Saturday, September 13, 2008

The showdown

Ah! Saturday again! I have learned to appreciate the benefits of a 5-day work week. If there is necessity to go back to the office to clear work that I have not yet finished, I will do so. Otherwise, I usually spend my saturdays either grocery shopping and cooking (if Da and I are hosting a dinner at our home that night) or spring cleaning the home. Lately, I have gone to the beauty salon a few times for my water retention problem.

Speaking of water retention, my colleague informed me on friday, 12 September 2008 that drinking apple cider vinegar mixed with honey is good for water retention problem. We happened to have both apple cider vinegar and honey at home as we use these to make salad dressing (that is, mixed with olive oil, lime/lemon and spices). I tried the apple cider vinegar with honey mixture this morning. Gosh... it is quite sour! I am not too sure of the proportion. I guess it would be "mix to taste"?

(Tiki, I think I may have found the apple cider vinegar with honey that you mentioned is sold at NTUC. Is it the one that costs around S$15? If so, you may want to consider buying apple cider vinegar and honey separately and mixing it yourself. The Heinz apple cider vinegar that you can see in the photograph above costs S$2.60 at NTUC. The honey is not all that pricey either.)

I had a 9 am appointment at the beauty salon today. Instead of the "steam treatment" that I was given the other day for my water retention problem, today my beautician tried another treatment. It involved using a machine to massage the body. I had earlier informed my beautician that my stomach and arm seem to be bloated. I am not sure if it is a general weight gain because my clothes can still fit me insofar as the thigh area is concerned. So perhaps it is merely water retention. In any event, in the off-chance that it is also general weight gain, I have been making the effort to watch what I eat and to do some exercise. (SPD - I have not yet gotten around to doing sit-ups, as recommended by you. I have not been doing sit-ups since 1990. Goodness me! That was 18 years ago! Back then, my waist was a trim 21 inches, if I recall right. Of course, it helped that, being in the choir, I had a flat tummy then. Okay - time to regain my youth.....!)

Back to the topic of the massage. I am not entirely sure how the machine operates, but I ended up with blue-black at my arms and stomach. It may be because I did not complain about pain during the session. I have to confess that I can tolerate pain but I am very afraid of being ticklish! That may explain why I have, to date, not gotten the courage to have a massage at a spa. I have this fear that the massage will be ticklish.

The session ended around 11 am and I made my way to the office to clear work.

At 2 pm, my colleague (who was also in the office) and I made our way to the meeting. The meeting was to be held at a residential development where a total of 4 colleagues and I were meeting some clients to explain and attend to their execution of documents. In the old days, this development was reputed to have murderers, gangsters, mistresses, etc. Nowadays, only the mistresses remain (in addition to "normal folk", that is). As my colleagues and I sat down in the function room and awaited the arrival of the clients, we speculated on whether the women who walked past are mistresses or "normal folk". At one point, my colleague even remarked, "Do you think this one is a real... you know...?" It was amusing.

The meeting ended at 4.30 pm and after we packed up our documents and stayed to chat awhile with some business associates, I got a lift from a colleague to Tiong Bahru Plaza.



I arrived at Tiong Bahru Plaza after 5 pm. I was hungry as I had not yet eaten lunch. However, as it was very close to dinner time, I decided to go to the food court for something light. I settled for a cup of coffee (with less sugar, of course) and a sandwich. As it was not crowded at the food court and it was rather cozy, I took the opportunity to finish reading a novel that I had with me (and which I had read about half of it).

When I finished reading the novel, I stretched like a lazy cat and got up. It was almost dinner-time. I walked around Tiong Bahru Plaza for a while before I bought some mini-pastries from Four Leaves Bakery. These mini-pastries were sold at 5 pieces for S$2.80. I bought 10 pieces and requested for a box.

Thereafter, I walked to the coffeeshop opposite Tiong Bahru Plaza and ordered some Indian rojak before I made my way to the home of The Three Musketeers.

Today, ET had decided to have a mini-steamboat dinner. The soup was very sweet due to the presence of prawns. Oh! I almost forgot. ET also fried oyster omelette. I am not fond of oysters, cockles, mussels, etc but the omelette was very nice. ET also steamed fresh crabs. He had wanted to cook chilli crabs but was advised by the crab seller to steam the crabs instead. Gosh! The crab meat was so sweet!



Da did not join us for dinner as he was involved in an exhibition at Suntec City. Not to worry, 花 saved some of the food for Da as he would arrive after 9 pm, just in time for the 2nd half of the Manchester United vs Liverpool soccer match.

Ah! I had such high hopes for the match. Naturally, I was rooting for the Red Devils to win the match. After all, Liverpool is one of their closest rivals and pride dictated that there should only be one outcome for the match - 3 points for Sir Alex's boys. Alas! I was so disappointed! Although the Red Devils scored the 1st goal, an own goal by Wes Brown (you may disagree that it was an own goal. To me, it certainly looked that way from the angle on the television screen) resulted in an equalizer for Rafael Benitez's boys. In the 2nd half, Pool managed to get a 2nd goal. When the extra time came, I was hoping that Man U would "come back from the dead" as they have done many times, but how could they score when the ball remained firmly within Man U's half of the field? My observations from the match:-
(a) Man U's mid-field was very weak. The absence of Ronaldo was clearly felt;
(b) Pool played their cards right - they had a very strong mid-field and they played an attacking game;
(c) the number of defenders' mistakes by Man U was atrocious;
(d) the timing of the match was unfortunate as it was clearly when the noon sun was shining and the vision of many a player may have been blinded. This is a classic case of the football federation accommodating television viewership.



Finally, time for dessert! Coffee, pastries and mooncake. I have to say that I am proud of myself! I managed to resist the pastries and mooncake!



After dessert, I was watching Supercute and Blackninja play a computer game when ET asked me whether I have watched the latest THE MUMMY movie starring Brendan Fraser. I shook my head. So everyone gathered in the room and watched Michelle Yeoh speak Mandarin with a Malaysian accent and the actor (who played the role of Alex O'Connor) speak atrocious Mandarin. The movie was hilarious and Jet Li did not disappoint with his martial arts skills. I would have to say, however, that the title of the movie was not appropriate as the Emperor (played by Jet Li) was not mummified in the movie. Oh well... call it artistic interpretation, I guess.

1 comment:

wesirelander said...

I think massage at spa is quite good, not really ticklish. I am also afraid of tickles, so if I can take it, I think you will be able to.

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