A Delightful Discovery

13 Sep

It was a typical morning getting ready to leave the house for the office. Sometimes, we would do a quick spot check for caterpillars on the lime tree closest to the car at the front of the house. On this particular morning, we discovered a beauty hiding between the branches!

My my… looking rather alien but not spooked, the moth did not even budged when we took turns to take its picture up close. Later, when we got to the office, hubby googled it up to learn that it was an Oleander Hawk Moth. What a delightul discovery!

This species is rather large, sleek and thrives in warm climates. And it loves to hide within lush green foliage which I don’t think our lime tree is that lush though. But I am not complaining for we had the chance to admire a full grown beautiful moth instead of just caterpillars all the time.

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Enduring Endometriosis, Part 2

10 Sep

After our return from Club Med, I went to see my O&G doctor the next day to address the endometriosis problem. The conclusion on the situation is all about managing the pain and timing.

I was actually ready to have my uterus removed–considering I don’t need it anymore and also it’s giving me all this problems–but my doctor vetoed the idea. Instead she prescribed some medication and painkiller for me to take. And to take only when necessary.

Put it this way, I am at the crossroad for a change in my body (well, I can’t be forever 38) and ideally, I should let nature take its course. But this natural path is not the smoothest unfortunately. The only bright spot is the hope that with each passing day, the problem will lessen or go away without having to do anything drastic. Like a surgery…

In the meantime, when faced with the monthly agonizing cramps, I should just take the prescribed meds and painkiller without hesitation.

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Gains and Losses

9 Sep

It’s obvious when we went off to Kuantan and Cherating for the anniversary trip, the 16/8 diet was not followed and therefore, we gained some weight.

Although we didn’t eat much in Club Med, we did try almost everything albeit small portions and it was enough to do us in. The frequency of eating in a day made our system haywire as there was breakfast, lunch, tea, pre-dinner snacks and dinner and the offerings were always loaded and very rich. In comparison, our typical meals consist of no carbs/high fiber for lunch and low protein/some carbs/fiber for dinner plus some snacks in between. Suddenly the 16/8 was more like 16 hours of eating and just eight hours of fasting instead.

And add in all that free-flow alcohol, the weight gain was inevitable. Remember I had seven drinks on Day One, hubby had one less and on Day Two, I had 12 drinks while hubby, I think had a couple less; I lost count on his intake. All that sugar in the cocktails… tsk! tsk! Thank goodness I didn’t have an endometriosis cramp attack with all that alcohol consumed.

When we returned, gain we certainly did when we stepped on the bathroom scale that evening. But by Tuesday, we were back to our 16/8 routine and at the end of the week, we lost all that weight gained and was back to normal. Phew.

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Cat Condo II

6 Sep

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M1 and I had our usual weekly Skype session last week and she told me she read about my Cat Condo stories on my blog. Feeling intrigue about the game, she downloaded the app to play too. Hahahaha…. I was flattered. However, it wasn’t Cat Condo but Cat Condo II that she downloaded. I was surprised to find out that there’s a second edition to this crazy cat game that I’ve been at for days.

So obviously I downloaded the game too! This second edition is much more realistic in terms of the fortune earned, not running into trillions and quadrillions like the original.

As for the cats, they are pretty much the same species but cuter and more plump. Plus there’s more things going on within the app, mini games and opportunity to win accessories to dress up the cats, making it even more engaging than mindless. Nonetheless, both are equally very entertaining for me.

And I have been so so busy with both games. Even at Club Med when I’m supposed to be relaxing, there I was managing the two condos for my cats in between drinks and activities.

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It’s All About Food

3 Sep

The four day escapade was all about food too besides drinking, rejuvenating and rediscovering ourselves. Being in Club Med, the food spread was simply sumptuous with so many choices and free flow just like the drinks.

Big portion, I couldn’t finish

The eating started on Friday with a Nasi Lemak breakfast at Chong Hwa Curry Laksa Restaurant at Batu Caves before the noon golf game. Then it was that cholesterol-laden seafood dinner in Kuantan that was oh-so-good.

A must stop in Kemaman

But the next morning, breakfast at the hotel was just meh, so we drove to Kemaman to have a second breakfast at the very famous Hai Peng coffee shop. Even I who don’t drink coffee these days (because of my Endometriosis) thought the coffee was very good along with some local Kueh and Nasi Dagang Trengganu. The Nasi Dagang’s curry was slightly sweet yet a little sour but not too spicy and we both enjoyed it very much, something new and different for us.

The welcome meal at Club Med, noodles!

Felt like a glutton

It’s an eye opener when one discovers a new food, what more at this dinosaur age. So officially, I must put on record that I like, of all things, boiled peas… having it for several meals.

Peas for every occasion!

By Monday, it’s time to go home, so no more alcohol because we have to drive. I had my one last pea affair for breakfast and we did the Tree Top Challenge before saying goodbye to all the friendly young and very likeable GOs of Club Med.

The little pack was expensive but piping hot nice

We decided not to stay on for lunch at the village and headed for Zaman Restaurant instead for their famed packet Nasi Lemak. We were not disappointed. Satisfied with another check on our food list, we were ready to get home but along the way, we decided to detour to Genting Highlands!

Most expensive dessert for this trip!

We stopped at the Premium Outlet for dessert and did some shopping before finally arriving home at 7.30pm. The anniversary alphabet trip is completed.

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Happy Anniversary to Us, Part 2

2 Sep

All good things must always come to an end. Our anniversary trip this year has just been awesome as we did everything from ‘A’ right through to ‘G’.

A good drive, hardly any cars

We left town on Friday for a round of golf at Royal Pahang Golf Club in Kuantan. A leisurely but fast-paced three hour round as there was hardly any other golfers. And dinner that night was at the famed Ana Ikan Bakar Petai for some cholesterol-laden seafood, a little indulgence. Obviously the 16/8 diet is out the window these few days.

Prawn, squid, stingray and the local ‘otak-otak’

The next day, we did the unthinkable, visiting the local mini zoo! Hahaha… but it was quite fun as we enjoyed the animals and the walk around the place, taking away some of the dinner guilt. When it was time to check in, we headed for Club Med in Cherating.

And the drinking, I mean fun began.

Drinks on Day One

Day two was a day of more drinking and activities. I managed to get some sun to even out my tan. And I chalked up 12 drinks. Pretty good with the first (beer) at 11.00 and the last (cocktail) 12 hours later, the bulk of it from 5.00pm onwards.

The one beer and 11 cocktails on Day 2

Rock climbing, sun tanning, hiking

Happy Anniversary to us! Cheers

We wrap up our getaway today and head back to reality. Hope the drive isn’t too bad. I look forward to what we will do next year when we celebrate the 25th milestone! Happy anniversary to us again.

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Happy Anniversary to Us

30 Aug

It’s August already but it feels like 2019 is coming to an end, having gone by so fast with so many changes in both our lives this year. The most significant being M2 going off to college in January and M1 graduating in June. Tomorrow is yet another milestone, our wedding anniversary!

As we celebrate our 24th anniversary, I reflect back with mostly good and happy thoughts of our relationship and love for what we have built together as a team – our family, our home and our design studio.

Not every road to success is a smooth journey; there’s bound to be bumps and potholes along the way but that’s part and parcel of what makes a relationship work – to listen, to compromise and to sync as one to take on this exciting and sometimes challenging journey together.

Happy anniversary to us! And to celebrate the occasion, we are off for the usual alphabet escapade trip. Be back four days later… ta!

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What’s After A Trillion, Part 2

27 Aug

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Move over Candy Crush, Cat Condo has taken over my life! At every available moment, I find myself playing Cat Condo as crushing candies is so passé now. I anticipated correctly last Friday that I did not have to wait long to find out what would happen if I reached beyond a trillion.

On Sunday, I was all excited when I reached 999t. And soon after, I hit a quadrillion in my fortune and true enough, a letter ‘q’ appeared after the numbers making me rich beyond imagination. And now that I have reached this figure, I will just continue to build the condo for my felines and try to unveil the remaining ten species on the list.

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Enduring Endometriosis

26 Aug

Last week, my excruciating endometriosis pain struck again because of the cycle. I did not see my O&G doctor immediately after last month’s attack because I wanted to monitor the situation and true enough, it struck to the core. And this time, I was popping more pain killers than ever, otherwise I would be down on the floor curled up and in agony.

To add to my stress or rather distress, I had a logo design deadline to meet and I played in my golf club’s Annual Championship Tournament over the weekend. Thankfully, I managed to pull through for the work that was expected. Maybe playing Cat Condo eased off some of the edge in the stress. As for the tournament, that’s another story all by itself.

So how am I feeling this week? Well, the storm passed and there’s relief but I need to find a window to schedule an appointment to see what’s the best option to resolve this problematic pain once and for all.

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What’s After A Trillion?

23 Aug
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Last week, I was at 3.00t, a week later, 500t. This morning, I reached 600t.

Sometimes we coin up words to exaggerate our point. Like for instance when talking about numbers – million, billion and trillion, the next word to rhyme with these denominations, chances are ‘gazillion’––which I am guilty of––is used to emphasize the sheer enormity of the amount.

But the truth is, gazillion is a made-up word, like zillion and jillion. It made me wonder what’s the correct word after trillion? It is actually quadrillion with 15 zeros after the one. It looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000,000. That’s a heckuva lot of zeros.

Maybe that’s why when I play Cat Condo, the game resorted to abbreviate my mind-boggling fortune, starting with ‘k’ for the thousands, ‘m’ for the millions and ‘b’ for the billions.

At the trillion amount with 12 zeros, my fortune as of today is just 600t. I suppose even with the biggest screen smartphone available, on a horizontal orientation, I don’t think all the zeros can fit in, so it’s logical to abbreviate.

A thought crossed my mind – at a trillion, it’s just down to three digits and a letter ’t’; so would I have a ‘q’ after the numbers if I reach a quadrillion? Hmm… the only way to find out is to continue playing! And at the rate that I am raking in my riches, I should be able to by this weekend.

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