Archive | January, 2020

May Our Fortunes Rise and Expand

31 Jan

Yesterday our office reopened and we’re back to work. Year in, year out, we always reopen the office on the 6th day of Chinese New Year except there was one year, a friend told us the 5th day was even better to start work. That was the only time we did that.

Usually during the Lunar New Year period, work is very disrupted because the flow of things are not smooth. Our supporting vendors (for print jobs) would not be taking anymore orders when the date draws closer to the Reunion Dinner night. They would be clearing the existing ongoing projects before closing a day or two earlier for the all important dinner.

Sometimes we do this too, closing earlier, when we have to return to hubby’s hometown for the dinner with his family. An earlier departure would mean a shorter drive thus avoiding the exodus for the long drive ahead. Then during the 15 days of the celebration, we would close for the first five days while some vendors are taking longer breaks than most, things cannot progress further.

Thankfully, workload upon return is typically not too heavy because either everyone’s still on leave or clients who are back to work early do understand that during the Lunar New Year, not much can be done; so there’s no urgency to get things completed within a tight deadline.

Also during this time, there’s a lot more lunches and dinners to attend. So there goes the 16/8 diet. Typically these sumptuous meals will include the ‘Yee Sang’ dish to toss, a must have during the festivities for good luck and prosperity. Either with clients, friends or family, the ‘Yee Sang’ tossing ritual is a very noisy affair.

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Getting the chopsticks ready over the abalone Yee Sang before we tossed ’em high!

We had our first ‘Yee Sang’ during the Reunion Dinner with the family and today, with our design team later. So toss ‘em high we shall to symbolise our wishes for our fortunes to rise and expand for the Year of the Rat. Huat ah! Ong ah! Heng ah!

Smooth Sailing

28 Jan

The weekend passed by quickly and this morning we said our goodbyes to the parents and left at 8.45am. In anticipation of heavy traffic ahead, I packed lots of snacks and drinks to keep us fueled. But we were in for a surprise, it was smooth sailing!

It took us the normal two and a half hours to reach Ipoh, which was good. But we joined a long slow crawl after Ipoh. A quick check on Waze showed an accident further up. Oh dear.

Nonetheless it’s an okay pace because half the journey was completed already. Even if we arrived home by two, we’d still have done it in good time.

Chinese New Year Customs

27 Jan

We left home on the first day of Chinese New Year to head for hubby’s hometown. The traffic wasn’t too bad save for two stretches where it was rather heavy and another where a minor accident occurred. I won’t elaborated on this though…

As always with every other Chinese New Year, it’s a family tradition to visit an Aunty residing in another town nearby and to catch up with other family members. Soon the first day passed by quickly.

Day two was more our thing, and that is playing our customary first Chinese New Year golf game at Darul Aman Golf & Country Club. When we got to the golf club, there was hardly anybody else. But after the first tee off, we saw some other golfers.

The pace was slow in front of us. Then again it was a typical four ball flight versus our two balls. I played well again. Maybe it’s the golf set, the XXIO MP900 clubs are getting more comfortable with each game. But after the game, the elbow hurt to high heaven!

When we crossed over, the waiting pace stretched even more. The flight in front of us apparently bypassed the jumbo flight in front of them! So we ended up trailing the six-balls and it was so tedious as they were extremely slow. And annoyingly noisy but we endured because we were not in a hurry and we didn’t want any bad vibes during this festive time.

We will play another game today before we return tomorrow, bracing for the heavy traffic and long drive ahead.

Reunion Dinner 2020

24 Jan

This is it! This evening the family sans our two girls will gather for the all-important Reunion Dinner. We chose to eat at a restaurant instead of dining at home, slaving over the stoves preparing the dishes.

A time for reflection: I would like to approach the year with more positivity, less pain and less judgemental so that life would be happier and more meaningful. Here’s wishing everyone a very Happy and Prosperous Year ahead, Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

What a Good Start

21 Jan

I played my third golf game of the year on Sunday and it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I have always said golf is a funny game and Sunday’s result takes the cake. It’d always catch you unaware no matter how prepared or unprepared you are.

Prior to Sunday’s game, both of us played our first game of 2020 a week ago and it was nice to get back to our usual weekend routine. However, my flight did not complete the round despite the weather being so good and the company pleasant. Instead we did only 15 holes because everyone felt tired for all sorts of reasons.

And I was no different, having laid off for so long when M1 was back, and played golf like a 9-hole player. In short, I held up well only for the first nine and then was out of sorts when we crossed over. So I was really glad we stopped with three holes left to play.

The second game a few days later was weird because I felt unprepared, having only five hours of sleep and my tennis elbow flared up again. In spite of the circumstances, I played one of my better games. But Sunday’s game was a totally different ball game altogether.

Hubby and I were ‘extras’ in our Club’s Interclub game as there were more home club players than opponents. So in this essence we would not be contributing any points for our team because we were playing amongst ourselves. But as the format was Best Ball Stableford, taking the better score of all partnerships would be tabulated to award the best pairs of both respective clubs.

I started out decent. But things fell apart quickly by the third hole–we started on Hole 9–coming back with zero points on the dreaded Hole 11 and unexpectedly on the next hole after that too. I steadied myself and managed a par at the next hole to salvage the situation, and was doing okay until Hole 18, my phobia hole. No surprise when I dunked two balls into the water. Oh well, as it was Stableford points, I did not attempt any further on that hole. When we completed the back nine, I scored only 11 points. Meagre…

I was like oh well, I’d just enjoy the front nine. Then things exploded! To cut a long play-by-play short, I played the front nine with two pars and two birdies! A rarity for me with not one but two birdies in a game. The Scotty putter was red hot, converting a lot of single putts from all distances, thus saving strokes and scoring a whole lot of Stableford points.

The two birdies came on the Par 3s, one off a crazy long putt from the front of the green to the back pin and another off the fringe of the green to the front pin. It was mind boggling! I seriously don’t know what happened because never before had I played to such levels, competition or otherwise, given that I have been constantly in pain with my injuries here and there. But it felt good and I’m certainly not complaining.

That morning, I scored a whopping 28 points on the front nine alone to cover the back nine and return with 39 points in total for my individual attempt. Unbelievable!!!

And to our surprise, both hubby and I were awarded the best runner-up pair for our Club with 45 points for our best ball effort! We couldn’t believe our ears when the announcement was made. And mind you, my golfer’s elbow was giving me problems all this time but somehow I managed and obviously the results showed. What a good and pleasant start to the year for golf. Let’s hope I can keep this up and not let this be a one-game wonder!

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Feels good to be awarded for our effort!

The Streak Snapped

20 Jan

It finally happened, the Candy Crush Soda Daily Bonus continuous streak finally broke! It was Saturday morning and as always, after waking up, I’d pick up my devices for the morning routine.

The morning routine being launching both the Cat Condo games to collect my millions and releasing the cats from the cages, then Homescapes then Soda for the Daily Bonus before reading the news. Somehow the day before I didn’t get to Candy Crush Soda on the iPhone XR, only the iPad Mini and I didn’t even realized I missed it out.

When I launched Candy Crush Soda on Saturday morning, I was on Day 1! Wow, after 1243 days at it constantly, the chain finally broke. Luckily on the iPad Mini, it was still captured at 1244 days. I now wonder if I should still go on with it. Hmm…

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As of today, the streak on the iPhone XR is a lowly Day 3 while on the iPad Mini, it goes on for Day 1246.

Preparations for the Lunar New Year

17 Jan

The Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year is one week away, omg! This time, I really take the cake leaving it until the very last minute to prepare to usher in the Year of the Rat. What a champion.

According to the Chinese zodiac, the Rat is the first animal in the 12-year cycle and 2020 is the year of the Male Metal Rat. Do find out what the Metal Rat Year means for you if you believe in Chinese horoscope as it differs for all Chinese zodiac signs. For me, well… good fortune will smile upon me if I put family and friends first!

On the homefront, the customary red cloth at the entrance of the house will be put up this weekend (told you it’s very last minute!) and the customary gifts finally prepared. This year the Reunion Dinner will be with my Mom and my sibling’s family before we head North the next day to hubby’s side of the family. And for the second year in the row, both our girls will not be present for the festive occasion.

Cat Condo is So Last Decade

14 Jan

Of late, collecting money to evolve cute cats is becoming so mindless and so last decade. It’s been very slow to add a new species even though I am constantly at it. I think I just want to collect them all just to see what they look like. To divert my boredom, I started playing a new game, Homescapes.

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Am up to Level 343 as of today, this morning.

This game has been around for sometime already but it never caught my interest until recently. As I’m getting tired becoming a gazillionaire with both the Cat Condo games, I decided to give Homescapes a try because it kept popping up (as an ad) when I’m tending to the cats.

So far, it has been holding my interest well – I’ve been playing it at every opportunity and even into the wee hours past midnight. But we shall see how long this can last.

Spot the Caterpillar

13 Jan

My fascination with caterpillars subsided when there wasn’t anymore to be discovered. Partly also, I’ve stopped going out to the garden to specifically look for them because the mozzies would get to my arms and legs.

The two potted plants at the front of the house do not seem to have anymore caterpillars too until recently. It was discovered quite accidentally.

A rather unusual species this time, see if you can spot the caterpillar. I’ll give you a hint: it’s not green and its scientific name is the Geometridae family.

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Progress After the Food Trail

10 Jan

We have dived straight into our 16/8 diet this week and pleased to say we are holding up okay. There’s no withdrawal symptoms from the change in pattern nor from the diet that now consists of minimal meat/protein, some carbo and lots of fiber.

I have gone back to my usual tea only in the morning before the salad lunches and healthy home-cooked dinners at home, all within the eight hours window to eat and no further intake during the 16 hours except for one night where we had fruit cake and tea at a friend’s.

I am also mindful to move to burn some calories but exercising has been a challenge when every evening I’d sit at my little corner to work on my carvings. I’m not too worried though because this would be resolved once we go back to playing golf.

But of late, the endometriosis attacks have been rather frequent and the pain level ranges, it’s unbearable and hard to do much. The night when we were at the airport, I had to take my painkillers twice in a span of three hours apart because the pain was simply horrible. There’s no words to describe this. Sigh…

Other than this problem of mine, I’m glad to say the both of us have adjusted after the food trail, with our weight almost back to pre-M1’s arrival.