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The Real Farmer

2 Sep

I have been playing Farm Heroes for quite a long while but lately getting bored by it. Maybe because I am stuck at Level 903. I thought I was a good farmer but hubby is better, and a real one.

Unlike me who harvests virtual fruits and vegetables, hubby grows the real stuff. From our garden, he has harvested a whole lot of the blue flower (Clitoria Ternatea) for brewing tea and awaiting the next crop of other herbs and plants to mature before harvesting them.

Quite the farmer he has been, more than me.

   
   

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Out of Action

25 Aug

I finally did something about the constant pain in my left wrist because I can’t go on with one day of good golf and the next day, terrible golf. And the discovery was not good. Uh oh. Saw a sports doctor who advised me to take an x-ray just to be sure no broken bones because she felt a bone spur when she probed my hand. Uh oh.

The x-ray result came out good. Phew. No hairline cracks, so essentially this means the soft tissues. I have a slight tear in the muscle at the wrist area that is causing pain here, there and everywhere because everything is connected.

The first thing the doctor said, no sports or any stress inducing exercise that involves the hands. Uh oh. No golf in other words. And my gym sessions would have to change, no weights.

For a good 6 weeks! With some rest in between, I am looking at being out of action for two months. How will I survive?

And I have to undergo a treatment program to regenerate the tissues and enable the stretched muscles to recover. The treatment is a combination of ultra sound for deep penetration repair, manual massage therapy, radio frequency stimulation and bone realignment. 

I decided to have the treatment three times a week for the recommended 20 sessions which works out to be about six weeks, give and take a little.

Somehow this time, I am more accepting of the situation. It’s exactly the same problem I had  seven years ago, only more pronounced that has recurred and doing the same treatment to rectify. Back then I was reluctant to sit out for two months. This time, I will gladly do so to ensure no repeat again.

I started treatment yesterday. 

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The Power of One

23 Aug

The Rio 2016 Olympics has come to an end. It was a world sporting event of epic proportions. New stars and darlings were born, legends immortalised and unity became stronger than ever, even for a fleeting moment for some countries, mine for one. There was also its fair share of controversies and headline grabbing moments. Part and parcel right?

Although I did not follow the Games as much, I did watch some events: golf, diving, swimming, table tennis and badminton. I remember my first exposure to the Olympics was during the dinosaur summer days of 1984 and names like Carl Lewis, Zola Budd and Mary Decker comes to mind. Track & Field was the event to follow. This time, it’s a whole lot more events and names.

Watching the golf event was obvious because I enjoy the sport. I even stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to watch the men battle for gold. It was exhilarating! Diving was due to my country’s sportswomen qualifying for the 10m platform final. Swimming was of course the lure of the most decorated Olympian swimmer, table tennis because the players were amazing. They inspire me to want to pick up a paddle and play some hard core table tennis! And badminton because of our presence in the finals. I missed track and field live but did catch the main attraction events later.

Malaysia, my country, is not known for her sports prowess in the world arena or at the Olympics save for a couple of events. Although in squash we have a world class player, the racquet sport is not featured at the Olympics. When Team Malaysia qualified for the Badminton Mixed Doubles, Men’s Doubles and Men’s Singles, it was elation and pride that I felt. I am sure 30 million of our population felt the same way too.

Suddenly, there was a sense of togetherness in the nation when our players qualified for three out of the possible five finals! It’s quite a feat denying China the powerhouse of this event for yet another clean sweep like the last outing. The power of one, badminton, had united all of us to dream the impossible: achieving gold. Could we achieve it this time? 

For three nights in a row, the nation came together to root for a golden ending. The giddy excited chorus of yays when a point was scored and the worried groans in unison when a point taken was pretty amazing. Unfortunately as much as we hoped for a happy ending, we came out short and clinched silver in all three events.

We should hold our heads high and be proud of how far our nation has come along, achieving our best Olympics results ever at Rio 2016. The power of one sport, badminton, has done much good for the country and her people. The gold may have evaded us now but we look forward to Tokyo 2020 to clinch our first gold medal.

The Olympics. It was amazing. Thank you Rio 2016.

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4.30am, Twice

22 Aug

As you know I have always dreaded the 5.30am wake up calls during my golf trips. Well, over the weekend, it was far worst than 5.30am. It was 4.30am, twice! After a late Friday night out, sleep was pretty much eluded as we had to wake up at 4.30am to ready ourselves for the journey down south for golf. Hubby and I were joining the Club entourage to Johore and Singapore, two bus loads of enthusiastic golfers, departing at 5.30am. Tiring needless to say.

Orchard Golf and Country Resort was our first stop for a Saturday afternoon game, which was hot, breezy and super hot. Amazingly I played one of my better games but in the process I think I aggravated my old wrist injury. The next day, we checked out to head on to Singapore for an 8.00am tee off at Raffles Country Club. So being an early tee off, 4.30am was the wake up call because we had to cross the Tuas checkpoint. And for the second time I am in Singapore for golf, it rained, just like the other visit back in April. We had to wait it out. Tiring needless to say.

This time around, the pain in the wrist flared and despite the course being scenic and relatively manageable, I did not enjoy myself as much. Sigh… 

Actually both games were not that tiring because they were buggy on course instead of being limited on just the tracks. It was more of the timing for logistics, the lack of proper sleep and the travelling time that made it tiring. However, I am not complaining. We had a good time and look forward to the next opportunity.

Now to get that wrist looked at…

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A New Tracker, Part 2

19 Aug

I have been using a fitness tracker for many years and currently using the wearable Xiaomi Mi Band2. I started off with the simple Tanita pedometer that tracks steps, distance and calories. It was perfect until I misplaced it.

So when we were in Paris back in 2013, I used an app on my iPhone to track my steps. But that didn’t work out too well. I remember I lost count on several thousand steps when I was walking from one museum to another. Upset, I bought another tracker from Decathlon, a sports store in Paris to use.

But the Geonaute OnStep 100 pedometer was big and clunky and I was stuck with it until out of the blue, I found my first pedometer. I ended up alternating each to use. And it was a hassle because of battery replacement issues.

Soon after, the Xiaomi Mi Band 1S came about and I was on to it, casting the two pedometers aside. Now, with the latest Mi Band2, missed counts, dead batteries and clunkiness are no longer an issue to stress over and the Mi Band 1S joins the other two in retirement despite having new replacement strap.

You served me well, thanks

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A New Tracker

18 Aug

Two weeks ago, I got myself a new wearable band, the Xiaomi Mi Band2 to replace my first gen Mi Band. It’s a much improved fitness tracker that comes with the usual capabilities plus heart rate monitor, an OLED-display and a touch button to see all the stuff on it. So simple and sufficient that I don’t even wear my watch sometimes.

Prior to this purchase, I actually have a Garmin VivoFit that I won as a novelty prize when I participated in the BMW Golf Cup International last year. But this device needs iOS8 to synch and unfortunately my iPhone5S is still on iOS7, so I gave up on it and insisted that hubby should use it, which he does at times. (He uses an Android phone, so no problems synching whatsoever).

My new Mi Band2 is very nice and sleek, a tad thicker than the one before but the best part, it can synch with my phone! This is what matters most for all my fitness data.

The old (with a new green strap) and the new

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Feeling Sluggish

16 Aug

It’s interesting to note after a week’s absence from the gym, the body feels sluggish and heavy. Was back at the gym last night and doing weights and ab crunches. It was excruciating.

The Birkin bag was not used last night but the gym medicine ball instead. And balancing on it to do push-ups was sure not easy! On top of this, I was doing ass-burning routines which were… ass burning. Gawd… I could feel the ass shrinking with each swing of the legs.

Painful but after that, it felt good. I think it’s not so much of what not to eat or drink but rather maintaining a regular exercise routine so that sluggishness does not set in.

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Losing Steam

12 Aug

Of late, I have been stuck at all levels of my virtual games so much so, I feel I am losing steam playing them.

Maybe I should stop. And immerse myself in the Olympics happening now in Rio. Or go back to reading especially that book on Genghis Khan that I started but stopped because the mountains were too epic for me. The book has been collecting a mountain of dust since then.

Or I could go back to carving owls. This too has lost steam because I have gotten lazy with it. It can get quite messy when the momentum picks up and I don’t like the cleaning up when I get done. But there simply has not been an opportunity to sit down quietly and be at it. Too much going in and out and this interrupts the focus. Losing steam. Sigh…

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Being An Accomplice

11 Aug

I don’t play Pokemon Go but hubby and M2 are at it just about at every opportunity. True Pokemon trainers these two have become. What about me? I would say I fall into the category of a passive semi-reluctant Pokemon accomplice and I am pretty sure there are many like me. I know some friends are. Nonetheless, I have been very neutral and rather bemused at their perseverance. After all, they put up with me and my candy crushing ways.

The last two days at the office, after lunch, I would avoid the heat and quickly head back to the comforts of indoors and air-con whilst hubby would go off under the hot sun in search of Pokemons. I refuse to be an accomplice here and maintain my passiveness towards the game.

However, I have been roped in to be an accomplice, driving them to PokeStops, after the tuition run nights. Now this becomes ridiculous especially when it wasn’t just a stop but several stops. Here, I am semi-reluctant because somebody has to drive and it certainly cannot be the older Pokemon trainer for safety’s sake.

M2 may have a new and faster phone now but she lamented that she does not have data to play the game whenever we are in the car. For this, I am thankful that she doesn’t and just have to deal with it. But the hubby has become an accomplice by making his phone a hotspot for her to connect to catch ’em all. Unlike me, that’s a willing accomplice right there.

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Not About to Start

8 Aug

Pokemon Go has finally landed on our shores! And like everywhere else in the world, we saw over the weekend a lot of people pointing their phones away from themselves in public places in search of Pokemons to catch. We were at the mall and saw a lot of funny facial and physical reactions whenever something was caught. People have become strange and oblivious of the surrounding.

It was coincidental that last Friday I bought M2 a new phone for her birthday present albeit belated, upgrading her from the old iPhone4 to an iPhone5c that can support the Pokemon Go. The iPhone4 I believe cannot support the app, so there was double happiness for her, having a faster new phone and being able to play the game. Great timing.

M2 and hubby, the one person whom I least expected to participate in this, are both constantly looking at their smartphones over the weekend and catching Pokemons. And like everyone else, these two have become animated and ridiculous at the same time. 

What about me? 

I have refrained from downloading the app and certainly adamant not to even try the game. It’s enough that I have obsessed over candies, farm animals and monsters, another new addiction to catching Pokemons would certainly do me in. So, no, I am not about to start on it.

  

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