Ever since I stopped drinking coffee last year due to Endometriosis, I turn to tea and drink it more than ever. Decaf Earl Grey for breakfast, Green Tea throughout the day and sometimes, Camomile in the evenings before bedtime. All these choices using tea bags though.
Occasionally I’d brew a cup for variation. And being a somewhat serious tea drinker, I do have some gadgets to ensure it’s a satisfying experience. At the office, I used to steep loose leaf tea for my cuppa with a tea ball infuser. But I find the holes of this device too big and some of the fine tea crumbs or dust end up in my tea. So I stopped using it and use the bright pink strainer purchased from Lane Crawford in Hong Kong two Christmas’s ago instead.
The tea infuser strainer is perfect to steep the loose leaf because the tea dust do not escape into the brew. And it’s a refreshing change from the daily Green Tea.
At home, the mesh ball with handles is the go-to gadget to use if I don’t fancy brewing with tea bag.
Saturday was my big day – being Queen for the day on my birthday. Hubby decided to whisk me away on Friday for a birthday escapade. And what an escapade it was!
Our room overlooking the golf course, the mountain range and clouds
We went off to Awana Genting for an Alphabet Trip, usually reserved for our anniversary but this year, an Alphabet Trip was necessary because this year’s birthday is a big milestone celebration. After all, I can’t be Forever 38… gotta embrace it.
Had the golf course all to ourselves
We played two rounds of golf with both games finishing under four hours because there was hardly anybody else on the golf course. In fact, on Friday we had the golf course all to ourselves and we completed the game in three and a half hours!
Taking the cable car sure beats driving up the winding road and looking for parking
After the morning fun, that evening we took the cable car up to Genting to enjoy the place and the cool air. Dinner was simple but no alcohol (yet) because the newly opened The Laughing Fish have not gotten their liquor license. So we just drank Evian water, saving space in the tummy for the beer and stout later. We didn’t mind because there was no need to keep time, no agenda to be mindful of.
Famed for their Fish & Chips, we had to try
We explored Sky Avenue (16,980 steps on my MiBand 2 by the time we got back to the room) and even checked out the casino. I was boggled by all these gamblers throwing away money just like that at the Black Jack and Roulette tables. Stacks of chip laid out without hesitation, betting and hoping for Lady Luck to shine on them but gone in a blink of an eye. Jeez… many times mind you. Obviously I am not a gambler. We left as we couldn’t stand the cigarette smoke stench and it sticking to our clothes.
Gotta have my pint of Kronenbourg and hubby, his stout
The whole place was very happening with lots to eat, see and do. We ate (earlier) and drank to our hearts’ content—forget the 16/8 diet this weekend—and enjoyed the live band. They played songs I could sing to and it was very entertaining.
The cable car journey back to the hotel at Awana
The next day, another round of golf, another cable car ride after the game for another round of drinks and THE birthday dinner. Truly wonderful this birthday trip turned out as we did every alphabet on our list, A right through to G. Heheheh…
Cable car ride and pre-dinner drinks, a rum concoction
Nauseating just watching the spins from afar at Skytropolis
Spanish dinner with two bottles of red to celebrate, yes two
Post-birthday dinner: Spanish burger and squid ink pasta
A year wiser but definitely better with age. We returned home on Sunday morning after breakfast to hot and super hot weather, and another post-birthday dinner to cap off the birthday celebration.
Here’s to a wonderful year ahead and thank you friends and family for all your well wishes. A good start to life beyond Forever 38.
It’s hard to stay away from carving Whales. After the balsa bout, I itched to get back to Meranti, so here’s Whale 28. This fella’s a bit odd in size because the wood block that’s available is wider than most of the other pieces that I have done. Oh well.
It is kinda cute in its own way and once I paint it with the new pearl Pink Taffeta color, it will just be so gorgeous!
I thought carving up Citizen #182 was significant so I bought new colors to commemorate it. This time, I decided to introduce shiny colors for variety.
So besides painting up Citizen #182 in pearl Taffeta Pink, #183 was also given the new color, the glitter blue. Not content with this, I then refreshed a few earlier Citizens, adding clear glitter on top of their existing colors.
Maybe this year, glitter is the way to go as this latest batch look very pretty and shiny. I like ‘em.
Picture not giving the gloss and glitter enough prominence
Yesterday was a typical morning like any other as we got ready for work except that we had a caterpillar to check on. We looked for our behemoth Munch Pot, straining our necks upwards to look at the branches of the tree in front of the house. And we couldn’t find it! It was there on Sunday night. No… nooooo……
Just when we thought something so monstrous in size could thrive, being so hidden under the leaves, tragedy struck? But hubby said, there was poop evidence on the lawn, so perhaps it’s still around but just not at its last place we saw the day before.
Last night when we got home and checked again, nothing. Even with the flash on the iPhone XR to take a picture, there was no evidence, compared to the picture taken the night before. Oh dear…
The glow on Sunday was a giveaway on its position, but no glow on Monday
Perhaps it has reached the pupal stage and we should be looking out for a cocoon instead of the four inch fat caterpillar.
This morning, lo and behold, we spotted a cocoon! Thank goodness. I had to climb up the ladder again to take the picture. So now it looks like our behemoth Munch Pot has safely reached its next stage, and it will stay like this for a month.
I couldn’t contain my excitement when hubby told me he spotted a huge caterpillar on the branch of the tree in front of the house. I didn’t realize how huge it was until I saw it with my own eyes. Dang! It was gargantuan. All the earlier ones we found on the Calamansi Lime tree were puny compared to this fella.
Utilizing the zoom-in on the iPhone XR
I had to get the ladder to climb up close to see. And standing two-third high on the nine-foot ladder (the ground wasn’t even to be higher safely without falling), we figured the big fat fella’s at least four inches long. It’s a stupendous sight and discovery indeed!
This may sound disgusting but even its poop was big, peppering the front lawn untidily, as I took my ruler to measure – one centimeter wide. Eeesh…. Eeeesh. This is the real munch pot!
The behemoth creature was proving to be a delight in other aspects too. We discovered that it sort of glowed in the dark. I took a picture of it in the evening and it stood out with much contrast from the foliage. Pretty cool.
We are no caterpillar experts and had to google to find what species it might be because the features are not similar to the earlier Munch Pots at the garden. The exceptional features were the long tubercles on the body and no other color markings. As I researched, I found some interesting caterpillarfacts and eventually, managed to identify my behemoth Munch Pot.
And looks like I will be monitoring the branches the next few days because eventually it will morph into its next stage. I just hope it can last till then because these fellas, being at the bottom of the food chain are easy meat for predators if discovered. So far, it’s survived well to reach this size, hiding under the leaves and branches to eat and eat and eat.
Last week I was semi-convinced drinking beer was the culprit of my weight gain. This week, the suspicion has been reaffirmed.
This whole week, there was a lack of discipline because of timing and temptation. After the weekend escapade, we got home late because of rain and traffic, so there wasn’t time to do grocery. And when there’s no grocery done, there’s no salad lunches but regular hawker fare, noodles. Furthermore on Monday night, we had gym and no window for grocery-shopping still.
The brewery visit, at the first stop for pictures
On Tuesday night, we had an invitation to visit Carlsberg Brewery Malaysia – an opportunity not to be missed, we went for it. Forget the 16/8 diet and the self-imposed restriction to avoid beer. It’s Carlsberg and Kronenbourg, how can I refuse?
Visitors had to wear an orange vest for easy identification
It was interesting to see the beer-making process. Besides Carlsberg and Kronenbourg 1664, there are other labels too. My first encounter with Kronenbourg 1664 was back in 2013 when we went to Paris. What a lovely beer! It took sometime before this label came to Malaysia and now it’s brewed locally.
My first encounter with Kronenbourg in Paris, 2013
That night, after the tour of the brewery, there was free flow drinks. And we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, hubby on Connor’s, Carlsberg and Brooklyn Lager, me on Somersby Sparkling Rose, Sparkling White and Kronenbourg 1664.
Looks a lot but it’s not
Feature beer wall at the brewery’s watering hole
So I am not surprised the weigh-in this morning showed an increase of 1.2lbs, the beer being the culprit again. Oh well. I am unperturbed, I figured I gotta live a little and enjoy the beer. Next week when I am back on the 16/8 and be more disciplined, the minor setback will be fixed.
Siri struck again with her sarcasm! For two occasions when I asked her something and then wished her an early goodnight, she came back with this goodnight poem. Personalized just for me? Smart aleck!
After Saturday’s game at Harvard Golf & Country Club, we played at Darulaman Golf & Country Club the next day as it was closer to the house. That morning’s sunrise wasn’t as vibrant as the previous morning.
However, it wasn’t like Harvard with no other flights in sight. We were sandwiched between two noisy and irritating flights. The course layout was very tight with some tee boxes of each hole ahead situated in close proximity to the green of the hole before. So what happened ahead or behind basically could be heard clearly and loudly.
Several times the flight in front, at their tee box, group-laughed and whooped loudly when a tee-off launched errantly towards the line of trees at the side (instead of the fairway) whilst I was addressing my ball to putt. Hrmph.
This wasn’t the only antics we had to deal with. The group behind… They too, would group-laugh and whoop loudly too when they missed their putts whilst I was addressing my ball to tee-off. Double hrmph… It’s a whole new experience as you’d never know what you will encounter on the golf course. Those pesky flies yesterday were nothing in comparison.
I wouldn’t mind if the flight behind us drove a bad wayward tee-off, which they did, borrowing our side of the fairway (told you the layout’s tight) as we approached for our second shot but all these noises and disturbances are really quite unnecessary. Perhaps they don’t realize how loud they were. Sigh… golf etiquette shouldn’t just be limited to the flight one is in but for the surrounding too.
Flat, wide and dry
The grounds at Darulaman are hard and dry too just like Harvard. Both games, I found myself using my Cleveland Launcher 5-wood (I removed the Maruman 3-wood) and Cleveland 3-hybrid more than the long irons, and gained much yardage as the ball could bounce and run. Nice.
Despite the disturbances and pace, we managed to finish our game in a little over fours hours; the golf course being a buggy-on-course helped. After lunch, by 1.30pm the weekend escapade was over and we were on our back to KL.
Last Friday, hubby decided we should go see his parents back at his hometown up North, so we did. An impromptu escapade of sorts, away from the recent design project stress. The parents are fine and we had an enjoyable weekend. We played two rounds of golf.
Saturday morning, we checked out Harvard Golf & Country Club, the lesser known name from its counterpart of a more famous establishment, about a 30-minutes drive from the house. The morning sunrise was spectacular with the drive pleasant and unhurried.
We had the golf course all to ourselves and what an outing it was.
The sprinklers welcomed us when we walked to the tee box, the birds chirped and serenaded us as our gallery and pesky flies buzzed at my ears like hecklers. Interesting. The best part, no other golfing human in sight. Our little private playground.
Flat and dry
Dry and flat
How was the condition of the place? It wasn’t the best due to the dry weather. The grounds were parched and hard, so the fairways and greens were hardly fair and green but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. Even a bad topped shot was a good shot as the ball ran and bounced to gain yardage. And there were several instances this occurred because the ground was flat and dry and just so hard. If we had attempted to take divot with our shots, there’s bound to be injury or recurrence of old injuries. We finished the game in slightly under four hours.
All in all, I think we would give Harvard Golf & Country Club another chance and come back to play again.
Angieneering 
Remarks