Gym! Finally.

So I finally made it to the gym after a long long hiatus.

Half an hour on the elliptical cross-trainer (or as some call it, the swoosh swoosh machine), 300 calories. Then I decided to do some stationary cycling. Managed only 8 minutes of it and a pathetic 30 calories. Bleah. Finished off with some weights - 3 sets of 8.

But I figure Wednesdays are good. The gym is quite empty, the machines available, and most importantly, no familiar faces, so the mouth doesn't get more exercise than it should. Then again, after so long, the usual familiar faces have changed anyway.

Let's see how long I can keep this gym regime up.

Now I've got to work on that 6km run that Shades of Pink signed me up for. As of now, I can only do 5km. 3 weeks to train for that extra 1km.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

My latest read, which I've just finished. Would I recommend it? Definitely. :)

Just as I would recommend his first book, "The Kite Runner".

So if you have time for only one book, make it one of the above.

Hibiscus Juice

Compliments of Birdkeeper. With instructions on how to prepare it.

1) Peel the petals off the buds

2) Boil them in water

3) Add sugar to sweeten

4) Refrigerate

Tastes exactly like Ribena. Just that this one has LOADS of vitamin C. :p

'Back' to the 'New' Place

So I've started work at the 'new' place. Considering it's only the 2nd week, I've been pretty busy, for the simple reason that the place is not really new to me. I've been there a couple of years back for half a decade, and now I'm back. So there aren't really many new things to learn. Just a few new platforms and new clientele. So I've been fully into work stuff since Day 1, plus I have to redo orientation. Bleah. And the orientation now comes with quizzes!

It's quite a funny feeling stepping back in and seeing peoples' shocked faces, coupled with, "Is it really you? I thought it was but wasn't sure," or "Eh, you come back ah?" or "Eh, how come you're here?"

And then there's the "How come you so skinny now?" or "Eh, you lost a LOT of weight!" or "Aiyoh, lose so much weight only left the head ah!" which are good to hear, but which also makes me wonder if I had been really fat then, you know. Hmmm. So, much as I hate it, I guess the running works. :)

Miss Suaku

I bet that's what Suspension Girl wanted to call me when she found out that it was my first time at Dempsey last night. Yes, FIRST time.

Suspension Girl, Shades of Pink and I made plans to meet up for drinks. And I suggested Dempsey since there's been so much talk about it and I had yet to set foot there. The plan was to meet Shades of Pink first at about 7ish for dinner as Suspension Girl was gonna be working late, till about 9pm.

My advice to you is this: When you arrange to meet with a bunch of people, make sure they are not ALL from the legal profession. Lunch becomes afternoon tea, and dinner becomes supper.

Thanks to RT and his colleagues, I managed some earlier company before the 2 legal eagles arrived. So the engineer types are safe, I guess. Or is it the sales types?

We had fun nonetheless, reminiscing about the stuff we did back in primary school days. Anyone remembers that Courtesy Lion eraser with the moving 3D eyes they uses to give us in school? If not for Shades of Pink and that elephant memory of hers, I would have totally forgotten about it!

The Princess & The Prince's 1st Beach Visit

"Eh, they really very naughty one you know," is the usual response I get from Dr Lee each time I suggest that she bring the kids over even if she has only one help around, as I could help her look after them.

Today, she decided to do just that. She brought her Little Princess Chloe & Little Prince Caleb over to my place where the Princess had loads of fun with the fish, and the Prince, with the dogs.

After they had their fill of fun with the animals and some time at the playground, we headed to East Coast for some cycling, seashell picking and sandcastle building. Of course, the kids had to be strapped into kiddy seats attached the to adults' bikes.

I think Chloe had loads of fun by the beach, shuffling between the sand and the sea, and randomly pouring sand and water from her spade or bucket onto her unsuspecting mother and RT. And then when she sees the shock they get, she'd burst into laughter.

Check out the royalties at the beach. So adorable right?

It was tough getting her to pose for a picture as she was extremely engrossed in her sandcastle building. So here's what her mummy said to get her to pose while we prepared our cameras.

Dr Lee: Chloe, can you look at Mummy for a while and smile?

We get ignored. It was almost as if we weren't there.

Dr Lee: Chloe, can you please smile for a picture? Look here ok?

Again, we were ignored.

Dr Lee: Chloe, if you don't look here, Mummy won't bring you here again.

That did it. Check out the impish smile...

When it started to get dark, we headed back to return the hired bicycles and grabbed a bite at Burger King.

Chloe had fries and ice cream while Caleb had his milk and a teeny weeny bit of his sister's ice cream and fries.

Then the mother did it again.

Dr Lee: Chloe, can you look here and smile for Mummy?

You can imagine the response we got until...

Dr Lee: Chloe, if you don't look at the camera, no more french fries ah!

And look at that smile. Again.

She sure is one adorable kid. Naughty or not.

And the mother is quite one kind. ;p

Last Day in HK

Our final day in HK was spent buying foodstuff and doing some last minute shopping.

We checked out at 11am and then it was off to the famous Yung Kee Restarant at Wellington Street for lunch and to buy some century eggs home. The first time I tried something from here was back home actually, when Birdkeeper brought over some century eggs his sister had brought back. I normally don't eat the yolk of these eggs, plus I eat the whites (or blacks?) with lots of ginger. But the ones from Yung Kee, I eat everything. That's how good the century eggs are. So, anyway, Shades of Pink had the Roasted Goose Meat with rice while I had good old Char Siew Rice. We also ordered Braised Beancurd with Lingzhi Mushroom and Sauteed Diced Scallops with Egg White. The goose was ok. In fact, I wouldn't be able to tell it apart from duck, really. My favourite must be the Sauteed Diced Scallops with Egg White. Generally, the food and service are not too bad.




The only question I have is, "How come they charge for condiments?" We had to pay for a saucer of chilli padi (it wasn't chilli padi anyway) I ordered to go with the beancurd dish. Then I had to ask for vinegar and pepper to go with the scallop dish.

Waiter: Hong chu hai shi hei chu? (red or black vinegar?)

Huh? Got difference meh? Not knowing which I normally take with this dish, I asked for the red, only to realise, when it came, that I should have asked for the black one. Tsk. This is supposed to be one of the more popular dishes at Yung Kee, but they looked gross, so we passed. Goose Web.

After lunch, we headed to Hai Phong Road (along Nathan Rd) to pack home some of the roadside stick food. Then we went to Mongkok to get the famous lau bo bing (wife cake) from Hang Heung (G/F 605A Nathan Rd, Mongkok, Kowloon).

Finally, it was back to Yau Ma Tei to da bao the wanton mee we had on the first night. Once we had gotten all the stuff we needed, we headed back to the hotel. Since we had no transfer from the hotel to the airport, we now had to lug our loot from the hotel to catch the MTR and then switch over to the Airport Train. Managed the arduous journey to Central station and checked in there. Whoever it was that came up with this town check-in is just brilliant. It left us with free hands to shop at IFC!!! And guess where we bought more stuff?? MNG!!!!!

Ok, let me just list down some of our adventures which started the minute we stepped out of the hotel, just in case I forget to arrange airport transfers on my next trip.

Lesson #1: When the bell boy offers help with the luggage, do not decline, even if it is just out of the hotel door.

When I was offered, I ya-ya-ly replied, "It's ok, I'm gonna head to the MTR station." Besides, it was kinda dumb to accept help with the luggage just to the hotel entrance. So I happily rolled my luggage with one hand, and carried the foodstuff (eggs and lau bo bing) in the other, and walked out of the hotel. The next thing I knew, I had, in the process of pulling my luggage, pulled half of the hotel entrance carpet along with me!!! I turned around to see Shades of Pink laughing (what else??) and the bell boy trying to stifle his laughter while at the same time trying to roll back the carpet. Totally embarrassing la. The bell boy quite cute some more you know!

Lesson #2: Decide if your luggage size fits thru all gantries you need to pass.

At the MTR station, the only type of gantry there was the turnstile kind. The handle of mine got stuck on one of the spokes of the turnstile long after I had gotten thru, and I had to slowly "pry" it out of the spoke.

Shades of Pink saw what had happened to me and decided to roll her really fast TOGEHTER with her thru the turnstile. Didn't quite work. The luggage and her did not fit into one"compartment" of the turnstile and was left behind. Our dear friend had to squat over and slowly roll the luggage thru.

Lesson #3: Don't get lost in chatter and laughter and forget the time. Especially when you have a flight to catch.

Lost ourselves in chatter and laughter over the luggage-carpet and turnstile incidents was just what we did. And when we finally decided to head onto the flight, we realised the queue at immigration was so gonna make us late! When we finally got onto the plane, it was 10 minutes before the take-off time! And we were the last 2 passengers. But only because the 3 after us were offloaded!!! But still....imagine if the "Final call for passengers Shades of Pink and Purples on flight CX715. Please proceed to Gate 2 immediately" announcement was made. We would have died of embarrassment if we got boo-ed at the minute we got onto the plane. Hmmmm, maybe that's why the last 3 didn't come on board.

After all I the rush and embarrassing moments we had today, I was just happy to get on the plane and spend the next couple of hours with Takeshi Kaneishiro. They were screening "Confessions of Pain" on board. So cute, you know.

And before Kayestercan can ask me, "Cute can eat ah?", I'll tell you. "Can!".

I never had a better meal on-flight. :)))