Work? What’s That?

19 Sep

It feels funny to return to work after enjoying a three-day break that occurred twice within a week, once at the beginning and another towards the end of the week. One could actually get used to it. While it’s bad for workflow, it sure does wonders for the inner being.

And I am in the opinion that such breaks are much better than going away for a vacation. Vacations are fun but tiring. Usually I would need another break to recover from the vacation. But these three-day breaks, they are different. I feel much relaxed and rested to the point of getting lazy.

We did not go anywhere far only to our favorite mall, spent time with Mom, caught a movie and eating food to our fancy. And being at home, it’s nice and quiet until the official senior citizen pet barks to make demands.

Of course, I was also being a couch potato, crushed some candies, harvested fruits and beat up some monsters while M2 put in some hours doing her revision. Best part is we didn’t have to pack our schedule to see this, do that and eat off the list – something most vacation-seekers tend to do while being on a holiday. And we have the comforts of our bed and pillows after a long day to be well rested and ready for the next day’s activities or should I say inactivity.

Well, got to snap out of it, if not complacency will kick it. It was good while it lasted. Now, back to work!

Short Week

16 Sep

It has been a surreal week. There was a public holiday on Monday and again today, making this week the shortest work week that I can remember. We had to rush things for work the week before in preparation for an important presentation on Tuesday and then not wanting the 3-day weekend to be over. And now, we have another 3-day weekend ahead. Although it’s nice to have this kind of work week, it does not occur often but so far, twice within such a short span, we have to thank our lucky stars.

So we face a nice long weekend and it’s been raining non-stop since this morning. What can we do? Snuggle in bed and if the weather persists to be like this over the weekend, I may end up being a couch potato. Happy long weekend people!

A Solution

15 Sep

I never resolved or revived my dead iPod Shuffle and have accepted the fact that it cannot be resuscitated. So I left the situation as is until yesterday. Out of the blue, I found an unexpected solution!

Tired of my usual music choices in my car, I decided to revive hubby’s old first generation iPod Nano which he retired upon upgrading to an iPod Classic that has a ginormous storage capacity for all his music. So no love loss for him with me using the Nano.

The device is also 1GB like my Shuffle and enough for me to use in the car. Yay. With 197 songs loaded, car rides will be a sheer driving pleasure from here on. I may like Jacky Cheung and Michael Buble but sometimes a little variety is nice.

  

Pretty Creatures, Part 2

13 Sep

I thought the pretty bug episode would last awhile until the next pretty thing came along but I was wrong. It was a Friday night and M2 has just gotten home from her tuition class.

Puttering around downstairs to clear her staff before bedtime, a moth came around and startled her. Despite being terrified, she somehow managed to take its picture when it perched on the window! 

It’s quite large, probably palm size and sure is beautiful, terrifying or not. Her iPhone 5C was definitely able to capture the fine details. Breathtaking I would say.

So another pretty creature to add to our ever growing list of visitors.

   
 

Another One Leaves the Nest

12 Sep

You know your dinosaur status is reaffirmed when another child leaves the nest. First it was the twins who went to the US for their degrees. They are both back now and working. Then it was my M1 who went off last year and will be completing her Sophomore year by the end of Fall term. My M2 may be 15 years old now but I think she’s growing up too fast. Before we know it, she will also be off to university.

Then there is the bone creaking here and there status. I pulled a back muscle after gym on Monday last week and could not walk straight for a bit. Sigh. Dinosaur status reaffirmed.

Tonight, my other niece, my only sibling’s third kiddo is no kiddo anymore as she prepares to leave for Ireland to read law. We will all be at the airport to give her a happy send off.

Pretty Creatures

9 Sep

We get all sorts of visitors to our home all the time, from the friendly to the not so friendly. We have had intruding cats and squirrels, unwanted snakes and rats, welcomed birds and even an unexpected owl!

And recently, to add to our list, we now have a pretty bug! 

 

Killing Time

8 Sep

It has been a brain sapping week for me at the office because of the challenging design project in hand. Every evening I come home mentally tired and have no desire to do anything else.

But the day does not end when we reach home as we still have the tuition run, sending M2 for her weekly night classes. This then becomes physically tiring as well.

Normally when she is at the extra class, we would wait for her instead of making an extra trip back and forth. And the Wednesday class being an hour and a half long, we would go to the driving range to hit a hundred balls to pass the waiting time. But this activity has to be ruled out for now due to the wrist undergoing treatment currently. So what did we do last night?

We went to the sports store, Decathlon and played table tennis in the store itself! Now this is not something we do often, blatantly making a fool of ourselves in public but I think last night was an exception. When one is tired, one ceases to think rationally. Then again, it wasn’t an embarrassing moment but felt carefree.

So we had a little fun destressing moment, a light workout if you may call it a workout and managed to kill some time. I think we were at it for a good 15-20 minutes until the store announced it would be closing. Pity.

Honestly half the time we were laughing instead of playing. No Olympian table tennis performance we displayed but the laughter did worked out the kinks from the work-sapped body and it felt good.

Would we do it again next week? Hmm… We shall see.

New Flavors

6 Sep

After my supply of the super fragrant G7 Vietnamese coffee finished, I decided to be a little bit adventurous and moved on to new brands to try. And sadly, they pale in comparison. Sigh…

The Douwe Egberts Smooth Caramel may smell nice but is only good with sugar which I prefer not to add to my daily intake. So I can’t drink this every morning although I do admit I occasionally have a coffee (a ready 3-in-1) with creamer and sugar, it’s not often. Have cut down my sugar intake with coffee for the longest time and have gotten used to it. A strong black is always good and preferred. 

The Percol Smooth Colombia is slightly better but its aroma doesn’t perk me up as much. Well, gotta make do. A decent coffee is better than no coffee in the morning to start the day!

  

Senior Citizen Food

5 Sep

We were at a pet shop over the weekend to buy official pet number one’s food Proplan but there was no stock. We then had to make a decision to buy something else or go back to our regular store when something caught our eye.

The Eukanuba package listed Senior Adult with ingredients suitable for dogs seven years and older. I did a quick mental arithmetic and came to realize our poochie, Rooney will be nine this year! 

Oh my gawd… Nine years old. And since he qualifies age-wise (I am not sure about the behavior though), we bought the package.

But he doesn’t like the new senior citizen food! Maybe it’s tasteless or unappetizing. For two meals he did not finish his meal. So we still have to go buy his usual Proplan diet. And probably mix up the two brands to mask the taste. Otherwise, what do we do with the senior citizen food?

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.