BIKSS and I are in our 50s. We met in 1988 but it took us 24 years before hooking up in 2012. We moved into a DD/lg dynamic a year later. In April 2015 some shit hit the fan. We took some time off but eventually found a new us.
I used to live alone except for a few shifting years when my folks moved in then out, then after dad passed on, mum moved in again. Now that she too has passed, it's just me, one carer whom I've decided to keep on, and my tenant.
He lives with his family. This is us.
It was a particularly depressing evening. I had been to the hospital and was having to give my mum a dose of reality. She said something about the father getting better and I told her the only way that was going to happen would be by some miracle. The fact is his dementia is progressing a little faster now that it's reached beyond the "moderate" stage and the doctors have had "the talk" with me regarding his end-of-life care plan.
It was a sobering evening and I basically said I want him to pass before his body starts to shut down and he's left suffering, without even understanding why he can no longer chew or move his hands.
When BIKSS came to get me the sun was at the tail-end of its setting and I don't handle sunsets very well. It's always been a very depressing time of day for me, and I tend to stay indoors with the lights on at dusk as much as possible. I try to time my comings and goings in a way that minimizes the chances of my being outside at twilight - whether civil or nautical or astronomical. Yes I've looked it up. There are different twilights. All of them depress me. I'm usually not awake early enough for dawn twilight, which is fine by me.
Given that the encounter I had just removed myself from with the mother was also a depressing one, I wasn't sure the evening's planned sex-fest (I had been super horny the whole week) was going to be all that we had been anticipating. Add to that the drive-by for me to have a look at the nursing home we were offered a place at raised more questions instead of helping to reassure me that we weren't making a mistake putting the father there. It was on a hill and the helper would have to wheel mum up there everyday to visit him. AND hold on to her very firmly coming down!
I texted the sister to ask if she could find out about some sort of private car hire that we could arrange for the mother, and then I asked the mother if she was still ageeable to proceed with this application. Her reply was, "I don't know... you decide."
That started me on a whole new train of thought. BIKSS of course was patient as a saint as I went on and poured everything out to him. By this point I was feeling bad cos I didn't want him to think that our fun night (which we had both been looking forward to) was going to turn into a depress-fest instead!
I needn't have worried tho. After dinner we came home and he held me and cuddled me and we chatted and talked. And I got into my LG space and let him comfort me. And we moved the conversation to less upsetting topics... looked up random things on the fone... laughed a bit and ended up kissing and making out.
I had cut my index finger earlier in the day - it was quite deep, I thought - and was well bandaged up so I voluntarily moved it out of the way and let my arm drop above my head so it wouldn't get caught in the tangle of limbs and naked bodies, leaving my boob exposed and unwittingly assisting him in some sort of self-inflicted 'bondage'.
There was some serious ramming going on. Fingers in pussy, cock in throat, and then cock in pussy. My eyes were rolled back for most of our encounter, his hand wrapped around my neck too.
I fell asleep curled up and tucked under his armpit beside his ribs, inhaling his scent after not having had the opportunity to do so for too long. And all was good again.
(only my head is on the bed and my nose is against his side rib!)
I do enjoy my durian but, like my chocolate, I've got to be in a mood. BIKSS has asked a number of times if I wanted to head out for durian and my answer has been in the negative about 6-8 times in a row now. Finally last week I had a slight craving for it. So I suggested that we have some after dinner. Part of me also felt like I should let him have his day, you know, cos he's always so sweet in wanting to take me to the durian place to have some! I wouldn't be able to go on my own, cos it's a bit out of the way and so if I wanted some I would end up getting the pre-packaged stuff down at my shops, instead of the FRESH ones. I told him so, after we were done eating, and he was all like "If you don't wanna eat any, we don't have to go... " but I told him I felt bad turning down his offer repeatedly! LOL. I think he was a little bit perplexed but since I DID want some that day, it was all good in the end.
These days they provide you with disposable plastic gloves so you don't dirty your hands.
But I'm old-school and decided to go bare!
That's BIKSS breaking open the wedges to reveal more yellow yummies.
The durian is a pungent fruit and leaves a stench on your fingers, but if you grab one of those wedges and run some water over the hollowed out part of the husk where the yellow bit has been removed (and eaten) then rinse your fingers under the water that runs off, it takes the smell away. Don't ask me why. But here's an article if you're interested to learn more.
According to researchers, durians have such a strong smell because of sulphur compounds contained in the fruit, which is also the reason why durians have such a pungent scent. The researchers also found a compound called 5-Hydroxy-methyl-furfural (5-HMF) in durian shells and durian seeds. These 5-HMF compounds act as an effective deodorizer which neutralizes the lingering smell of durians.
Yes. The strange things we do over here in Asia. LOL. That's exactly what I do whenever I'm eating durian outdoors and need to wash the smell off!
Next up - pics from across the border again. BIKSS drove in to collect stuff from his printer. So I tagged along. Here's some leftover deco from the mid-autumn festival. Cranes are a big part of Chinese culture.
After picking up his stuff we went for dinner at our favourite Japanese place. At 5pm. This is NOT our usual dinner time. But the restaurant is always crowded so we thought, why not. At least we won't have to wait for a table! Aside from the usual sashimi which I've shown you a million times, we had some soft shell crab crepes...
A house salad - there's coleslaw under that heap...
And for dessert, some konyakku jelly balls with finely ground peanut in a sea of palm sugar syrup.
The konyakku (or konjac - pronounced konyak) jelly balls didn't taste of anything (you're meant to coat it with the syrup and peanut), but that's also cos it's almost zero calorie and zero carb. I'm not kidding. I'm currently on a quest to find some konjac noodles. Here's some info on the miracle food by someone who did a product review. I haven't tried either of those brands, but I really like how thorough the review was in explaining what it is and its nutritional composition and value.
Konjac noodles are also called Shirataki noodles. And here's another website explaining what it is.
If anyone has tried them, let me know your thoughts!
OH, and as we walked into this store BIKSS said "Here's a Dom walking into a sub shop"... He thought he was pretty funny. :)
I was given a bunch of books from my cousin, and as I was clearing out the cupboard today I was trying to decide which ones to give away and which to keep. And as I was flipping through the stack, I started reading this one :
And here's part of the blurb from the inside cover :
"The Ugly Duckling Goes to Work probes H.C.Andersen's sharpy and witty stories for lessons that will inspire you to bring more meaning, more energy, and more joy to your work - to create a meaningful work life. "
As I am actively decluttering all the time, I put some of them up on the recycling/freecycling app I talked about before, Olio, and am now trying to speed through this book so that I can pass it along to someone else when I'm done.
It's got some interesting things in it, if nothing else a reminder of the 'important' things in life. I thought I might share it here for anyone who's keen on this sort of thing.
I'm calling it quits on the FFF posts I think. I'm always late, and there aren't any more participants, it seems.
So this is going to be the last one probably.
Average - 11,224
Highest -13,064
No of >10k days - 6
It's been a tiring week. I've had to deal with the asshat of a brother (thank goodness for St John's Wort in my mood support supplement) and I've been baking pretty much every week to try and get some extra funds for the added expenses now that the helper's here and the niece is here, and these few months haven't been great student-wise. I get paid when they come for class. No class, no cash.
But on to more exciting things -
Yesterday was the mid-autumn festival and traditionally kids go around with lanterns and families have picnics by the light of the full moon at night.
Some of the parks and gardens in my land have huge lantern displays during the month of the festival. We've been to a few, so this year I thought it would be a treat to be able to go on the actual day! We went to the one farther away as there was a write-up about it, but it turns out my evening of lantern appreciation was going to be fraught with obstacles!
First, GPS didn't quite take us to the right spot. So I typed in the alternate name for the park, but my phone was glitchy (it had been on the blitz all day!) and google maps didn't want to find anything! Eventually we got directionst but as we reached the turn off for the carpark there were traffic wardens standing at the slip road - which was blocked off - and motioning for drivers to move along down as it was full house at the parking area.
BIKSS decided we could park at one of the estates just ahead and walk back to the park. But while he was making a U-turn the curb got his rims. He was kinda pissed. But only for 5 seconds. I very seldom see him lose it, so I kinda froze in my seat. For about 2 minutes. I eventually did tell him that I was afraid to move cos he was angry. He assured me he was fine, and it was too late to do anything about it now... patting my lap as he did so. Still, I wasn't entirely sure he didn't think it was all my fault for wanting to come out all this way.
We eventually got there and thought we might get some dinner. The lantern display turned out to be pretty sad. There was some street food ...
but there were only 5-6 vendors, and the queues were ridiculously long. At one stall the grilled pork skewers and pad thai had a 1 hour wait. We didn't order any.
Display-wise, there were some pretty scenes at the entrance of the park - but as we walked around a little bit more we realised that was all there was.
It was about 100 meters long - and I was a little disappointed. Hrmph. Where were the lanterns we could ooh and aah at???
There was another event happening in one of the central gardens... and I checked the web - it was open till 11. So BIKSS said let's go there instead.
We got there around 945 and he turned into one of the carparks but after we got out of the car we realised it was dark and there were no lanterns.
Huh?
It's on the other side, he suggested. We needed to get to the other entrance. Or we could walk.
Now on the way there I had said that I didn't want to waste too much time wandering about since we had already wasted ENOUGH time trying to get to the first faraway park. And the plan was, that we would walk in from the carpark all of 10 mins and whatever I saw, I saw, and then we would turn right back around and head home (and maybe get food, cos for some reason I was feeling peckish).
But if we had to WALK to the other entrance I would never make it to see anything in 10 minutes!
"Why is it so hard to see the lanterns this year, Daddy???" I whined. I pouted.
He laughed and agreed that it did seem like a challenge this time. We drove to the other entrance.
And finally, there were lights and big-ass lanterns for me to take pics of. So here you are. Lanterns in my land on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival. (And get ready for more Chinese Culture 101.)
A Dragon 'tunnel' at the entrance to the Lantern displays
A dude holding up the dragon in a traditional dragon dance
like these guys are doing (wiki)
The Teochew people are known for the elaborate Chinese operas and puppet shows during this festival. This display was a moving one, with the 'puppeteers' behind working the puppets in the front. It was really cool that they tried to keep it accurate right down to the number of strings each puppet was supposed to have - 12.
BIKSS said this installation looked like jellyfish. I thought the fairy lights made it very pretty.
This picture is part of a story board that revolves inside another screen. It's meant to make you feel like you're IN a lantern - with the revolving screen on one side, and a lighted up panel on the other. It's a novel idea, but I didn't think it really made you feel like you were inside a lantern. It felt like you were just walking through a round passage with boards on both sides.
This is a marriage scene, showing the groom preparing to carry his bride over the threshold.
And there was a food street here too - with a lantern depicting a food vendor in the front.
We got a drink, and I saw a fried oreos stand. BIKSS had never had these before, so I totally insisted we get some. It was so so good. Yum. You take an oreo, coat it with batter, and fry it up. Then dust some icing sugar on it. It's awesome!
And that was the end of the lantern hunt for us. I was pleased as a pumpkin. But still feeling like I needed more food.
So we stopped off at the KFC where we first discovered the chicken and waffles and got us one for sharing.
We didn't finish it tho. I was too full. And so was BIKSS. LOL. The only thing that was missing that night was MOONCAKES! But I think we had enough sweet treats to make up for that.
I did have some of the mooncakes from our shopping spree at work over the last couple of days - they're for sharing after all, cos no one eats the whole darn thing by themselves, at least not in one sitting! These are the lovely Vietnamese mooncakes with durian and salted egg yolk. The black one has black sesame added to the lotus paste, and the other one is yam flavoured - all my favourite flavours in one mooncake. Perfect! Um, actually, I think I'm going to run off and get some right now. Have a great weekend everyone!
In the last post I mentioned trying out a "mood support" supplement. The first day I popped two at a go, cos that's what the bottle said. I got happy-high pretty quickly. Haha.
On day 2 I thought I would scale back so I took one. It was enough to keep me from getting irritated at every little thing, and I even managed to keep my cool and laugh it off when Daddy did something totally illogical.
I was at the hospital and we were supposed to meet up at 4 to head over the border to get mooncakes. It's that time of year again when people here celebrate the mid-autumn festival (this year it falls on Sept 13th), and I go mad with buying treats. Only it's crazy expensive where I live so we try to go to where the exchange rate is advantageous to us and get them there.
At 2-ish he texted to say he was going to have a quick meeting at 3, then he would be done. He also confirmed the place we were meeting. At this point tho, I had gotten dragged into a meeting with the social worker who saw me at the ward and asked if I could spare some time to discuss a few more things. I said yes, as I had brought along all my shopping bags and passport so I knew I didn't have to rush off home first before meeting BIKSS.
By the time I saw the message it was coming up to 3 so I just sent him a reply saying that I was on my way. Turns out his meeting got cancelled so he was all set for us to go. We then made new arrangements because it would definitely take less time for him to travel to my part of the world than for me to get to him. And if we both started making our way to each other he could pick me up from a train station a LOT closer and we'd be on our way sooner!
So I stood in the heat, and the sun, waiting for a bus, in my heat-attracting and -retaining dark brown capri tights. Sweating, as I do, in 36 degree weather (celcius!), humidity somewhere in the high 80s.. and then after 15 mins the bus came and I climbed into it where I got some aircon relief. Only to be bombarded by noisy smelly school kids one stop later as it was also about the time the schools kick their teenage wards out.
Trying hard not to breathe too deeply I bounced along in the bus for another 10 mins, till I got off at the station we had agreed upon. He wasn't there. He had gone to get himself some lunch, so I waited. At the pick-up bay. In the heat, parched, sweating and trying my darndest not to get stinky (which is pretty difficult when one is sweating...in the sun).
He rolls up not too long after, and I'm in the car! Finally. Hurray for shopping days! But wait. He needed to get gas. So he made a u-turn and headed back towards where I'd just come from, and made a little turn off to where he thought there was a gas-station of choice. But there wasn't. So we continued on and as he drove my spidey senses started tingling. We were going right back to where I had just come from.
"Daddy! If you drive back towards the hospital I'm going to thwack you on the head!"
He gave me the sheepiest look ever.
"Well, we're only going this way cos I thot there was a gas station there. But there wasn't."
Uh-huh.
"And if there had been? (I narrowed my eyes at him at this point) we'd still be going this way... wouldn't we?"
He capitulated at that point, smiling a silly "oopsie" goofy Daddy smile, then dipped his hand into his box of fried chicken and offered me a french fry.
Pffft.
He SO could have saved us the 30+ mins that it took me to get to him, AND some sweltering in the process.
PFFFFT.
Of course I wouldn't let it go. I brought it up as often as I could. Not in any naggy way of course. But in the cutest manner possible. He placed his hand on my thigh and it was warm. So I lifted it off and put it back on his own lap and winced at him. He could feel the heat-transfer from his hand to my leg (or maybe his own... ) and he guessed "hot?"
"Yeah... I mean, cos I was only standing at the bus stop for 15 mins in the heat with my very dark brown pants absorbing all the sun and trapping it against my skin... "
LOL.
I was proud of myself. For not flipping out that he didn't plan that properly. And wasting half and hour or more of our shopping day. It's not about the shopping tho, it's about being able to spend as much time as possible together. But anyway, by the time we actually got there proper I figured he had had enough, so I finally turned to him after one last jibe and said "You know what would make me feel better? If Daddy actually said sorry or something... "
He laughed and kissed me and said sorry! Haha.
(And now, a lesson on South East Asian Mid-Autumn Festival sweet treats!)
We had a great time at the mooncake bazaar, made more entertaining by a young lady at one of the stalls who was so hyper and cute and probably has a little in her just dying to get out.
We dropped a wad of cash at that stall (about USD $82). Here's some of my stash.
It's a Vietnamese brand that makes mooncakes that have the same filling as the ones we get in this region, but with a flaky pastry that's traditionally found in Vietnam or Teochew, China.
(Click to enlarge)
The ones we have here usually look like this :
(Traditional baked skin mooncake)
Here's a "how-it's-made" video, if you're curious. It's in Vietnamese but has English subtitles.
We also got some "Japanese Daifuku" snowskin mochi with durian ice cream. I couldn't find a pic of the flavour we bought on their website, but here's a photo of their dragonfruit version. Ours had white skin, durian ice cream, and the bits inside were red bean and some melon seeds I think.
Every year I write a mooncake post... and then link back to the one from the year before. So for those of you who are new here, have a look at last year's custard-lava-durian-mochi madness. This year wasn't much different. I didn't get any traditional baked skin mooncakes, cos that's really not something I go crazy for.
But I did pick up 2 durian snowskin mooncakes. The most expensive purchase was a super duper real durian flesh not mixed in with anything else snowskin mooncake that costs about USD $16.50. (See pic below.) The second one was about a quarter of the price. If you ask me, it tastes just as wonderful.
(Click to enlarge)
After all that sampling and buying and going mad with sugar-loading, we picked up some swissrolls (I bought 6, BIKSS bought none) and then decided that we should head to dinner.
(They're really yummy! And during the festive season they have themed ones too.)
(USD $3.50 each)
We tried a Japanese restaurant we'd never been to. This is the view of the
main stage in the mall from our vantage point overlooking the atrium.
We had a modest sized sashimi boat:
My first time trying warm edamame beans - I've never liked the regular ones
they serve at Japanese restaurants cos it's always cold, and tasteless, and HARD!
These were sauteed in butter and tossed in Japanese chilli-pepper powder. Delicious!
Sweet beancurd skin wrapped around ladies fingers.
There were 3. I ate one before I remembered to photograph the dish.
We also had some miso-grilled eggplant, but I forgot to take a picture :)
After dinner we even had time to wander around the adjacent mall and pop into Marks and Spencer and Cotton On. I'm sure some of you will recognise those names! By the time he delivered me back home it was past midnight and boy was I tired! But he had promised to take me shopping, and shop we did.
Getting up for work this morning was hell tho. LOL. So I'm off to bed now. Happy mid-week everyone, and happy mid-autumn festival!
Highest - 16,329 on Tuesday (I went to the hospital, then to mum's to help with her meds, then came home to bake and then to collect a bunch of reuseable containers from someone near my estate -the whole reuse/recycle/freecycle thing you know?)
On that note, I'm glad BIKSS is supportive of my efforts at saving the earth (and some money). I know plenty of people (and more than a few of my exes) who would scoff at it and give me weird looks for picking up other people's unwanted stuff.
Number of >10k days :6.
----------------------------
I'm finding myself really irritable these days so I went out and got myself some mood support from NOW. I thought I might benefit from some calming / anti-anxiety action from the St John's Wort during PMS. But maybe I should take it regularly, just in case. Especially when I know I'm going to be with the mother / sister / anyone who is known to piss me off. Has anyone here tried something for bad PMS mood swings? Let me know if you've tried a supplement / remedy. I'm real curious.
My back has also been aching - along the spine, rather than out to the sides where it's more meaty. I hope it's nothing serious, but I'll wait another week and see how that goes. Currently it comes and goes. I'm not even sure if I should be getting a massage - if it's NOT a muscle issue, I don't want to cause it further stress should it be a bone or nerve problem.
And in my course recently we looked a little more at Diabetes and and the role of Insulin.
If you thought Diabetes was just "too much sugar in your blood" watch this video to understand the role that insulin plays in your body. It does SO MUCH MORE than just "bring down your glucose levels".
It stimulates the storage of glucose in muscle and liver,
In liver cells it inhibits production and release of glucose,
Stops the synthesis of new glucose (or gluconeogenesis),
Also stops the breakdown of glycogen,
In adipose tissue it inhibits the breakdown of Lipids (FATS!) and release of fatty acids,
Stimulates the formation of lipids in the liver and adipose tissue,
Inhibits protein breakdown,
Stimulates protein synthesis,
and affects blood flow and vascular function.
TAKE CARE OF YOUR PANCREAS and your pancreas will take care of you. I can't stress this enough. Here's the video, or watch it on youtube.
And since I haven't posted a lot of health-related links in a while, here are two for you this weekend.
My second toy sure took a while to arrive, I think there was some issue with customs... but it finally came!
Unfortunately it got here while I was on my period, and then the niece was camping out in the living room, so it was quite some time before BIKSS and I had a chance to play with it. But we managed it last night... after another dinner of KFC double down chicken waffle! Instead of a waffle-chicken-waffle set up, we get this :
Yup. The chicken is on the OUTside. And a whole meal costs only a fraction of what we would have to pay at a restaurant (see this post).
We discovered it by accident a couple of nights back when he took me out to get dinner and supplies, and we were really just craving for some fried chicken so we went to where we knew there was a KFC across the road from the supermarket I needed to go to. And lo and behold, the most prettiest, beautifulest, makes-me-the-happiest-girl banner was sitting right outside the front door. It's new on the menu, and so what if the last 3 times I ate at KFC I had the runs... I was NOT missing this!
Turns out, I no longer get sick after KFC. Good thing too, cos CHICKEN and WAFFLES!
Ok. Now that I got that out of the way... THE TOY!
First off, I like that it's purple. Again. I now have way too many purple toys. But it's pretty, and it feels great in the hand. Like the Aubergine, the previous toy I reviewed, it's made with FDA-approved soft silicone, comes with CE Certification and is USB chargeable - but this one is also waterproof!
Aside from loving the texture, I also like how they've made it very easy to hold while using it. At the top of this picture I've got my finger over a white plastic piece that's definitely hard enough to support some pressure - probably a good idea if you're planning on inserting the toy. Which is what we did. Only I didn't have to hold on to it myself cos BIKSS was glad to assist. The thumb would sit quite comfortably over the control button so you can cycle thru the 9 vibrating patterns, and when held this way, the curve of the vibrator follows your natural curve!
It's good for clitoral stimulation too, but since I'm spoiled for choice, I'd probably reach for my Aubergine first. However, as far as insertion goes, the Mermaid is pretty darn awesome.
Charging port and CE / Electrical waste logos
Pen for size reference
Just a regular lighted up on/off button. No heart-eyed emoji this time.
One longish press turns the vibe on - the first setting is a relatively low constant buzz- followed by 2 and 3 which seem to be medium and high respectively. Patterns 4 to 9 are various combinations of pulses, crescendos and los and highs in different rhythms, and 10 seems to be a "no vibration" setting. I don't know why there would be a need for that, but it's there. Pressing it again takes you back to 1. To switch off the vibe at any time, press and hold for 3 seconds and the blue light will disappear.
If I were looking for a new vibe, this one would definitely be on my list, especially considering the multi-pattern vibrations, smooth texture and comfortable size / shape for insertion. Great for fun times both inside and out!
I was telling BIKSS about how insulin really does a whole lot more than just regulate blood sugar... and I said to him, "Them carbs are evil, they'll kill you! Stay away from them!" and this was his reply.
(this one's my favourite!)
😒
But since we're on the topic of food, here are some more.
Enjoy :)
Well, if you want to look at it THAT way...
This one was hilarious. I lol-ed at it.
Strawberries, pineapple and oranges for me please!
INVERTED no less. Gee.
HAHAH. But it *is* spam!
Have a good week everyone!
And as always, let me know if you had a favourite! :)
