The Ride, Part 2

20 Apr

The lady motorbike rider I wrote about recently reminded me of my encounter with this mode of transportation dinosaur years ago. It was during an interim period and I was working while waiting to go off to college. I was an artist for a publishing house that produced educational books for children.

In the mornings, Dad would send me to work as my office was close by his office. Days when I finished early I would go home with Dad. But there were nights that I had to work late and I didn’t want Dad to wait nor did I want to take the bus home. Luckily, I had a co-worker who lived in the same town and I would go home with him. On his motorbike.

So there I was on a couple of occasions, sitting at the back of his motorbike, clinging on to my dear life as he hurtled along the highway in the night to send me home.

It was downright scary whether it was the first time or second time because being hit by the wind on the face constantly was foreign and rather terrifying. Then there was that firm death grip on the bar behind my seat throughout the ride to ensure I remain on the bike. And the awkwardness to stay balanced, tilting along and not against when he tilted the bike to turn…

Quite an experience. After those couple of rides, never again I rode on a motorbike.

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Why Do We Exercise?

18 Apr

It was a big debate last night during gym on why do we exercise? This came about because my tennis elbow has not progressed in recovery and I should be resting instead.

I downgraded from the 4kg weight (the one I call my Birkin bag) to a two pounder and even then, I could not do a lot of the usual routines. Yes, it’s bad. Remember I couldn’t even lift a head of cabbage from the grocery store? And over the weekend, I was having a pint, it was so hard to lift up the mug. It’s almost funny when told to use a straw for my ice cold beer!

Hubby suggested that we should be like the cavemen of yonder years – just eat, sleep, hunt and not exercise (or exert) unnecessarily to preserve energy. He pointed out that these people possibly may have led lives with less sports injury, no tennis elbows or sprained wrists. Interesting theory but not scientifically substantiated. There could be injuries from hunting…

Nice try to escape exercising except that we don’t live in caves and physically hunt these days, hubby dear. We live in a nice big house and we have bills to pay. And we have to physically drive to work, use our brains and work – the modern version of ‘hunting’ to stay alive.

Modern people exercise to counterbalance the demanding lifestyles. Two issues come to mind: to destress from work pressure and to burn off the over-consumed food. Do cavemen have these worries? While they may not have bills, mortgages and credit cards to manage, there’s no golf, no alcohol… no friends… shudder.

Given such a scenario, I’d rather exercise to counterbalance my lifestyle, injuries inclusive.

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The Ride, Part 1

17 Apr

It was a typical weekend evening routine. We were headed to our favorite mall for dinner when I spotted the motorbike rider along the highway. I managed to snapped a picture of her.

The lady rider was actually sitting cross-legged on her scooter! How does one do that? Then again, isn’t it dangerous? It’s not a country-side road, it’s the highway with lots of vehicles. It may be the weekend with less traffic but still, it’s a busy highway. Goodness!!!

It was amazing that she could balance and ride along safely.

Look closely at the legs!

 

 

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The Prettiest Grocery List

14 Apr

Whenever I do groceries, I have to have a list. It’s a habit of mine that I prefer the old fashion paper and a pencil to check things off over a list keyed into my iPhone.

Sometimes I even add little doodles next to the items to make the list easier to see than read. After all, I am an artsy person, why not apply my skills to make the mundane more interesting?

When M2 was younger, I used to make her do my grocery list. There was once after she was done, she said excitedly, “Mummy! Here… You now have the prettiest grocery list!”

“See the flowers? They are growing!”

Indeed, my grocery list had very neat cursive hand-writing peppered with some decorations and a short sequence of the growing flower, from pod to bloom.

Pretty. I should make her do my grocery list more often these days.

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Setback

13 Apr

You know you’ve got it bad when you’re at the grocery store and can’t even pick up a head of cabbage! And it’s not even like it’s the biggest one on the shelf. Uh oh.

I injured myself again last weekend during my Saturday golf game. I suspect it’s from the week prior when I played in a monthly medal game and the pain suddenly flared up.

This time it’s a tennis elbow problem and not so much my old injury on the left wrist recurring. Funny it’s called tennis elbow when the injury is actually from golf. Regardless, the right elbow needs to be rested and no golf for at least two weeks or more. Super sigh.

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All Things Tiny

11 Apr

I love tiny kitchen gadgets. I think they are so cute. Obviously I am not one who cooks a lot and needs to have the latest or biggest equipment. For me as long as the gadget can be used, it’s good enough.

I have a tiny chopping board. Okay I admit it’s actually a cheese board. My house mate who was also my landlord gave it to me when I lived at her place on Upper East Side during my summer internship with WBMG, Inc. in the Big Apple dinosaur years ago.

I also have two mini cleavers and I use these kitchen tools all the time especially to cut fruits. Sometimes even vegetables…

I also have a tiny skillet that I bought from Las Vegas but this one, I don’t use.

Over the weekend, I was doing my weekly grocery purchases and stumbled upon a cute tiny cheese grater. How miniscule? Smaller than those Ikea cheese grates and looked simply adorable.

Did I buy it? Of course I did! How could I not add another tiny thing to my collection which I am known for?

  

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Butterbeer

10 Apr

At the height of the Harry Potter years, M2 like every other fan, was Harry Potter crazed. She would read and re-read the books and knew lines by heart. It was rather heart-warming to see her (and M1 as well) do so much reading.

But thank goodness the craze was limited to just the books and not any collectibles although there were some Lego sets purchased. And both girls have a magic wand each, gifted from a friend who went to the Harry Potter theme park. I remember one day, many years ago, M2 came to me with a butterbeer recipe and asked if we could make it.

The beverage was of course served in the wizarding world of Harry Potter and back then, she thought it would be awesome if she could drink what Harry and friends drank. I still have the recipe, dating back to 2012 in my iPhone. I think we tried making it only once but don’t recall the outcome.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, at our local grocery store, lo and behold we saw a bottle of butterbeer! Of course we had to purchase it to try. And I must say it was quite refreshing but once the coldness ebbed away, the sweet side of the beverage became too much. Well, if we never tried, we would never have known.

I just wonder will this lead to a renewed interest in reading the books all over again? Only time can tell.

  

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The Perils of Long Hair

7 Apr

Having long hair is hard to maintain. I for one, have had and still have short hair all these years. But my girls have long hair. The maintenance is a constant thing not just for themselves but the surrounding as well.

One weekend many moons ago, we had to fix the sink problem in M2’s bathroom. Hubby suspected it had something to do with hair going down the sink. Sure enough, the bottom trap had eight years’ worth of hair stuck down there! Ewww… put it this way, if we can weave a pet out of it, it’d be a little kitten.

But the problem was not resolved. Water was still going down slowly. Surely it can’t be something stuck along the way. We checked again and this time, the problematic area was from the top. The passage from the sink before it hit the S-trap below had another furball, the size of a hamster this time, lining the pipe! Double eww… no wonder water was going down so slow. There was hardly any room for the water to flow down.

The perils of having long hair I say.

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Choices

6 Apr

Sammy the squirrel has been frequenting the wall and scrounging from the two trays left there. One morning, we put some leftover corn on the bigger tray, hoping it (or Lefty) would eat the corn instead but no. Sammy chose to eat bird seeds from the smaller tray. Why?

Sometimes even official pet number one, Rooney, would want some bird seeds besides his doggy treats. There must be something about the taste or flavor. Maybe I should try some to see what the appeal is.

Hmm… Food for thought.

See the yellow on the big tray? It’s corn

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Giving Up

4 Apr

I am contemplating giving up Candy Crush Saga. After being so long at it reaching Level 2139 at this point, thoughts of giving up lately has crossed my mind.

It’s not so much I am tired of it but more of the fact that my iPad is so slow when the app launches, it makes playing not enjoyable anymore. But this doesn’t mean a total give up, I can still play the game on my new office computer which is able to support the app unlike the previous dinosaur model.

I am merely deleting the app from my iPad Mini and there’s always the laptop at home should I have an urge to have a go at it. I still play Candy Crush Soda though…

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