I’m Lovin’ It

I know, I know, the iPhone is not a new thing anymore and everyone has one. But still, it’s not a matter of it being so common (a friend refused to own one just because everyone does, how's that for anti-peer pressure?), it is how you enhance your life with it.

Photo taken from here.

It’s only been a few days and I have yet to do much damage to my 32G space. The battery drains a bit too fast for my liking but chill, it’s probably because I have the urge to touch it, do something on it, scroll for apps to download every hour.

Will it change me? I hope so. With so many applications to interact with people, I suddenly thought, hey, even with emails I hardly contact these people and here I am, thinking of downloading an apps that allows you to chat for free. And if I were to pay to download the apps, I’ll have to chat more, si boh? Hahaha… kiasu mentality at work.

So far, it has helped me with on-the-spot unit conversions, knowing that the weather in Washington is the same as Perth while Melbourne is surprisingly hot today. And of course, despite KS complaining of lack of sleep the night before from doing up some proposals, he was hard at work playing a game on it until past 1:30am this morning.

The service provider I just switched to is also doing just fine. And I’m glad there’s no capping to how much they will charge for data because I know I’m going to do loads pretty soon. Needless to say, I’m extremely happy with the swap.

(Just in case, for those who are supplementary lines from other providers who wish to switch while the principal line remains with the existing service provider, swap your phone line to a prepaid so that it is registered as your account under your name. That way you get to keep your phone number. I did it this way and it was free. Do bring along the principal line holder to the service center when making the switch.)

So, after all that decision making (do I need a new phone, which phone, what colour, what size, which service provider), I wasn’t expecting another one. What cover?? The many varieties Those making the covers are really milking this one, they are about 10 times more than the cover of my old phone! Got a medium priced one as a temporary measure to protect the white body.

Now I'm eager to download more free stuff to explore what this baby can do. Any games to recommend or other useful apps?

Of Shower Heads And Drainage Covers

For the last couple of weekends, we've been swamped with house renovation stuff. I'm glad to say that it is coming along but realise it is a fluid thing, this renovation plans.

One moment we want to keep the kitchen blue floor tiles so we work around that colour for the cabinets. Then later, we find out that we have to hack the floor and since those blue tiles are pretty retro (no longer in production), we have to retile the place. Meaning, we can change the floor colour. Meaning, we can change the colour of the kitchen cabinets. Meaning, I can add an additional sink. Meaning, I'm back to almost square one. Dang!

And that's just the kitchen. We haven't even come to deciding the wall colours. This is going to be a long process. Well, at least there's progress, but with a few sacrifices of meeting old friends with the busyness of it all :(

But the great thing about this is process is having KS's friend, an architect who has been MOST amazing. My goodness! The input he has given so far has been really, really valuable. He does some interior decorating for his work as well so I'm really letting him decide quite a fair bit of things for matters which I have no clue to. Every time we meet, I leave feeling a little bit smarter.

Okay, back to more hunting.

Competitiveness

As I was growing up, I often wondered if my Mum was trying to give birth to me on her birthday since ours are only 3 days apart. I suspected that I was a bit too late and may have caused a "darn it!" reaction from my Mum because my aunt, her sister, had her daughter on the same birthday as her.

Now, I noticed the competitiveness in my Mum over matters like this and it was more prevalent recently. My cousin Karen gave birth to a beautiful girl just a week ago, a few months after her brother Kelvin also had their first son.

Over dinner the other night, Mum suddenly said, "Brother now has 2 grandchildren, just like us, in such a short time. Plus he has a grand-daughter while we don't."

Long tense silence as I busily chewed on my dinner and stared at the french beans. After an age of about 5 seconds, the conversation resumed to something mundane. Eeeek! No pressure here!

"Divorce" Proceedings

After 11 years I've been with you, being a supporter even though I was just a small fry, yet you never acknowledged me. You were an expensive one to upkeep yet despite constant wooing from others, I turned a blind eye and a deaf ear and doggedly hung on to you.

The Other Side has called and broken through my walls of ignorance on how badly you've been treating me. I needed attention yet you couldn't even give me a single letter. Alas, I can't take it anymore and have decided to part ways with you.

Today, I will start my divorce proceedings and within this week, I hope to get my new partner. A partner who is going to bring me to new explorations, pull me away from lagging behind and promises an exciting journey.

Goodbye Maxis. Hello iPhone Digi.

Another Bon Voyage

Less than one year after Grace left for US, now Jan is also leaving to Singapore. While Singapore is just a neighbouring country, her 1.5 weekends will not be Saturday or Sunday since she will be in retail. Plus, with just 1.5 off days, it doesn't allow her to come back that often.

This is a great opportunity for her as it is a field (nutrition) she has been longing for for some time now. She was going through some interviews for jobs here in the Klang Valley as well with one promising prospect with a reputable company but which will put her back to the same job function as she was before, which she isn't passionate about. 

Between the job in Singapore and the one in Klang Valley, the Singapore job seemed to be a narrow path which would then take her to a platform with even more doors into nutrition. Plus it gives her a good ctrl-alt-del to cut the monotony she's experiencing in general and spread her wings.

Again, as much as I'd prefer the entire family to stay here in PJ with us, I think she will truly enjoy Singapore and may stay there longer than she imagines herself to do.

Amazing...

The little bar of soap I purchased recently really really does help. My skin began to peel after about 4-5 days of using it so I started to use it with my toner. And now, my skin has improved tremendously. 

My daily bursting and bleeding of pimples have stopped, the angry acne around my jawline has soothed into just red dots. Wish I took before and after photos to show the difference. Let's see if it can completely erase all the spots.

Guinea Pig Requirements

I’m looking for someone who will eat all my bakings. The current position will be vacant when Jan leaves to work for Singapore next week. Now, her qualifications are:

• She eats anything. When she was still crawling, she ate her own poo (and I was scolding her why she didn’t share her chocolates. Luckily it clicked before I put it in my mouth too).

• When she was in primary school, I caught her on all fours while the dog was eating chicken heads. She was about to take a bite out of his meal because “the way the dog ate made it look so delicious”.

• She tested the difference between Friskies and Science Diet pellets for Ang Ku (yup, the cat) and says Friskies is salty while Science Diet tastes like liver and less human palatable.

• She has managed to consume biscuits and other stuff I baked which didn’t work out and which I didn’t want to eat either. Plus, she finished most of them too.

Now, I don’t expect I can find anyone outside of a mental hospital to fit the above description but yeah, the shoes are big to fill. The most important requirement is to finish up the cookie/cake because I detest wastage even though it could taste like crap slightly below expectations.

:( I will miss Jan.

Phone Search

Choices! Choices! First, it was between an iPhone or a BlackBerry. Then I decided, I spend more time on games than emails, so iPhone it is. Then I thought, 16G sounds like a lot of space but then again, I do tend to keep loads of songs, pictures which has easily maxed my current 4G phone. So 32G it is.

Then, the second local provider Digi started offering packages for the iPhone. It’s not my current provider, Maxis, but the Digi package is MUCH more superior. For example, the lowest package for Maxis is RM100 per month and only allows 500Kb data per month with charges as soon as you exceed this. And since you never really know how much you’re using, I’ve heard horror tales of people being slapped with thousands at the end of the month! Digi’s lowest monthly package at RM88, on the other hand, gives 1G data download and any excess will not be charged but the speed will be slower, that’s all.

Plus, my friend who works for Digi has a staff incentive to sell one package so he offered me a deal I couldn’t resist. So after much pondering and a quick decision made (quick because it took me years to decide to buy a new phone the last time), I decided to switch to Digi.

All hyped up, I went to the shop last night and tried to get myself a phone. Unfortunately, the 32G phones were all sold out! And I went to two outlets! I suppose Digi underestimated the pull power of iPhone and stocks are only coming in after 2 weeks.

Patience… patience…

Brownies From Scratch

I'm not the most original baker. I just follow recipes and once the recipe turns out bad in the first try, I don't bother trying it again because my experiments will just go to waste as no one will eat them in my family (except Jan who eats anything but since she's "migrating" soon...)

So I love reading blogs like KarenCheng and LachInvasion who both love baking (and cooking and looking after 2-3 kids and still look fabulous. Sigh. Anyway, I digress.). They experiment a recipe until they get it just right. And then they publish the recipe and ta-dah! I benefit making the most amazing stuff. 

The recipe I decided to make on a whim this weekend was this brownie from LachInvasion. Although she suggested taking it out before it is properly baked, mine was too undone and I only realised it after I tipped it out of the pan.

Throwing it into the microwave was not a good idea as the plate started to pool oil at the bottom. Still, after clearing it up, the brownie still tasted great! Definitely another recipe worth repeating.

350g good quality dark chocolate, chopped
350g unsalted butter, chopped
5 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla essence

220g caster sugar

200g plain flour
1 2/3 cups chopped walnuts

Vanilla ice-cream to serve

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Grease and line the base of a 36cm X 26cm slice pan.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Careful not to let the bowl touch the water. Cool slightly.
3. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla beans (extract) in the bowl of an electric mixer on high until thick and pale. Reduce speed to low, then slowly add the chocolate mixture, mixing until well combined. Switch off the motor.
4. Fold in the flour and nuts, then pour into the slice pan.
5. Bake for 40 minutes or so until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in pan, then turn onto a board and cut into 18 large squares.

I think I'd choose making this over the boxed brownie mix from Betty Crocker for this if I had the time. Less... cheating.

Darn That Tooth

This morning, while chewing on some Oreo cookies for breakfast (yes, I’m not the healthiest person), I bit into something hard. The first thought that struck me was, “Oh, is that a piece of glass? Can I write and complain to Oreos?”

When I removed the piece, it looked like some stone. Upon closer examination, I realized with a sinking feeling, it looked like tooth enamel. Quickly rinsing my mouth from the biscuit, I started taking stock of my molars and sure enough, there was a chip from my tooth that had gone through root canal.

You know how some people have examination nightmares? Well, mine are always related to teeth. So, I hopped over immediately to the dentist across the road and was glad that the dentist was available.

Unfortunately, she delivered the bad news that I had to do a crowning for it. So for now until the next appointment, I have to live with half the tooth.

Moor Face Soap

Last weekend (I had a fruitful weekend!), I was in Jaya 33 and there was a flea market at the concourse. I walked around, hoping to find some clothes for work but instead, found this interesting soap bar called Eumora.

The product is made from Moor and some algae stuff meant to clear pimples, smoothen wrinkles, firms, tones and softens the skin, hair regrowth…

Since I’m having so much problems with my pimples, I thought, what the heck, let me try the 3 minute test so the girl proceeded to lather the soap on half my face to show the difference. After more than 5 minutes (because when you are a live test in a concourse, it is only natural that everyone starts to gather around out of curiosity. So the girl was very busy trying to explain her product to bystanders), she wiped off the suds and lo and behold! My face was so clear like a baby’s bottom!

I’m kidding. No, I couldn’t see any changes although KS said he could see some slight changes in the mere few minutes of the product.

But heck, I’d try anything. So I proceeded to acquire a small bar, which came in a size that is slightly bigger than those you’d find in a hotel room. It was RM95. Yup. Apparently I don’t need to put toner or moisturizer since it takes care of everything.

So now I’m trying it and each time I use it, I feel a tightness which usually is associated with drying of skin. I don’t know if it is or the effect of the skin firming. But I do know this, that my pimples have stopped bleeding the last couple of days. Plus my pores are less visible.

We shall continue to see.