Hubby’s air plants have bloomed and the colors are so so pretty. I guess staying under the shaded Frangipani tree has really done wonders for them, protected from the onslaught of direct sunlight and rain.
I should go out to the garden more often to admire and appreciate all the greens and colors, weather permitting of course as rainy season has started.
The phrase “Golf is one painful and mental game” that I have been repeatedly saying has now become my favorite phrase when writing about golf. There’s always a story to it.
My game over the weekend was so contrasting in the results from the previous weekend – disastrous in other words, is the latest incident linking to the phrase. It was just pain this time and was literal with the Nike FitSole shoes that I wore.
I had a huge painful blister on my left pinky toe and almost developed another on the right pinky toe!
For the record, the waterproof shoes are actually quite comfortable being very padded, cushy and wide. So I cannot comprehend why there was friction at the edges inside to cause both feet to hurt and I ended up like that after 18 holes. And this is the first time this happened, the blister that is.
I conclude there’s always, always something that will go wrong despite the perfect weather, the good company, my good iron shots and pain-free right tennis elbow. The left wrist hurt initially but the painkiller took care of it. Little did I know the shoes were the culprit this time.
There shouldn’t be any excuses but…. Maybe my thin socks were too thin? Or maybe I cannot play golf on a weekly basis yet? Or maybe I am kidding myself thinking the shoes suit me. Sigh… Whatever it was, my Nike just couldn’t do it for me that Saturday morning.
Don’t mind the wrinkled toe but see the beautiful full blown blister?
There is a reason for doing online shopping on Fridays. It’s so that the parcel arrives the following week before the weekend. Yes, my latest purchase has arrived! You do realise my purchases are always small parcels unlike hubby’s that come in boxes…
It’s a mini drill set that comes with 60 pieces of mini drill bits. With the weekend coming up, I am super excited with this addition to my ever growing carving setup. Let’s see what I can do with it especially on detailing work.
Fridays are fun day days for various reasons. One, it’s the end of the work week and two, it’s the start to the weekend for most. For me, I find Fridays the perfect day to do online shopping and it’s fast becoming an addictive thing to do.
Every other Friday, I find myself ordering something online! So what did I just ordered this time? Another tool for carving of course! Can’t wait for the package to arrive.
Within a few days, I carved up several Gnomes at the pace of one a day. It’s a pleasant change from doing the easy peasy Citizens on balsa wood. The best part is the supply of the Meranti blocks are all about the same height, so these newbies are consistent in height.
Also I have gotten the process down to a routine and this helps in getting the carving done up fast. I just hope I can keep the momentum going. With Gigglesville’s population at 180, it’s Gnomie-wood turn to have a growth in its population. However, it’s a long long way to go as the Gnome count is a mere 21 only as of today.
Painted but not varnished, gessoed and, carved & patched with wood putty
After the creepy Siri episode, my iPad Mini was next! Unbelievable. It was a typical evening at home and I sat at my usual spot in the living room. Then, as always, I reach out for my iPad for a dose of evening games on it.
Upon trying to turn on the device, my iPad Mini of six years – never once required any password to unlock suddenly asked for my ID and password to unlock and activate! Huh? Since when did I needed to do this? Is this creepy? Brr…
Seriously I’m not quite sure what is going on with my devices. Are they trying to tell me something? Hmm…
Over the year, my iPhone5S has been acting weird when it comes to Siri. While this assistant may be a useful feature for most, Siri’s helpfulness for me is bordering on creepy.
First of all, I must say I never use it because Siri doesn’t quite understand my Asian accent. I left it as is because I was not aware or may have forgotten that I can disable this feature! How silly of me.
So every now and then in the office, in the quiet of the moment and out of the blue, Siri would trigger, asking me a question or telling me an answer! Creepy. How is this possible when I did not even interact with it, much less touch the phone?!
It’s even creepier in the past when I am in bed at night, there’s no sound or loud noises, Siri suddenly activated itself, a couple of times no less! Gulp.
I brushed those several creepy occurrences aside, but recently I mentioned to M2 and she told me I can disable the feature and proceeded to show me how to do it. Phew.
On top of this and with the phone recently updated to iOS12, I don’t foresee Siri behaving creepily ever again. Unless of course I reactivate it…
My latest tool, the wood plane is one awesome tool. I’m loving it! It worked beautifully to smoothen the surface of the latest piece that I am working on – a second home for the Gnomes.
I even used it on Gnome16 to smooth out the surface of its tall cap and I am very pleased with the end results.
The usage is only possible if the pieces are the Meranti wood and big in size, and certainly not practical on the soft balsa pieces of the Citizens (of Giggglesville) that are usually 26mm in height. It’s the beginning of new frontiers as far as carving and shaping is concerned.
The making of a Gnome home
Gnome16’s cap was planed beautifully
Official pet number one, Rooney, is one silly dog. Every time when I am set up at the garden terrace to do my carving, he would be my little vacuum cleaner. I know it’s bad for him but sometimes he gets to the wood shavings much faster than me!
Two weeks ago, over the three-day weekend when I was working on two pieces of Meranti simultaneously, the mess was everywhere on the floor and he just took the liberty to crawl under my workbench and helped himself. One silly dog indeed.
Hmm…. tit bits! I like….
Gosh… they taste soooooo good! Ohm nom nom…
Recently Apple launched their new range of iPhones for 2018/2019. Cool babies I must say but pricey. As for me, I am still with my trusty iPhone5S, adamant not to upgrade or update.
It took me a long time to update from iOS7 in the past. And when I finally did, a whole new world opened for me as far as my phone’s usage was concerned and got me thinking that I should have done it earlier. Oh well.
Currently, my phone’s still on iOS10.3.3 as I held off updating to iOS11 because I didn’t like the new features then when M2 showed them to me on her iPad. Being a dinosaur, I must admit I don’t like change because it’s cumbersome to learn new things.
But now with iOS12 being available and somehow it’s pretty cool especially compared to iOS10.3.3, I don’t mind updating. With the iPhone5S included in the list for the update, I am convinced and decided to take the plunge.
One reason for making this decision is that my phone’s battery has been acting wonky of late. Maybe with the update, the battery drain problem can be stabilized? Nonetheless, the situation is making me wonder if the phone is showing signs that it may not last as long as I would like it to. Shudder…
So if I ever come to the point where I need to change my phone, obviously I’d like an upgrade to one of the new models that were launched. And it’d be good that the dinosaur in me is also prepared to deal with the new iOS12. But until then, let’s not jump the gun to wish for an early death for my faithful phone and just enjoy the new iOS on my current iPhone5S.
Angieneering 
Remarks