My girls are all grown up with M1 literally ready for college next year and M2 having turned 13 this year. It was several months ago when hubby was advising M1 about college choices and M2 was listening just as intently.
Soon after, M2 said to hubby,“I supposed I am going to face this talk in four years’ time, huh?” and he nodded.
She then declared, “Can I choose my college now?” thinking this would save us and her this big decision-making challenge.
Cute.
Over the weekend, I decided to just unplug as much as possible from my comforts and routine: the iPad Games, Jennifer Probst, kids, golf and even hubby. I immersed myself in my art.
My good friends managed to finish four bottles of Old Parr and handed them to me to paint. So I did.
I think the break from the break did a world of good for me in terms of self-satisfaction, appreciation of some peace and basically having some quality time to explore my creativity.
I have completed the base for two bottles and so far, so good.
I decided to take a break today from all my iPad games, reads, kids, work and just go play golf and hang out with my golf buddies. It’s been a busy and stressful week, I think I kinda deserve the break.
I have forgotten how wonderful it is to read when my being glued to my games on the iPad consumes much of my free time. The author, Jennifer Probst, is enjoyable and creates vivid imagination with her style of story-telling! In two days, I have finished one book already and onto the second read.
Being stuck at Level 440 in Farm Heroes and Candy Crush turned out to be a blessing in disguise. For two days, I totally left my games, partly to enjoy the book I am reading and also to focus my energy on the book project that I am working on. When I went back to tackle Farm Heroes, taking a short break from reading, it was with renewed determination and I did it! Now, I face my nemesis, Rancid, at Level 441.
And the last two days, Candy Crush released its new chapter Fizzy Falls on Facebook. But this time, it required tickets for me progressed on from Glazed Grove to it; so I had to patiently wait for my fellow candy crushers to help me. And help they did. Thanks!
I guess reading has been good for I accomplished a lot. Even at work, the book project has progressed on smoothly. And… and… in Zookeeper Battle, I broke into the top ten thousand world ranking!!! Best ever position: 7938. A big yay to all these.
The wait is unbearable for Candy Crush to open its new chapter on Facebook and Level 440 in Farm Heroes has been one tough nut to crack. On top of this patient-testing situation, I started a new book design project at the office and this has been consuming a lot of my thought process and time. So much has to be considered for the overall aesthetics of this 120-page book to look spectacular.
I need a distraction to destress but the situation of my games is not helping. Even with Zookeeper Battle, I can’t seem to focus despite peaking at 11,700 in world ranking.
So I decided to go back to reading. And for the first time, Nora Roberts is not keeping me company but another author, whom I discovered at the bookstore over the weekend. Jennifer Probst.
It’s been a good distraction so far.
Last Friday, Farm Heroes had an update for the iPad. Thinking the instability issue that I was having might be resolved, I updated but it was a grave mistake.
The app is even worse – I can’t even go pass the orange landing page to launch! Oh dear… Oh dear… because of this, I now have to carry my old iPhone4, along with my iPhone5S and iPad Mini around.
Looking like a geek who needs two phones to be connected, I never understood these people and found them amusing. A separation of work and personal connectivity?
And now here in my case, I have joined geek-dom as I need the extra phone just to have extra lives to play Farm Heroes to bring the sheeps to the hay in Level 440.
While being a farmer has its issues and challenge, crushing candies provided some solace. The wifi at home improved somewhat and just enough for me to work on Glazed Grove over the weekend. Happy to say, I completed this chapter and now, while waiting for yet another new chapter to open on Facebook, Farm Heroes is the continued focus.
Farm Heroes continues to aggravate on the iPad. So I have not been using the iPad as far as this game is concerned. And I thought I was clever to have Farm Heroes on my old iPhone4 but I was wrong. In my obsession to play the game whenever possible, yesterday morning I guess I have not woken up thoroughly, I inadvertently pressed at the wrong spot on the tiny screen too quickly! This caused me to waste 9 gold bars to continue Level 434 when clearly, I did not have enough crops to pass that level. Haish…
As you know, I had concluded the iPhone4’s screen does look a wee bit tiny compared to my iPhone5S and this silly mistake is a testament to the tiny screen.
Farm Heroes has been very unstable on my iPad Mini, it’s exasperating. Two nights ago, I decided to download the app on my old iPhone4 so that I have an extra device to play. The phone has yet to be claimed, that’s why it’s been at my bedside collecting dust. But technically, it’s not an extra device but a replacement for the iPad Mini.
Desperado? Yes. Somehow on the phone (both iPhone5S and iPhone4), the app is stable but on the iPad, it’s not; keeps quitting upon launch and wasting lives. When one is desperate for lives, desperate measures is the only way to deal with it.
I’ve also decided to take a break from Candy Crush because of the horrid home wifi connection that makes it difficult to launch the game on the laptop. It is really a test of patience and tolerance. And unfortunately, I cannot play this in the office because my office computer does not support the game and the iPad version has yet to be updated.
Maybe the break from candies is good but so long as I have Farm Heroes, I will be fine. For now.
The endearing initials, BFF – best friends forever, is timeless and every girl knows what it means. I believe it is understood and used by all the females in the world, myself and my girls included. But I am not sure if guys use this endearing term though. Anyway, my BFF is mostly my Secondary/High school friends; some even goes back to our Primary school days, that is, way, way back to 7 years’ old when we first became friends. This makes our relationship far longer than that of mine with my hubby! After all these years, we are still a close-knit group and there’s a lot of years that has gone by, let me tell you!
We have grown from being naughty, smart and fortunate giggly girls to successful, happy and giggly adults. From the day we left high school to pursue all kinds of career and direction, we’ve somehow kept each other in our minds. A big thanks especially in the 90s when technology and the internet boomed, we hooked up. Then Facebook came along and of course, the smart phone, along with a whole bunch of social apps, we have become closer and more connected than ever.
Two weeks ago, four of us met up. And it felt like we’ve never parted. BFF indeed. The laughter, giggles and giddiness had all the waiters and waitresses raising their eyebrows at us whenever they walked into the private room to top up our green tea. Despite our differences in worldly experience and all being mothers, the conversation always goes back to the good ol’ school days, cracking us up with new bouts of howls over the nostalgia.
I thoroughly cherish these occasions, so my dear BFF, let’s meet up more often!
The wifi at home at sucks! Thus affecting the weekend attempts at my games. I could not play Candy Crush on the laptop smoothly or even at all, rendering a short-lived happiness of the new chapter opening prior to the weekend.
Then my Farm Heroes, with its latest update for the iPad, keeps quitting upon launch and wasting lives. The frustration knows no bounds, I tell you.
Maybe I shouldn’t play so many games that rely on the wifi and go back to reading, particularly my Nora Roberts.
A small consolation, however, was an improvement in my world ranking for Zookeeper Battle at 16,598. Not bad…
But the biggest story happened on Sunday. At my golf club’s monthly medal challenge for this month, I emerged the winner in the Ladies category! This makes up for all that frustration as the last two events are definitely significant achievements overshadowing the wifi issues.
Angieneering 
Remarks