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Our Alphabet Trip

28 Aug

Our wedding anniversary is coming up soon. During the significant milestones, we make it a point to go off somewhere to celebrate and rekindle the romance. Sounds corny I know but necessary for the soul and that’s how it works. Away from our daily routine, away from the mundane and away from the stress.

I call this our ‘Alphabet Trip’. 

A to admire, B to buy, C is ‘see’, D to drink, E to eat, F* to… well, you get the idea.

There was one year hubby got the anniversary year mixed up. Thinking it was the 15th year milestone, he planned our trip to Italy covering Rome, Florence and Venice. We visited museums, admired beautiful architecture, ate and drank a lot and basically, did the whole alphabet routine.

The following year, when it was the actual 15th anniversary and realizing the mix up, we decided to do another trip and basically covered the alphabets again. It was from this trip to Sydney that I bought my Blundstone boots.

The years that followed were ‘insignificant’ years, so we didn’t do anything special or planned anything grand. This year, the 20th wedding anniversary is coming up!

OMG. Where did time go? 20th milestone. No wonder there has been an increase in white hair count, M1 has gone off to university, M2 turned 14 but going on 18 and perspectives on life has changed. But these are good accomplishments save for the white hair count, that can’t be good.

We will be making a trip and decided to extend the alphabet to include ‘G’. For golf. It should be an awesome time.

Here’s to many more milestones together. Happy anniversary to us!

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The BMW Golf Cup International 2015

27 Aug

Yesterday it was another Wednesday-out-of-office for golf for me. But this was not just a typical mid-week escapade, this was my much anticipated BMW Golf Cup International tournament. And for the first time, I am playing in the Guest category instead of the Ladies category because the purchase date of my car has exceeded the six years restriction policy.

I left home early before the morning traffic crawl started to build up. And thoroughly enjoyed the sheer driving pleasure speeding along the highway to head towards the golf course. The day was cloudy and I must say I did not have the jitters. I was basically there to enjoy myself with no pressure and expectations. However I fare, I will not qualify for the National Final because in the Guest category, I am grouped together with all guest male players save for one other lady. It would be a tough ordeal as there are far more stronger players in this pool than me. 

Although my flight had only three ladies, both of whom were in the Ladies category, we had a good time. Fun? Well, it’s hard to say fun when the greens were so fast. Many a time, the three of us cringed when our balls rolled pass the hole, go back and forth of the hole and even hurtled off the green, away from the hole! Despite this, the spirit was strong, the company was good as the course was pristine, the challenge was there and the weather excellent. The hospitality, as always, was impeccable. It was a BMW event after all.

My first two years’ participation were uneventful but last year was a big achievement. I was champion in my Qualifying round and went on to play in the National Final. During the Finals, I even scored the Longest Drive novelty, smashing my dimpled ball to a distance of 213m.

This year, with the playing field different, being in the Guest category, I feel smug that I beat 35 men and another lady to win the Nearest To Line (NTL) novelty with a 40cm placement of my golf ball to the line. I suspect the guy who had his name on the board for his 50cm effort thought he had bagged this but too bad dude, I pipped you to it!

So yeah, I had my moment and it felt good, making up for the change in my category for this year’s participation.

 

The Hole-in-One prize which nobody won

  

The winning tee off, 40cm from the line!

 

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Joy

25 Aug

Joy is when you discover you are eligible after all to play in the BMW Golf Cup International 2015 tournament after the initial disappointment a few months back.

I received a call not too long ago informing me that I can play by just changing my category status from Lady to Guest. If only I knew earlier, it would have saved me a lot of heart ache and disappointment.

I tee off tomorrow at 8.00am.

Whee….

  

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Something Strange

24 Aug

Level 784 of Farm Heroes was tough because the challenge had 4 bulls on the board and you have to collect 175 green apples and 175 water drops, on top of getting 8 clams and bringing the 3 sheep over to the hay. Without a lot of moves, it was tough and I couldn’t pass it for days.

Then something strange happened. It was Wednesday night when I launched the game. The playing field changed and not what I had googled up to get an idea how to beat the level. Instead of 4 bulls on the board, there were only two and the 175 each for the green apples and water drops was reduced to 100 each! Weird. The sheep and the clam numbers remain. Because of the change in requirement, suddenly the playing field eased up.

Needless to say, I succeeded after two attempts and obtaining three stars along the way.

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The Laptop’s Back

20 Aug

I collected my laptop last night. With the change of the topcase to fix the ON/OFF problem, my MacBook Air now is semi-new. New on the surface but on the inside, I am still faced with having only 3 odd gig of space in the 120GB unit. I seriously don’t know what I have in it to take up so much space.

A quick check on its storage shows that I have 60GB of OTHER in my MacBook Air. What the heck is OTHER? I have to figure it out.

Anyway, the Candy Crush chapter, Raspberry Races opened for the iPad at the same time when the laptop came back, so there’s no real need to use the laptop, maybe except to collect my daily beans for Farm Heroes. But then again, it’s nice to have it back.

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Feeling Incomplete

13 Aug

Although I hardly use my laptop for work, I feel incomplete. Every morning when I have my coffee, I would launch my laptop to read the news, go into Farm Heroes especially to collect my daily awarded beans (something I can’t do on the iPad) and play Level 1101 of Candy Crush because the game has yet to update for the iPad. Now I can’t do any of these because my laptop is not back yet.

A friend sympathized with me and reasoned that if my laptop went in to be resurrected, it should just take three days. I am not convinced. It definitely isn’t a situation of biblical proportions; furthermore, it went in on a Sunday and not a Friday, you know what I mean?

Thank goodness Candy Crush Soda updated for the iPad by Tuesday night, so I had my candy fix back. But still, I feel agitated and incomplete. By Wednesday night, Candy Crush finally updated for the iPad but I have been stuck at Level 1101 for sometime now, feeling incomplete suddenly becomes inept! I can play yet I can’t play. Aargh…

Anyway, Apple did not call on Wednesday but emailed a quotation over for the repair cost. I almost fell off my chair! It will cost a third of a brand new MacBook Air if I went ahead with the repair. This is the first time one of my Apple devices is causing so much grieve.

Now, on top of feeling incomplete (and inept) I am upset too. Hrmph. 

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A Break in Routine

11 Aug

I must admit this week I am not taking off during the work week to go play golf. Yea… a break in routine considering that we did that for three weeks in a row, taking a Friday, then a Thursday and then a Wednesday off. 

And does Saturday count for this week? We squeezed in one game before doing the weekly Saturday night dinner with Mom and M2.

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Be Sad and Eat Oats

10 Aug

Sunday morning my laptop died. It can’t turn on. My MacBook Air. Gone. Kaput. I was not in the least upset but more worried that I could not play my games! Aargh…

Hubby declared, “Do not touch my laptop!” killing off any hopes of using his device to play my games.

Oh dear. What should I do?

We googled up tips and tried everything possible to resuscitate my laptop but to no avail. The laptop just cannot turn on after I shut it down the night before (instead of putting it to sleep).

So after lunch, we went to the mall and sent it in to Apple for service and was advised to leave it for two days. Two days without my laptop. How to progress for my Candy Crush and Candy Crush Soda? The two games that I now have no choice but to play on the laptop because there’s no updates yet for my iPad.

I felt miserable thinking about my options. And wanted to buy something, anything to drown my sadness. 

Walking pass every shop and retailer, I itched to buy the travel bag, eat gelato, buy a Thermos flask (I already have two) and drink Starbucks or a juice, an impulse reaction at being a loss.

When we walked into the pharmacy, M2 pointed to the oats on the shelf and suggested I “be sad and eat oats”. Cheeky girl, goading me on.

Boo hoo hoo… 

I hope the laptop will be fine.

We ended up eating a choc vanilla waffle and drank a Starbucks frappuccino.

Comfort food

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Not in Synch

7 Aug

 I stopped playing Candy Crush Soda for a few days because there has been no updates. But last night, I could not resist and peeked into the game in Facebook on the laptop.What do you know? I moved. Yay… so I played on and managed to progress to Level 452.

However, on the iPad, despite achieving a star for Level 451, the icon is grey and while my avatar is sitting at Level 452, its icon is also grey. Something is not right. Obviously grey means I can’t play on the iPad. Hrmph.

It looks like the game is not in synch for different devices when clearly I have progressed in one device (laptop) but it’s not showing in the other (iPad).

King.com had better fix this.

As for Candy Crush, Bubblegum Hut finally opened for the iPad and I leapfrogged to the end of the chapter. And just as I predicted, I cannot play because I have actually gone on to the next chapter. Sigh…

On the iPad, 451 & 452 are grey

 

in Facebook, 451 & 452 are colored!

 

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Not Fun Anymore

3 Aug

It certainly is not fun anymore when I find myself still stuck at Level 776 of Farm Heroes and caught in a time freeze at Level 1085 of Cloudberry Creek in Candy Crush on my iPad. I have actually gone passed the next chapter, Bubblegum Hut and started the subsequent chapter Pastry Palace (Level 1101) in Facebook on the laptop. 

I suspect even with an update, usually one chapter at a time, I may not be able to play on my iPad because I am two chapters ahead of Cloudberry! Too fast for my own good.

To add to the aggravation, I can’t go forth beyond Level 450 for Candy Crush Soda on both my iPad and laptop.

Hrmph. Better to go back to reading Genghis Khan.

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