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An Epic Fail

2 Aug

I have been playing golf for dinosaur years. And somehow there’s always a first for an unthinkable shot. An epic fail that is…

Tuesday was a public holiday and we took the opportunity to go play golf instead of just staying at home doing the usual carving (me) and gardening (hubby).

Our tee-off at 8.11am was later than our usual weekend 7-ish slot but we didn’t mind, it’s a public holiday and everyone’s playing golf. Anyway, the weather was lovely and the pace good without having to wait too long for every shot.

I must say I am playing much better now because there’s no pain in the wrist, carving less Gnomes these days. So the results are encouraging as each game goes by. But there’s always a first for an unthinkable scenario.

As we headed towards Hole 9, the last hole, I was getting a little tired because it was very hot by then. After all, we teed off late.

I had about 60m to the green. And although the coconut tree on the right wasn’t directly in my path, I thought launching my ball slightly left of the tree was the best approach to land nicely on the green center, close to the pin. So I took a full swing.

The ball flew above the tree but it never landed on the green as envisioned. Instead it landed in the tree! Yes, in the tree 15 feet or thereabouts above ground; my pink Nike golf ball never came out, dropped down or go past the tree. I was in disbelief!

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There, right there amidst the coconuts on the tree lies a pink Nike ball.

The approach space was so wide and yet, I managed to land my ball in the tree. That’s a first for me with such an unbelievable approach shot! An epic fail. Hahahaha…

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So Unfortunate

30 Jul

Over the weekend, hubby trimmed the trees on the front lawn and brought down the branch that had the cocoon. It looked dry and still sealed.

I slit open the thing, unsure of what we would discover. The structure of the cocoon had layers and layers of silk, molded to the shape of the leaf and very hard like a shell. And I had to use a pair of scissors with some effort to cut it because it was super strong.

When I finally managed to cut through a little, two spiders escaped and I knew they were the culprits that killed the moth. The black and white one scurried away quickly but I managed to snap a quick picture of the second one, an orangy looking varmint. Murderers!

Our highly anticipated Atlas Moth didn’t make it past its pupa stage. So unfortunate for we had waited and anticipated so long and in vain for its moment to emerge from the metamorphosis.

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Something’s Not Right, Part 2

29 Jul

My woes continued over the weekend. As if the stomach cramps and backache were not enough to give me sleepless nights, I had a swollen left eye too! Haish…

On Thursday night, I was carving and drilling, so I suspect the dust from this activity was the culprit to my eye problem. By Friday, it was rather swollen, like a goldfish.

Over the weekend, after many eye washes with Optrex, it subsided a little, thank goodness. Something may not be right but life goes on with activities to keep busy for I can’t put it on whole with all these problems trying to derail me.

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Don’t stare…

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Something’s Not Right

26 Jul

My Endometriosis pain has returned unexpectedly.

On Monday I was hit with the most excruciating pain (like the good old days) that I had to cancel my gym session. I couldn’t even sit straight, let alone walk properly, what more workout at the gym? Something’s not right.

The week before, there was pain building up but I did not think much of it. However I did wonder whether it was my food intake that’s causing my misery? After all, I did drink more beer than I should that week and had indulged in more chocolate than necessary.

This week, the severe pain struck me to the core literally and I had to resort to pain killers to manage. If the pain persists, a visit to my O&G is inevitable to have the problem checked.

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Suddenly It’s Too Big

23 Jul

Last year we planned some family time with M2 before she went off to Ireland to study. Since we decided on a beach outing in Penang, I dug up my old Sunseeker bikini. But guess what? As it had not seen much action the last few years, the rubber had hardened, thus no more elasticity and was out of shape. I was aghast, my favorite set.

So instead of fixing it (there wasn’t enough time), I decided to buy a new set but something different that came with underpads for the top piece. Now this was in December before I knew of this 16/8 diet.

Towards the end of February this year, I started the 16/8 diet and it’s been almost five months that I am at it and have lost weight generally, save for the couple of pounds gained lately due to a disrupted eating schedule. Two weekends ago, I pulled out the new set to try them on because a beach trip is coming up soon. And guess what? This time, the new set felt at least one size too big now because I, err… couldn’t fill them up!

Well, I certainly don’t want to grow back into it, now or ever, so I may have to buy yet another set (without underpads) or perhaps get the rubber fixed up on my old favorite set. We shall see…

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New Objective

16 Jul

I thought I needed to set a new objective all over again as far as the 16/8 diet is concerned. Although I gained only a pound from the recent US trip, the weight fluctuated the last two weeks and hoovering mostly on the up side. It felt like a set back–my Uniqlo jeans was a tad too snug–gaining weight back home and not from the vacation. Ugh.

There could be several reasons for this, number one being my leftover jet lag and number two, my eating habits.

The first week when I was back, I was eating breakfast when normally I don’t. By the second week, this need was overcomed but I found myself eating more and bigger portions for the two meals that I ate. Hmm…

Then last night, I went to the gym despite a cough developing. But it was a good workout as I sweated the excess water retention. And this morning as I stood on the digital bathroom scale, the weight has gone back to normal. Yay.

Having said that, I still have to be disciplined and have an objective. With my eating schedule back to normal, the new objective should be about fitting into another outfit rather than that Zara dress that I wore for M1’s Commencement.

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Still Can’t Get Over It

15 Jul

This jet lag thing is still getting to me. Towards the end of last week and even the weekend,I kept getting up at 5.30am like clockwork. I can’t seem to get over it.

The only consolation was on Saturday, when I had a morning golf game and normally I would wake up at 5.30am to get ready. I didn’t need the alarm and woke up on the dot before the alarm went off. And on Sunday, my golf game was scheduled for an afternoon round, I still woke up at 5.30am! Eeesh.

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More Tea Gadgets

12 Jul

On top of my delightful discoveries and purchases, there are tea gadgets too added to my collection now. M1 knows I prefer tea over coffee for health reasons, so it was very sweet of her to get me a couple of tea brewing gadgets.

Introducing my Deep Tea Diver and Loch Ness Tea Monster! Aren’t they adorable? Forget them tea bags, tea leaves are the way to go now to enjoy a nice cuppa.

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I will dive for you…

So if I want to see the effects of my Diver especially from the side and not the top, I need to get a glass cup to use instead of my existing ceramic mug. But if I choose to use Nessie, the mug will do; Nessie will just chill and stick her head out of my cuppa. Totally cute to the core, love ‘em!

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Nessie and Snoopy contemplating life over a cup of tea

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When Will I Recover

9 Jul

It’s been nine days since we returned from the US and both of us have not fully recovered from the jet lag! My goodness… it’s taking rather long.

Every night the whole of last week, we were waking up twice in the middle of the night at two hour intervals. The only one night I slept throughout until morning was last Friday when I went out for dinner with my golf buddies and I drank whiskey. I think it helped. The other nights were normal routines without any aids or meds to expedite the recovery.

So how long does one take to recover from jet lag?

From what I read online, it would take about a day to recover for each time zone crossed. Hmm… the time difference for us is 15 hours, so about two weeks to recover? Gosh…

Generally, jet lag is worse when traveling from West to East. We started out from Portland, and headed East to Salt Lake City, Amsterdam and finally Kuala Lumpur, that’s going East all the way. With the extra one stop (at SLC), long transit time and flying, maybe that’s why we are taking longer than a week to recover. Our 2012 trip to the US, we flew from East to West, San Francisco to Kuala Lumpur and that time, I took a week to recover from the jet lag.

Well, I woke up once at five this morning instead of twice before sunrise. Maybe a sign that I am recovering. Hopefully by the end of this week, the body would finally catch up with the time zone I am in and totally recover from the jet lag.

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All Good on the Home Front

5 Jul

Now that the bag delay issue is settled, there are other matters to tend to.

Official pet number one, Rooney, was confused then happy to see us when we got home. Generally all was good on the home front except for two things – the Marimo Moss balls and the cocoon still hanging on the tree in front of the house.

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He loved his new chew toy

The moss balls would need some serious TLC to recover as they have turned brown but this wouldn’t be an issue to revive them. The cocoon is quite a challenge though. It’s been too long at this stage. Did we miss the emerging moment and deceived by the cocoon shell, still hanging up there? Maybe I should brave climbing up the tall ladder to have a closer look. Hmm…

I’m glad I didn’t gain too much weight, only a pound. I thought it would be more considering the 16/8 diet was thrown out the window the minute we arrived at KLIA and had a beer and indulged in snacks at the Premier Lounge before we boarded.

It wasn’t just the things we ate in the US but when we ate which was always late dinners past seven and sometimes even nine or ten at night, hardly at five or six like we normally do back home. And I ate breakfast constantly eating because it was cold and I needed food to fuel the body to keep warm.

Being back means being back to routine and I am pretty sure that extra pound will be shed in no time especially once I get over my jet lag. So it’s great that all’s good on the home front.

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