Of food...and permission

Just came across an email...where someone mistyped "permission" as "persimmon". 
Hahhaa....hungry much?

Or just auto-correct that bungled up the word....

Hahaha...still made me laugh out loud at my screen :D :D :D

Cramp

Last Wed night, I woke with a "shout". It was around 3am. 

Triggered by a bad cramp in my left calf. While I've had cramps before...I've never gotten them during my sleep before, nor have I been woken up by a bout of cramps before.

Told K that "我被吓醒!" 
And he replied to say I scared him awake too lol....

He helped me stretch it out...

Woke the next morning with my left calf still aching on and off through the day... bah....getting older...

Weight

I am....officially 51kg now. 

不知不觉....lol...

Past few months my tummy has been expanding...not sure from getting older, from gaining weight, from my usual stomach bloating issues, or from....menopausing or peri-menopausing (as is the current buzzword). 

Or....cos I gained some tiny muscles? HAHAHA....

App developer

Laoniang developed an app! A web app that can be optimised for mobile & tablets too. 

Steady lah haha...

Underwent a Vibe Coding course over the last 2 days with VK & SP. Aside from my laptop battery, the course drained me of my brain cells. 

1st day I went home like a zombie. 2nd day was abit better haha. 

Actually I did the following apps:

1. A simple roulette kind of decision making app to see where go for lunch

2. An AI chatbot which uses the persona of Mickey Mouse to converse with you (annoying thing is it responds with alot of "Haha!" and "Oh my!")

3. A task-tracker kind of app for an office team

4. A meal planning app - this was the biggest project all of us had to undertake. I did this meal-planning app. Mediocre actually. Some folks did some really really "sard-ki" stuff like calorie-counting app for local dishes, a site for mental health support, a site for cataloguing Pokemon cards complete with tracking the commercial value of the cards, a site for retirees to find out where to travel and be linked up to part-time jobs (digital nomad concept), etc...

I also got to create my own computer game, very basic but still workable I guess. 

Quite a cool & interesting experience! 

每天都是第二次机会

Heard this from Deng Kai's interview....Thought it was meaningful..

每天都是第二次机会, 我要做的更好

K-morning

It is a k-pop morning. 

Of past and long ago kpop songs and some OSTs...with the likes of.......

Mad Soul Child - Dear

Henry - Trapped

Boyfriend - Janus

Yoon Mirae - Always

Kang San-e - Salmon swimming up the stream

Taeyang - Eyes, Nose, Lips

Im Chang Jung - The Love I Committed

Henry - Radio

of toast....and....lizards

I like toast. And I always make toast for breakfast except on days when I need to go to the office. 

Ever since I found a lizard in the toaster a few months back, I've been making it a habit to check first before I use it. Every single time. And I'd give the machine a jiggle as well. TO be doubly sure. 

I did the same this morning. 

And wondered why I saw a "flower" at the bottom, on the crust tray. 

Nabeh. it was a lizard's hand. 

AGAIN???!!!!! 

We took so much effort to keep it out ever since the last round. Are there other holes in the machine that it somehow still got in??

:( :( :( :( :( 

Took me awhile before I got over my squeamish-ness to use the toaster again after the last round....and now it's happened again.

Bleah....just glad I didn't toast the fella...(eeeewww)....

11 April 2026

Hello Mama.

It's been 12 years since you left us. 

I miss you, and I hope you're keeping well wherever you are. 

It was a rough start to the year but I am surviving, and trying to keep my head up, at least high enough to be above water. 

The rest of us are doing good. Dad's ok with his walking stick and hearing aids, still watching his football matches and Youtube videos. Mum's ok too but is probably more tired than usual, having had to run around quite a fair bit visiting her sister in various medical & healthcare institutions. Adrian was doing good till a few weeks ago when he injured his knee again. He can't run anymore and will need to undergo surgery again in another 5 days. 

The girls are ok and growing well enough. Squabbling ever so often but also loving each other in their own ways. Big one's settling well in secondary school and small one's paving her own way in her various pursuits: academic, prefect duties, and her Brownies CCA. K's doing good too except his knee gives issues from time to time. 

Please watch over all of us and keep us safe, healthy & happy....I love you and I miss you...

Tooth. Chipped. Again.

FML.

Had lunch halfway then realised my "repaired" tooth chipped again. The "jigsaw-puzzled" piece that was "glued" back with resin didn't hold up and dropped out again. 

This time round, I couldn't find the piece. Wondering if I swallowed it. 

Angry & upset & worried about my tooth. 

Have to call CGH Dental again to see what can be done. Might have to do crowning already. 

And....

I was eating at Mac again when it happened. 

Mac dun like me is it? ........................

7 April 2026

Tuesday morning, we had our usual quarterly breakfast meeting at the Mac near our office. Boss’ quarterly treat. I chose to have corn that day with my breakfast set.

I was 95% done with my corn when I bit into something hard and spit it out. It was a small piece of something white/cream-coloured so I didn’t think too much of it and threw it onto my tray. Thought it was some odd piece of plastic or stone that somehow got into the corn.

Some minutes later, I realized something weird. My tongue felt something jagged on an upper right tooth the 2^nd pre-molar tooth after the incisor.

$#@^tq%$%$^q$#@^%

My tooth chipped!!! And that hard piece of something I bit into was part of my tooth!

FML. I panicked but somehow had the presence of mind to retrieve that chipped off piece and kept it in my pocket. I called CGH Dental when I got back to office after the meeting and was very thankful I managed to get a slot the next morning. I was also thankful that though the chip was quite a big one, it did not affect any nerves in the tooth and I did not experience any pain.

The dentist initially said he could do a filling to patch up the chip. I asked him if it would help if I still had that chipped off portion.

Lo & behold! He said it was good I had it as he could use less resin instead and could also do away with shaving more of the tooth structure, compared to if he were to just use resin only.

And so….voila…

He “jigsaw-puzzled” the chipped off bit back to the main tooth.

It was a slightly uncomfortable process. I was tense throughout and had my hands clasped together in a prayer. Didn’t help that he nicked my inner cheek in the process and only realized when I pointed it out to him. Left me with a 5mm cut that swelled up so much it was uncomfortable to eat...zzz.

BUT…I’m still glad & thankful that the chip has been resolved. I hope it can last for at least 8-10 years?

Pursuit of Jade

Been awhile since I was so smitten by a drama. Pursuit of Jade, no points for guessing.

Lemme see…what were past dramas that kept me enthralled not only due to the visuals of the actors & actresses, but also storylines, beautiful cinematography, chemistry between the leads, 2^nd lead pairings, etc…

1. Goblin
2. W: Two Worlds Apart
3. Heirs
4. DOTS
5. Prisoner of Beauty
6. Blossom

There must have been some more but these are top of mind at the moment…

Gave up K dramas since several years back and so I’ve never caught big hits like Crash Landing on You, Attorney Woo, etc…am sure these are solidly good too..

========================

I watched Zhang Ling He in My Journey to You. Watching him this time round felt different. He has improved alot compared to few years ago. Happy for him! Micro-expressions are alot better...and his eyes speak more too.. :) 

Games

Word games & puzzles...

Me like but...

Staring at the phone too long

Makes my eyes hurt

Staring at the PC monitor too long

Makes my eyes hurt too

Paper based ones don't have that level of complexity

Or the level of instant gratification 

So...what gives? 

A mix of both maybe...

越老越......

越老越孤僻

越老越想躲在一个角落

越老越想一个人呆着

越老越不想社交

越老越 anti-social 

Hmmmmm

Jan, Feb and even early March was madness

I am thankful things have settled down abit more and there is some room to breathe. 

But I find myself still rattled and not at peace. Slightly irritable, emotional. 

Unsure why. 

Hormones? Mid-life existential crisis? Perimenopause? Menopause?

Talk

N & I had a talk a couple of nights ago. I can’t recall how it started and everything.

But we touched on some of her frustrations and big feelings. How she feels we all love A more and think A is better, how A always gets away with things, how when N & A are being rowdy but N is the one who gets the scolding…and then it morphed into other issues like how K is too strict, and how I am too grouchy/grumpy at times, and how she misses our own space at Blu-Coral, etc…

I apologized and shared with her that I am still learning as a mother. I may not be right all the time and I have my own failings. But I’m trying and will keep trying to improve myself as well. I did share that it was sometimes very difficult to talk to her especially when she was having an “attitude”, and how it made me feel a little sad when she snapped at me or didn’t want anything to do with me. I spoke of how I felt her attitude toward me had a big shift in 2023. From having had a 免死金牌 from her…to me being somewhat like a baddie

I guess being abit more open with each other helps?

As the kids grow, and I get older (and more grumpy), I guess it’s a constant effort having to adjust to how to interact with them…

Just thankful that they are still open to sharing things with me...

Of doodles

Jotting down for vanity reasons. 

I was at Parkway Parade on a Saturday a few weeks ago, seated on a bench within the mall, waiting for K to walk over from Eastgate building. 

I started doodling while listening to nice Chinese pop songs blasting from a nearby gelato shop. I was pretty immersed in what I was doing. Head bent down, right hand doodling, left hand bopping to the music. 

I'd briefly had the impression of 2 girls getting up from the bench on my right, and then moving away. 

Suddenly one of them stopped in front of me and said "I love your art!"

I looked up. It was a teenage Indian girl who spoke with a non-local, non-Indian accent. Can't place where she came from. I smiled and thanked her and she walked away with her younger sister. I applaud her courage though. At that age of 13/14/15, I'd not have the courage to tell a random stranger this...:)

Made my day! 

Shen Hu Xi

Staff took long to come up with an SOP. Late for some months. I cut her some slack on this. 

Quality of the SOP is not there. I gave pointers on how to improve 1st draft and formatting which sucked. 

2nd draft came back. Formatting still sucks. certain paragraphs don't flow and don't make sense. 

Taking deep breaths. 

Kitty

A has a journal that she sometimes writes in. She named the journal “Kitty”.

While looking through her P5 English file a few days ago as her teacher asked for parents to sign some worksheets. I came across a small paragraph she wrote, where she shared about having Kitty and why she had Kitty.

“Sometimes I feel down and want to talk to my mother but she is at work, so I write in Kitty instead.”

☹☹☹

After all these years, I still feel unbalanced quite often. At work think about family. At home think about work. 

Time

Wherefore doth time's fleet passage hasten so, slipping through mine fingers like sand through an hourglass, ne'er to be reclaimed?

We're into March already.

Even Nadya's WA1 is over. 

The March school holidays are coming soon too. 

Too fast.....

Viu

And after years of resisting. 

I am now...officially subscribed to Viu. 

Lol...got it from the 3/3 sale over their official Shopee store. 

Voila......no more annoying ads to test my patience...!