Day off

... with cup cakes. Bought, not made. I'd never be able to do anything like this in a  million years.

'Atas' chips

Cheese and onion is so hoi polloi when you can have cheddar ... and mature cheddar at that.

Traditional breakfast

... at a non-breakfast hour. L bought me soon kueh.

Balanced meal

Protein, carbo, veg -- all groups in the food pyramid met.

Little things

A friend recently moved to Australia. I miss her, and then I don't. It's a funny in-between feeling. Yes, I miss that she isn't actually around. No, I don't miss her because we still do pretty much what we've always done -- chat over the Internet. Even when she was here, we didn't meet up that much, but "talked" almost everyday. It is just that now, the little green light next to her name on the chat window is lighting up from a different hemisphere. A little thing that you'd not realise if you didn't think about it.

I've already got a ticket booked to go visit her in November. And even before that holiday starts, there are other little things are beginning to make me smile. For instance, I've had to create a new Oz2 folder in my email to organise all the emails and plans for this Oz holiday. The Oz1 folder still has photos and emails from the Bondi Rescue lifeguards from the Sydney holiday of two years ago.

Just yesterday, I had to get a new bottle of facial moisturiser. I was trying to choose which one to get, and picked the one that came with SPF30 sunblock. Because this new bottle will definitely last me till November, and I will definitely need sunblock for the Australian summer sun.

Woah, I'm so thinking of little details, and so far ahead.

Breakfast

A bowl of cornflakes isn't worth a picture,
but my pretty new cup and saucer is.

Lion, tigers and bears, oh my

A day at the zoo. Actually, it was the company's family day at River Safari. I wasn't so interested in the pandas, their star exhibit -- who also weren't very interested in receiving visitors. I liked the manatee enclosure, but the rest of the river displays were really fish tanks in a row. So it was all rather underwhelming -- and the boat ride through the Amazon display wasn't operating --  and we were done in two hours. And went next door to the Zoo, where we had a much nicer time.

The only panda I managed to get a picture of was the red panda.

The baboons had their own waterfall.

Is the plural of mongoose mongooses or mongeese?

Kangaroos in the Australian Outback display designed by Steve Irwin, who had a memorial plaque next to the entrance.

Nanuk, the only polar bear born in the tropics. He looked so lonely.

I was very disappointed that I did not get to see Hugh Jackman.

One lazy fellow was lying on his back when another monkey came over,  cursorily removed one tick, then kicked him. Lazy guy rolled over and started grooming his kicker. The other picture that I didn't get because a crowd of laughing tourists were in the way -- two giant tortoises mating. They were loud, very very loud. And he took a really long time. He was still at it when we got bored and moved on. I wonder how she felt.

Eating out today

The diners at the tables around us were taking pictures of their food,  so I thought I would too.

Antipasti plank

Wagyu burger at the far end for L, a bowl of polenta chips to share, and cannelloni for me.

Monday night comfort dinner

Pasta with meatballs and homemade tomato sauce. L was too lazy to skin the tomatoes and grate the cheese (the yellow lumps loosely crumbled on top) but it tasted good anyway.

Breakfast at dinner time

There's something holidayish about having toast, sausage and eggs at an hour that's way later than brekkie time. 

Back to normal programming

The festive curries have come to an end, it's back to L's "patchwork" cooking. Tonight's dinner was meatball soup, made with all sorts of things chucked into the stock pot -- carrots, celery, gingko nuts and even a pork knuckle. It came together nice and meatily, and there's enough soup to last a day or two. It should be good with vermicelli rice noodles tomorrow.

Hari Raya is not over yet

More curry, dhal and biryani rice from the neighbours,

Eating all day

Breakfast

Mutton curry, chicken and sambal prawns from the neighbour's Hari Raya celebration.

Les roasted a chicken for dinner. That sausagey thing is a whole carrot wrapped in a bacon rasher and roasted with the chicken.

Saturday night dinner

Beef stew. Oxtail in Les's bowl, chunks of chuck tender in mine because I don't like fiddly bony bits of meat.

I had mine over ketupat, steamed cakes of pressed rice, left over from a Ramadan break-fast curry meal given to us by a neighbour. She cooked up a storm on the afternoon of the last day of Ramadan, and came over with the food before sundown because she wanted to share with us the specialities that they were having for their last break-fast. We felt more honoured than being invited over for Hari Raya, this was so much more intimate and family-like.

The surgeon is in

The patients. Most got by with minor surgery but one needed an amputation and another was too far gone to save.

The eager assistant. Also the culprit behind the patients' condition. You can tell by the glint in his eyes.

Day out

Played tourist and went to Gardens by the Bay in the late afternoon, and stayed for the sound and light show at dusk. Then walked over to Marina Bay Sands for dinner, and caught their sound and light show by the water.

The remains of the day

I wasn't even going to try and take a beautifully composed food-porn picture of my dinner when all the food bloggers do so much better. I'll just be perverse and take one of what's left on the plate when we're done with roast chicken and coleslaw, and cold cha soba noodles. An East meets West dinner.

Back to posting food pix

Went off my feed for almost 3 weeks when I was ill. Good way to lose weight, I guess. Equally good to come back eating when L has a chicken in the oven. He's a "let's see what we have in the fridge" sort of cook. Hence chicken stuffed with a lemon, and drizzled with more lemon, and draped with bacon rashers, then shoved into the oven to roast. Not found in any recipe book, but hey, that's OK. It was tangy and anything with bacon can't be bad. It had the dogs sitting under the table, patiently waiting.

Dream story

L had a dream about me last night.

I was walking a husky in a forest in winter. A bear suddenly came out of the forest and started chasing us. After running for a while, I said "eff this", and stopped to hide behind a tree. I told the husky, "You go look for a phone and call 999." The husky looked at me intelligently and ran off.

L has always said that he wanted to take me on a trip back to his beloved Toronto, especially in the winter. I have always demurred, especially the winter bit. This must be where it's all coming from. The loveliest thing though, is that I have a dog, a husky!

Been sick

Had a cough and a high fever that wouldn't abate after two days of antibiotics so the doctor insisted that I take a blood test for dengue. I don't have dengue, but the blood panel indicated something else -- I have thalassemia. In fact, I've had it for almost 50 years without knowing it -- it's genetic and I was born with it.

It's not a medical issue, more physiological, I suppose. And given that I'm not about to breed, I don't need to do anything about it. Otherwise, I'll have to go for genetic counselling.

In other words, life pretty much remains the same. It just feels weird to be told that you've got a condition for almost 50 years. It's like you always thought you are dark haired, and then someone comes along and says you haven't been looking in the mirror properly, and that you're really blonde.

Oh, and the cough and fever went away. It just took a little longer than two days.