask for leave. Boss says go A&E, and was nice enough to ask my colleague to send us there, since it was raining.

I was really anxious and worried. Cos the last time this "kid" say he was alright, he was dizzy and drowsy for a couple of days after getting kicked. Now he says "needle in eyeball".I was like...2nd time in A&E within 6 months, gosh!

He looked alright. I saw the white speck lodged there. If it is a needle, he is in serious trouble.

At registration:
Clerk: Aww... How did you get hurt?

Hubby: I was doing housework...

Clerk:(looked up)Wow.. your husband is good! Can you share him?
[Someone was basking in the compliment, giving me the "see, I told you I am great!" look.]

Me: Well, not really. You don't see him here that often, do you?

The clerk was chuckling like mad. Glad that she caught my joke.

The hospital was fast! After less than 1 hour after registration, they removed the "unidentified foreign particle". The doctor was laughing "here is your needle", when he took out that speck of thing there.

He is now snoring loudly. Sleeping... trying to escape "housework".

Well, i got a record against me. Hubby was admitted to A&E because of domestic work.

A year without A&A

This year will be much better than last year. Although this house is mouldy, and may cause me to have asthma, skin allergy.................(blah blah blah).........................................and some say lung cancer... .. I no longer have A&A!!!

Hahaha. I almost forgot my good fortune until read poor Bisoumoi's blog. My heart went out to her-"small gal" in London.

I am "big", but still get "towered" by A&A, and decimated by A's shouting whenever she disagreed. When you are short, if people look DOWN at/on you and shout.... you will be too stunned to reply! Thanks to her, I learned the technique to never sit down when she/we wanted to "talk", and stand at least 3 feet away. Away from her flying knives. Serious, knife! She liked to gesture with the knife in her hand and point it at you when she asked you questions. Can you disagree when the knife is just inches away from your throat??? I did seriously worry about what this crazy couple could do! This stand away technique is now applied to that guy at work, who is a master is body language and positioning!!!!

Gone are my A& A days.

ET no longer have to be worried. Sorry to make you worry so much ET. It probably was not as bad as what you heard on the phone.

I can now sleep soundly. Eat without worrying my stuff are contaminated. Breathe without fear that there might be TB in the air, as that bastard (err... actually he is really a bastard-by birth, so I always felt bad whenever hubby gets really angry and referred to him as "The bastard". "A" had one day "ops!" out to me; after he gave her bruises on her arms , cheek and maybe other places that I could not see) got to clear tonnes of phlegm a day-shooting then into the sink/out of the balcony into the field-even if the sink contained plates or vege soaked in a container. I also don't wake up from afternoon naps with men in work clothes in my kitchen-drinking beer, and peeing in my toilet.

ET no longer have to be worried why the hell my housemate bang on my front door so loudly, without stop, even when I was shouting back, "I am coming, I am coming, hold on please"- just to get me open it for him; and then suddenly opened my bedroom door without knocking. He just wanted to see you, ET. I had taken longer than usual to open the door for him, and he heard me talking to you! He was probably convinced I hid someone in my room (probably naked men) and wanted to see who I was talking to. He did not know there is a thing called cell phone! If he knocked the door, you could have flattened like the Incredible Woman, and hid under the divan of my bed, or crawled into my drawer. I am safe now in my own home. I moved out. That is A for you. Psychologically damaged kid. Forever suspicious. Think that people would steal/cheat because he does that to others. Pity him. Pity both of them.

A, the female-beautiful, rich, DOCTOR (must emhasize this, since she always emphasize it). Only daughter of a pretty rich man.

A beautiful life ruined by her inferiority complex because of some really tragic history-she blurted out to me the day A hit her. Although I dont really like her because she is very scheming, I also have a soft spot for her. Even now, sometimes I wonder if she is ok. I think she is good natured deep down inside. I really pitied her. She thinks no good men would want her, and always "try to do good". She ended up picking up A. (Do good by picking up stray cats and dogs, sistas! Not men!) A had been telling her she is ugly. (My foot! I give her 8.5/10, at least! I don't mind living 5 years shorter to look like her). Her life is now dedicated to "saving A". Gosh. I used to wish her luck. But after a year living with them, I knew this guy is up to no good, and he is not good natured at all! She will have a sad life with him. Mark my words.

A the male-damn handsome! But... spent a part of his life in the infamous orphanages. I think he shows signs of being a psycho. Sadistic. Scary. Really Scary. You have a guy here who did not consider a gal as his gf, but beat up a "cheap woman" because she talked to other men, ie his boss? A was slapped because the guy at the Turkish shop round the corner recognized her and said "Hello!" I did not dare to talk to him at all, after A told me she was slapped because A believed the only reason a woman would talk to a man is to seduce and get F-ed!!! OMG! Hello!!! Wake up!!! He already had a history of brutally beating up his wife! To my shock, A thinks that he loves her. He hit her lightly; when he used to kick and beat up his wife badly, even while she was pregnant!!!!

I was like????STOCKHOLM's syndrome!!!!

"You stupid woman, he needed you now. He does not even know how to get around on his own! He cant even read maps and sign boards!"

..... of course I kept that to myself, or I might have been murdered.

Enough of psyhoanalysis.

Bottom line is...I shall never ever... never ever stay with other R. They look so good on the surface, you never know what you are going to get.

new year effect...

Must be because it is 1st January, and I am too broke to go out. That is why I am flooding my blog with posts.

Just this morning, we were so sad/angry/disappointed (can't exactly describe the feeling!) that the flags of X country is flying as part of EU. It is as if proof that crime/fraud/lies work, and law abiding people like us are stupid! Yes, in their own words, stupid. Hubby and I are stupid. The English are stupid (and dirty too!).

• Darn, one doctor who got what she wanted-indefinite right to remain, and now a practicing as a doctor soon. If I go to a church or a temple, I must remember to pray for all the patients who will get treated by her.
• One darned doctor who did not manage to pass those qualifying tests, and blamed it on the inferior medical system in England, and decided she did not need to study or pay fees, when all she got to do was to wait for 2008.
• One pathetic doctor who tried to do funny things with the council tax and put down our names (and removed theirs) behind our back, (when we had told them we will pay council taxes, and not cheat,) so that we get into trouble if they get caught, and they saved the tax money.
• One doctor who lied so much, that we were wondering if she was stupid, or she thought we are really so stupid.
• One doctor who told me if I got money, I can get my indefinite right to remain immediately (is that how she got hers??), and paid £1000 per year to "attend" (but never go!) some dubious college for a degree in Biomedical science management, and remained here on a student visa.

• One more guy who could not produce his passport, depended on his NI number card (which got me really suspicious when mid last year, there was big news about NI fraud and illegal immigrants).
• One more guy who probably had a criminal record in his own country, , beaten and abandoned his wife and blamed his actions on her producing a son for him and forced him to marry her. He might as well said he revenged because he was raped!
  
• One guy who was smart enough to hook up the only daughter of a "rich man", and told me on the first day I arrived how rich his gf was.
• One smart aleck who would check the metres-electricity and gas meters the moment he arrived home.. and then displayed his smartness by saying.. "oh, you washed clothes!".. and then bluff about how little his friend spends on electricity.
• One bloody slimy guy who pretended he could not understand English whenever we tried to talk to him, and he is on the wrong side.
• One complete idiot who used metres of masking tape to fix the shower head to his favorite position and told me it was spoiled, and implied I had spoiled it ("Don't change position.. blah blah... it is alright, I fixed it with the tape").
• One idiot who bluffed that he fixed the shower head with silicon when his "lie" was exposed-- I removed the masking tape and found it working perfectly. (Hello.. I know more these stuff than you do, ok? I am my dad's gal.)
  
• One snake-y guy who would act as if we are in the wrong by saying "it is alright, no problem, next time don't do again", whenever he did something wrong/stupid. The shower head incidence is just one of many examples.
  
• One hypocrite who complained about things being not neat/dry enough, being clean blah blah blah, when he shoots his phelgm into the sink which contained cups and bowls, and scratch his ass hole and "the front part" while cutting cucumbers for the salads. (One day I thought why don't he take out the other cucumber and cut it as well. Cure another place of itches ... BAD evil me) Oh, did I mention he was my alarm clock? I woke up - at first from his slamming of the doors , and then from his daily phlegm clearance at the balcony, right outside my room.

Their hygiene was so good that if they fall sick, we never managed to escape it.These people don't wash their hands. Yes, the doctor too! I had to go around with disinfectant wet tissue in my pocket (trying to be discreet, and not make them feel bad), and disinfect door knobs, taps, toilet seats. Call me paranoid, but how would you feel someone blow his/her nose (sometimes with bare hands), dont wash their hands properly, and touch this and that? You don't do this when you have a flu! Ewwww Ewww..............That is why good luck to patients who see her! She "borrowed" my basin-meant to wash my delicate stuff for his (infected) feet soaks, and expected me to still wash my lingerie there!

I can never finish with talking about them and did not realise how stressed I was, and how much I lived in fear. At one time, I would set my alarm clock to 4 30 pm. At 4:30 pm, I would go to toilet, bring in a cup of water (and biscuits etc), and hide in my room until hubby comes home. I would wait for the sounds of the idiot coming home, and hoped that it was 1 person, not a few!

I feel sorry for the guy who took over our room. He was chosen from more than 30 people who viewed our room for some reasons. Like hubby, he looked terribly bookish and a new kid in town. He was lucky though, we were around, and they did not cheat him an extra £10 per week. But of course, he must have been surprised (by now) that one half of the professional couple is actually a "painter"-not that kind which contribute works to the National Gallery.. The doctor who had implied she was a medical lecturer is actually working as a masseur/"carer"/phlebotomist.

We had a really beautiful place, but housemates from hell

Read-My sister's keeper

I finished my My Sister's Keeper in a record time of 3 hours!!!

Ok, I admit I cheated. I skipped some pages. I scanned, and skipped some pages.

That is really a moving book, definitely worth its place on top of the charts. This books reminds me of Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. I was thankful that I had my 40pence for 4 rolls Sainsbury Basics toilet rolls next to me.

Tissue papers are not cheap here-like 1 quid per box?? or 50 p when there is offers. I have never bought a box since I arrived!I rather spend the quid on getting a book. Ok.. this sounds very "auntie".

Happy New Year 2007!

This year, like last year was a quite one. I am staying at home.

But this year is better than last year. I am in a neighbourhood where people like to let off fireworks, and I can see it from my window as I type this entry. That is improvement in quality of life, isnt it?

Gone are my crazy days. Gone are our crazy days. How to be so crazy anymore? The gals whom I went out with, and spent a night talking outside city hall ten years ago can no longer do this kind of things. One is expecting a baby, one is overseas, one is probably on call or busy making babies *wink*, one has an important job where image counts, and can no longer hang out by the roadside talking rubbish. And another one, the reluctant gal who came along ten years ago only to throw tantrum at us, is now a "rich" Dr something something. Yeah. The rich gal who can only fly SIA. Ten years. Things change. People change. I am glad that I am almost as close as ever to the gals (except one or two), although distance and work means we rarely see each other or talk.

The clock struck 12 and we turned off the light... It is crazy. Fireworks are light up the skyline. I was so busy turning my eyes from left to right to watch it. If there is one things good about this mouldy flat, the fireworks view is definitely to die for.

No resolutions for me this year. Gone are my teenage days where the days between Christmas and new year were spent checking on the last year's resolution, and try to rush to meet target on those which I had not, and short list another list of items to go into the new year's resolution list, to be pasted on the front few pages of my diary, so that I could tick them as a meet them. I was an A++ type! Those were productive days, but not necessarily contented and happy ones.

Now I have no resolution. A few years ago I resolved to make no more resolutions. And here I am. Less successful. But happier. I am now a happy type B. If there is one things I would like to do, it is to get reminded that I am aging, and therefore should spend more $$ on skincare, and save some $$ for my old age. Hmm.. how do you do spend more and save more? My parents are getting old too, and now that I am roaming so far away, I saw them for less than 3 days for the last 365 days, and definitely talked to them for less than 24 hours the past 365 days. Now that I have discovered PINEAPPLE card, and have my own land line, I must call more often! I am going to call them tomorrow! I regreted not spending enough time with gong gong and po po to this day, and must make sure I will never have the same regret again wrt to my parents. Sigh... how do you live your dreams and yet be near your parents? It is a difficult, isnt it?

What am I rambling on? It is new year's day.. and I shall celebrate. Gonna dig out that vodka thing that MS gave us, and the liqueur chocolate we bought at Stow on the Wold. BTW, I started learning French on my own, and found the tongue twisting a killer! I hope I can keep up with it. Ganbade! (Ops, that is jap!)