17 June 2026

I've Reached That Age

...where most of my social life revolves around accidental reunions at funerals and wakes. 

I spent the last week visiting with a family friend at his mother's wake, there were many people I'd not seen in decades. We caught up, reminesced and made plans to keep in touch. His own family lives in Australia so it took some time for his wife and one of his sons to fly in. The other one was already here. 

He was my brother's classmate. And a lot of the fellas who came by, aside from being schoolmates, also went to the same church; people I'd known from my girlhood days when I used to play for Mass, including the original line up of musicians from when I was a wee lass of 9, legs too short, even, to reach the organ pedals. 

We were able to organise a group of 7 of us to provide the music for the funeral Mass. And even though it was a sombre occasion I must admit I had a lot of fun at our 'band' reunion. As my drummer put it "I suddenly feel 18 again". I shared that sentiment.

Conversations inadvertantly touched on medical and health problems, and despite my menopause aches and pains, I'm largely well and unscathed. 

And for that, I am immensely grateful. 

In an effort to pay it forward I've no qualms about sending out brochures and other helpful bits of info to anyone who's interested. And my, when the people you meet for the first time are all above 50, there's definitely a demand for such 'healthy lifestyle' advice! 

Funerals always leave me in a contemplative mood... so this was just me, um, contemplating. :) 

REST IN PEACE, AUNTIE D.




30 May 2026

The Year of Thrifting (And Flipping)

The place where I work is a bit of a walk from the nearest bus stop. And since I don't drive, after we close up my boss drops us off at one of the bus stops nearby so we don't have to traipse out in the midday sun. 

Now one stop down from where we usually tumble out of his car is the Salvation Army thrift shop. I don't know why I never thought to visit the place more regularly, seeing as how it's SO convenient for me to get there. I mean, I have been there before with my ex-colleague, on occasion, and also with mum and CG1 in the pre-dementia days. 

But I think after Covid hit, all our usual haunts needed re-assessing and we kinda just forgot about it. 

Anyway I've been in there about 10x now, in the last couple of months, and come away with some good finds, both for myself and for flipping on the resale platforms. 

Let me show you my loot - 


(Bonia - sold)


(Croissant bag - sold - this was the piece that started the madness!)


Agnes B Voyage


Local brand - Batik clutch / shoulder bag


Unbranded grey clutch / $7.50 - from a different thrift store. 
Took it to BKK with me on the last trip and absolutely loved how it looked!
Keeping it!


 Balenciaga / $35 - totally keeping it!


Sachs / $16 -  I've always wanted a red leather bag! Keeping it!


(Toscano - sold)


(HdPc - sold)


 Local online brand - Batik shoulder bag


Unbranded off-white crossbody / $5 - keeping it!

So I've made about $150 so far just flipping bags. It's no hardship since the platform has a secure payment gateway and comes with a built-in courier service. The buyer pays, I get an email, I pack it up and wait for someone to come collect it from my doorstep. And in 3 days' time the cash is in my bank. 

And while I've seen many, many more bags that are new/ as good as new and in very saleable condition, I have decided that I will only buy pieces that I would be willing to pay the asking price for if I were to keep it for my own use. Because if it doesn't get sold I'm stuck with it. And I'd prefer to be stuck with a thing that I would wear at the price I paid for it. 

I've also been rooting around my room to pull out unused things that I could convert into cash. So far I've managed a few pairs of shoes / sandals, including a pair of Ferragamo heels, a pair of Swarovski earrings that were a gift but make my ears hurt cos the posts are too thick, an opened blind box from Pop Mart, and a bunch of tees, tops and dresses!

And so far, I haven't been out of pocket yet for all the pretty bags I've acquired. That has GOT to be the best way to shop! (And popping into the store is turning into an addiction!)

(Hmmm since handbags are such a personal choice, feel free to let me know in the comments which one/s appeal/s to you... it'll be interesting to compare styles!)












23 May 2026

Back from Bangkok

It was wonderful. Spanks. Pinches. Sex, sometimes twice a day, and my inner service sub could come out to play. I made breakfasts, hot beverages, and even did some ironing! 

And we ate. And discovered new restaurants. And enjoyed each other's company. 

Here we go - pics! 

Lunch when we arrived on Tuesday was had at the hotel itself. The restaurant is called SoCal and for some reason BIKSS always thought that stood for Southern California. Turns out "SoCal is a vibrant street-side café and dining destination where the rustic flavours of Italy meet the vibrant spices of the Levant." Who woulda guessed!



Buffalo Mozzarella & Roated Tomato 



Chicken Taouk


There was a lovely plate of sweets on the table in the room... 


... which was conveniently located right at the lift lobby. I know some would prefer a room farther away so as to eliminate foot traffic noises, but it was so well carpeted that we honestly couldn't hear anything at all from inside the room.


BIKSS went off to work, while I spent the day ironing and, later on, walking to a couple of restaurants in the next building to get our reservations sorted for the next two days' lunches. After that I met BIKSS at the BIG C mega supermart for spot (ok, that's not really a spot LOL) of snack shopping. Maybe we overdid it a little.. but that's what Bangkok is all about, after all. 


They had some strange flavours... and seeing as how I'm a lover of all things potato chips, I absolutely HAD to try. Haven't had a chance to burst into the salmon can yet, but the Fish & Chips one wasn't bad. Some pieces had more flavour than others, but the ones that did were indeed very reminiscent of English F&C. I wouldn't exactly run back to the shop to buy more, but it was an interesting flavour.


Then we found these konjac snacks. They're savoury konjac bits that can be eaten on their own, or paired with rice or porridge or noodles. Ripped one open when I arrived home - I like it! Plus it's zero calories, zero fats, and zero sugars!


Dinner was had at a sushi restaurant in BIKSS' office building. We had the salmon roll with avocado and asparagus, a seaweed and avocado salad with broccoli and peppers, and a tom yum fried maki with fried prawns. The portions were generous, and that tom yum maki was definitely interesting. Again, a once in a lifetime "must-try" but I doubt I'd want to order it again. The restaurant gave us some complimentary cantaloupe slices for dessert. 


Baker Bricks was one of the places on my scones hit list. Sadly when I got there on the evening of the first day, they had already sold out. So I asked if I could make a reservation and they said I could just place my order and collect my treats the next day. Which is what I ended up doing. Turns out they have a rotating menu which changes from week to week, and this apparently drives their Insta fans wild with FOMO. I suppose it's a good strategy. Will I want to go back there to buy more the next time I'm in BKK? Definitely. And for the same reason - they'll have different flavours and I want to eat them all!

It's not a traditional scone texture-wise, more like what I would consider an American biscuit, which I know is supposed to be what the English call a scone, but somehow I always think of biscuits as a little more crumbly. And these were definitely more crumbly.


Top - Hojicha Tiramisu scone with mascarpone for supper, 
Bottom - Chocolate Banana scone with apple and tangerine for breakfast the next morning.


Me with my Baker Bricks boxes sitting at a table in the Pancake Cafe while I waited for my souffle pancakes to be ready. (Also, that grey clutch is my new favourite bag! Thrifted it for $7.50!)


They were a bit deflated by the time we got to them, but since BIKSS didn't have a lot of time for waiting about at a cafe (20 mins prep time), I ordered a takeaway box before lunch so that we could share it as a dessert in our room after lunch.


They're served stacked one on top of the other in-store but since I didn't trust it to stay up (especially under the weight of ice cream, fruit, sauce and cream) we decided to just have one each. BIKSS surrendered after 2/3 of his, and I ate the rest of it! 



But I'm getting ahead of myself. Lunch was had at the Mandarin Oriental tea shop. I was a little bit disappointed with their scones. We had too much for lunch, so BIKSS took the ham and cheese baguette back to work for some of the guys. I couldn't have my scones at the restaurant for being overstuffed, so I bought a mango scone and had it to go. It was dry, heavy, and didn't taste of anything. We each took a bite, proclaimed it unfit for human consumption and promptly chucked the rest of it out. The fish and dill pie was good, and look at those adorable fishies! And the grilled salmon and salad was a much larger serving than we expected. A warm pot of lemongrass tea was the perfect antidote to having overeaten! And those chocolates are so exorbitantly priced, I don't know who would buy them!


The day's wanderings found me picking up a pair of slides, to replace the ones I brought with me, which by now had begun to lose their treads and weren't any good to me on rainy days. I left those behind when I packed to come home.


The small-business scent shop I support (from ChiangMai) now has a little corner in one of the shops on the topmost floor of where the BIG C supermart is, so I picked up a few items. They didn't have a lot of variety, so that's all I managed. A perfume, pillow mist, and hand sanitiser.



Anyway, on to dinner! Which was at Victoria in Centralworld. We had the chilli garlic prawns, beef cheek bourguignon, and nicoise salad with seared tuna. All in all a very good meal. They gave us a serving of bruschetta on the house. 


And because there was a fly showing some interest in our food they placed a little fan on the table (a comfortable distance away from the food) in order to keep the bugger away.


Brunch the next day was had at 1823 tearoom, where I had the tea set for one, and BIKSS had the set lunch, with chicken roulade, a salad, and some Thai milk tea ice cream. I had the ice cream as he wasn't a fan of it.



After that he went back to work and I stayed on sipping my tea by our window table. I did very little the rest of the afternoon, by which I mean I went back to the room and took a nap.


Then it was off to Big C to pick up some sauces and teas, and then it was off to Mozza at Central Chidlom for dinner. The caesar salad was generously topped with cheese and bacon, the lambshank was a little gamey but fine when eaten together with the risotto, and the eggplant parmigiana was simply marvelous. The tiramisu was awesome, cos it was more cream than sponge, altho BIKSS thought there wasn't ENOUGH sponge. Pfft. It's all about the cream, imo.


Our spoils! Mine is a little handcarry (ok, 'little' is relative!) and BIKSS ended up filling his duffel. And yes, we had more in our luggage!


Lunch at the airport was a simple burger.... but I thought it was cute that they stamped the name of the restaurant on their buns!


And today I cooked up a batch of rice vermicelli with the packet of boat noodle gravy mix I got there. I've been to BKK multiple times but had never tried boat noodles. So I got ONE packet to try. And I've decided I quite like the flavour. It's a little bit spicy, savoury, and sweet. I guess I'll be adding it to my shopping list for the next time I'm there. Definitely worth buying!

And that's the end of it. I hope you've enjoyed the photo dump!















17 May 2026

Mortadella and More to Come in BKK

Ham. 

On a pizza.

It was pretty exciting. 

I'd never had it before and so when we went back to the balsamic tasting place we ordered it. 

Comes with burrata. What more can a girl ask for. 






Where's the arugula you ask? We got them to omit it. I cannot abide the stuff.

Info on other ingredients that were new to me : 

Fior di latte, meaning "flower of milk," refers to a fresh, semi-soft cow's milk mozzarella or a classic, unflavored milk-base gelato. In the dairy world, it distinguishes the milder cow's milk mozzarella from the richer buffalo mozzarella

Pecorino romano (Italian: [pekoˈriːno roˈmaːno]) is a hard, salty Italian cheese made from sheep milk, often used for grating over pasta or other dishes.

Mortadella is a large, premium Italian cooked salume (cured meat) that originated in the historic city of Bologna, Italy. It is made from high-quality, finely ground pork that is emulsified into a velvety smooth paste. It is instantly recognizable by its uniform pink color studded with distinct white cubes of pork fat (which make up at least 15% of the sausage) and often whole black peppercorns or green pistachios

And that was a totally delish pizza that we managed to finish between the two of us! Burp!

Also, I'm off to bangkok with BIKSS this Tuesday. I've made reservations for some of the more popular restaurants, and also have plans to visit some cafes and bakeries; Victoria by Cocotte (Romantic French Bistro) , Mozza by Cocotte (Trendy Italian), 1823 Tea Lounge by Ronnefeldt (English Tea and Lunch), The Mandarin Oriental Shop (More English Tea, Baked Goods),  Baker Bricks (Scones and Puffs), Pancake Cafe (Souffle Pancakes!), and of course, the Siam Paragon Food Hall. (Click the link to go to a Youtube video!) It's an institution!



1823 Gold Indulgence Tea set


1823 Tea Lounge
I'm totally getting a box of different flavoured scones to take home too!


Baker Bricks
(I'm totally getting this multi pack!)


Pancake Cafe
(Go to their Insta - linked above - to watch the videos!)

I'll take photos and post them when I get back! 

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

A MOST IMPORTANT PS - 

Some of you might have noticed that I've added another blog to my roll, but if you haven't, go pop over to Prefectdt's now-blog. The previous one is no more, but I hadn't realised that there's been a new one up for 3 years now. I have been remiss. 

Still, better late than never, I always say. 

Enjoy! 

(Also, Pref, those are LOVELY pictures!)


3 May 2026

New to My Roll

I've seen Sore is More around these parts before... I swear I've visited her blog... but for some reason I never got round to adding it to my roll. 

That's been sorted now, and what better way to say hi than by visiting there to read this year's AtoZ story!  (Especially now that it's complete! NO CLIFFHANGERS!)

And here's another AtoZ erotic story I came across as I was surfing instead of studying. She has also been added to my roll. (J R Vincente)

If anyone remembers next year, PLEASE hound my ass in March to sign up. I keep saying I wanna, and then I keep forgetting. 

Hope you're having a great weekend!




(yes I know it isn't Friday... but it's the principle of the thing...)