Money Week + +

Let's start with the plus plus. I play a game called Angry Birds Dream Blast that BIKSS started playing first. And at first when I tried it on his phone I didn't like it. But after some time when I went to play it again I found that I actually enjoyed it. Perhaps he had moved on in levels and I found it just challenging enough.  

So I downloaded the thing. And now I'm at level 7000 and something. I just thought it was cute that they built the '7000' into the game layout for the level. 

Dinner last week was at a place by the beach. It was one of those things that look like a hut, no fuss, not many tables - read : less chance of having to deal with screaming kids thank goodness! - and so we had a greek salad, some stuffed portabellos, and a grilled barramund. Could have been better... but it was decent enough. I'm not complaining. The ambience was lovely. By which I mean we were the only people sitting indoors. There were a few tables occupied outside. A quiet dinner is a great dinner imo.

One thing I found hilarious was that on the menu it said all mains were served with vegetables and starch. I mean, who calls it starch? Couldn't they just say potatoes? LOL. 

The rest of this week has been all about finances for me. I pulled out some time deposits that were giving me pathetic returns and stuck it all back in for another term with more than double the interest. Thanks to the 'rona, interest rates were at something stupid like 1.1% when I placed those funds. Thankfully it's climbed back up to the 3 point somethings. 

I also had to renew my home and fire insurance. Which isn't a whole lot of money, but it's just tedious having to log in and make payment etc. 

Then I got an email saying that my government approved integrated insurance plan was up for renewal and I had to pay a little over a thousand bucks. What? Wait. No. 

So I did some digging and asked around and someone suggested this company that mum and dad's insurance plans are/were with. I don't handle their stuff, the brother does... so I had no prior experience with them aside from recognising the name of the company. 

Turns out a friend's sister is an agent with said company so she put me in touch with her, and we sorted out the stuff in one afternoon. I will save about 27% in premiums annually, so I decided to pick up a rider that would limit my copay to 5% (instead of 10%) with a cap at 3k per year, and take care of  my deductible of 3.5k altogether - taking it down to zero dollars - woot!

I mean, that's some serious peace of mind for $200 a year. 

(For definitions on copay / deductibles etc click HERE)

I tried explaining all this to my sister when she asked why I was meeting an insurancent agent, but as usual she's all like "Oh I don't understand any of this my brain's too old to fathom these numbers and make sense of all the terms... I don't know... I'll just let my husband deal with this stuff." I REALLY CANNOT UNDERSTAND how someone could be so negligent. Yes, negligent, in that she just doesn't think about what will happen and how it will impact her children should anything happen to them. Argh. 

Side note - I later told my niece about the Silver plan - see below - and suggested she find out what her parents are covered for and consider picking up a plan on their behalf so if they end up in hospital she won't be bankrupted by their bills. 

Anyway, aside from that, because I know I don't have a great disability / critical illness plan, I decided to check if they had a cancer-specific plan cos the boss suggested it - he recently got one for himself because of the way cancer treatment costs here are escalating every year. It's gotten to a stage where in April this year they'll be announcing a revision on the payout schedules for ALL insurance companies across the board cos there's going to be some huge overhaul in the Health Ministry's definitions of cancer treatments and management.

So there's a cancer plan that pays out upon early stage AND late stage diagnoses of cancer (for 125% of the sum assured) and also the full amount of the policy in the event of accidental death; and then there's a "Silver" plan (I found this rather amusing) that I'm just old enough (50) to qualify for. My agent recommended that I take that over the former, cos on top of all that the other one has, it's got additional coverage for "fractures requiring surgery or surgical fixation" PLUS there is an extra payout (albeit only 25% of the policy) in the event I need to be placed in a hospice for "terminal cancer". For about $3 more monthly, that's not a bad deal. 

But if I die of natural causes then my next of kin gets a measly 5 grand flat. LOL. 

Alright, so I paid for all the things, and filled up all the forms. 

And downloaded all the apps and documents and what nots. 

Then I got an email saying it was time to renew the work visa for my caregiver... which also meant I needed to renew HER insurance plan. 

The government makes it compulsory for all employers to take up an insurance policy for stay-in caregivers / housekeepers when we commit to a contract. And so I rang the agent again to ask if they had a policy for stay-in caregivers, and she got a general insurance specialist to give me a call. 

My, but she was super efficient. She definitely knew her stuff! And she was a fast talker!

"Hi my name is Jane, and I'm calling per your agent's request (Marilyn) to help you with your caregiver's insurance plan prior to her work visa renewal. Is this something that you requested?" 

Me taking my own sweet time on the phone... - um, oh hi Jane, yup I asked Marilyn if she could assist with getting my caregiver a policy for the next 2 years. 

"Sure, we can do that. Have you received the official notice of renewal? Either hard or soft copy?"

Me - uh yeah I have an email.

"Ok I'm going to ask you to pull up that email, and also get hold of your caregiver's passport as we'll need the passport number and date of expiry, I'll hold while you gather the necessary documents." 

"If you look at the notice of renewal on the top right corner below the date you'll see a permit number beginning with  0 - can you read that 8 digit number to me beginning with zero?" 

"Now below the salutation (Dear Ms Fondles) you'll see a service expiry date - can you read that date out to me in date date month month year year format?" 

And on and on she went. It was ALMOST like being talked thru an automated system. But BETTER!

Anyway we got that done in no time at all and I'm a happy camper. 

Except now I have to keep an eye on the date cos come 30th March I'm gonna need to pull out another bunch of time deposits and re-deposit them with better interest. One matures on the 30th, so I thought I'd just wait till then (and not pay the penalty for that one) and then pull the rest (that won't mature till months later) out on the same day. 

Oh, and in some good news, one of mum's homecare grants has been doubled from this month onwards. Some enhanced financial measures that the government announced in the recent budget. It's only $200, but that's better than nothing.

It'll buy me more chips, at the very least :)

In a Rush - Tahini, Bananas, Wraps and John Wick

I went to the store to pick up some tahini after work cos this recipe :

3 Ingredient Tahini Bread

Or watch the video if that's more your thing - 

Since I was there I decided to pick up the ripest bananas I could find too, because - 

Almond Flour Banana Bread

(It takes longer to scroll thru the website to get to the recipe than to actually mix all the ingredients together, let me tell you! It's that easy!)

I've made 2 in the past, and one ended up in BIKSS' office for easy lunches when he doesn't have time (or is too lazy) to run out for actual lunch. But today's loaf was for the sister who said (at noon!) she was coming round this afternoon to visit the mama. I never know in advance when she's coming, so it's not like I can bake one for her a day before or anything. Since I had almond meal I decided today would be a good day to make her a loaf. Sigh... the things I do for the (pre-)diabetics in my life!

I don't have a pic of the almond banana loaf, but I do have one of the tahini bread :

I got back in time to start the mixes and chuck everything in the oven before my 330 class!

And why the rush to make the loaf? 

Excuse the bad English. When I'm rushing I fall into a local form of speech. It generally involves leaving out some of the pronouns, prepositions, and other joining words. 

Anyway, what happened was, BIKSS suggested we watch John Wick tonight... and I stupidly forgot that I promised someone I'd do a food-rescue at 645 today when I said yes. (And because I had class before that I couldn't do the rescue earlier on my own either.) So he booked tickets. Which I was glad for (until I remembered the rescue!) cos the man is notorious for preferring the "let's get tickets when we're there" option. Not something I'm keen on because some movies are impossible to get tickets to there-and-then.

But the thing that I was glad for also put a kink in our plans - we had time for dinner + movie or rescue + movie but not all 3. So in the end I suggested making wraps for eating along the way so that we could save on dinner time. He was so chill about it and even sounded enthusiastic about the wraps!

In this respect we're TOTAL opposites. Fondles plans. BIKSS goes with the flow. When the plan falls apart Fondles panics. BIKSS just shrugs and says... "what plan? we had a plan?" LOL.

And so, not only did I mess up his dinner plans, I had the cheek to ask him to ferry me to pick up some other stuff from another rescuer AFTER dinner too! Hahahha. The things Daddies do for little girls. 

But now that everything has been solved, I'm feeling excited about tonight! 

Class is done, the bread is packed, the wraps are made, (I wrote this post!) and I even managed to pick up some mild facial cleanser for him cos he's been having a bit of dermatitis around his temples and behind his ears.... I'm beginning to think his body doesn't like dealing with stress - so his blood sugar goes wonky, the pressure goes up and the skin decides to break out! 

Let's hope a movie will help :)

Today's chip pic - 

A Buffet I Can Get Behind

Most buffets are a waste of money for us cos we're not huge eaters. They usually cost a bomb and we don't get nearly enough bang for our buck when we go. 

Unless it's one with specific foods that we're after, think, seafood - which is very expensive where I live - or a specific cuisine (French, Japanese etc), we'll pass on the whole buffet thing. 

BUT last Friday we went to a place that has a salad buffet. I had been earlier in the week with the sister who took me there for lunch before our scrub / massage appointment - on her! woot! -  and I must say, BIKSS and I were really pleased with the spread. 

Fresh AND sauteed mushrooms, grilled and steamed broccoli/cauliflower mix, all the regular fresh veggies - cabbage (white and purple), baby spinach, alfalfa, capsicum, carrot, radish, tomato etc; cooked veggies like corn and pumpkin and green beans; salad-adjacents foods - quinoa, onion rings, wedges, hard boiled eggs, potato salad, mash, cheese sausages, flavoured rice, 3-4 different types of beans; pre-mixed things like a bean and onion salad, coleslaw, and some pickled long bean thing; and a bunch of seeds and nuts and cheese and dressings. They even had nachos and dips! 

And right at the end when I went to make my affogato (ok more like coffee milkshake) I found some mini corn muffins. And they were really delicious - we weren't expecting them to be so good! 

Yes, drinks and dessert (fruit and ice cream) are included in the price which was about $20 per person before tax. 

Not too bad I thought. 

If you add on a main (we had a black pepper chicken thigh which comes with baked potato) it's $3 more. LOL. That's almost ridiculous!

We both ate too much, but didn't feel QUITE so guilty about it, I mean, it WAS mostly healthy non-carby things. (Except for my muffin and ice cream and potato...) What I mean to say is, we could have binged on a lot more unhealthy options! So this wasn't too bad, imo.

And after that we went to the beach and walked along the waterfront for about 40 mins to try and work off some of our foodbabies. 

So now I'm curious... are buffets a thing in where-u-live? Tell me a buffet story! I'd love to hear some.

I think I'm having a craving for these types of chips! 

Fish in a Fancy Pot, And Fancy Gold Flakes in a Bottle

We went to an open-air food market food fair type thing only to find when we got there that they were closed every Monday. So we ended up in the adjacent 'enrichment' centre that houses a bunch of studios and such where kids can do art, ballet, take swimming lessons (yes there's an indoor pool!) and other stuff. There are, of course, cafes and eateries cos what else are the parents going to while they wait for the little ones right? 

We decided to go for traditional Chinese Fish Head Steamboat. Basically, fish head soup in a smoking pot.

 

We also had stir fried veggies and sweet sour pork. Traditional "wok hei" foods which BIKSS enjoys quite a lot!

If you want to know just HOW this wok hei aroma is captured in the food, have a look at this video -

But if you want to see some authentic Chinese wok action click here - 

And on that same day I managed to purchase a pre-owned bottle of Guerlain's L'or Radiance Concentrate Makeup Base. I watched a video on Youtube and the firming and lifting effect of this miracle liquid was so obvious even BIKSS was pretty impressed when he saw it. 

 

So of course I needed this magic goop right? In the end I got it off a lady on Carousell (let me introduce you to this marvelous site - it operates in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Australia, New Zealand and Canada) who didn't feel like it agreed with her skin, or she didn't like it or whatever. It's a pump bottle and recently opened so there's very little worry about contamination. And I have realised since taking a deeper dive into the hell-hole and time-sink that is the Carousell app that a LOT of people do this! They buy make up and skincare, take care to use a spatula or applicator when trying it out, then sell off the remainder if they don't like it.

I never thought of doing that - I just stick my finger into a tub, try it out, and if it isn't something I like I pass it to mum or sister or niece or friend or caregiver. You know, someone who's not going to have to pay me actual money for it. 

But since I discovered this whole new universe where skincare and make up are being sold for cheap (and they send it to you!) I've managed to pick up a few Beauty of Joseon things, some of them brand new even - it's not unusual to find that the seller had purchased them in bulk from airport stores (cheaper) or during sales or whatever and then realised they probably won't be able to finish using them up before the expiration dates. 

In any case, I managed to get a bottle of that gold primer for $45 instead of $120. I mean, that's some kind of bargain. 

Plus $3 for postage. :D 

(That's cheaper than SOME chips - the postage I mean, not the gold flakes in a bottle!)

Facials, Food and Fun

It's gonna be one of those mish-mash posts with jumps in the timeline. Which is similar to a lot of my posts really. But let's start with Friday night dinner.

We ate at a Nepalese place - FIRST TIME! - and it looked very much like Indian food, except for the momo - which looked like Chinese pot stickers. Just a lot bigger. We had chicken and fish tikka, and some prawn thing, plus a cauliflower dish - tasted like curry but I could be mistaken. It's really pretty good! 

 

Chicken, fish, and steamed momo

Prawns and cauliflower

We then went to a 24 hour grocery / hypermart thing that's known for its cheap stuff, hard-to-get old brands and weird 'sell-a-vision' products. 

I ended up getting shampoo, laundry sanitizer, and baking paper... just usual stuff, but also, 4711 towelettes that I haven't laid eyes on since I was in primary school! ($2.50 for a pack of 10.)

I also picked up some cheaper than usual facial cleansers, Pond's Cold Cream (cleansing cream) and a bunch of deodorant sprays. 

Right. Speaking of Pond's cold cream, that's the thing my mum used to diligently slather on her face every night no matter how tired she was or how late the hour. I decided that I should just go back to basics cos my face was complaining!

Since my Monday facial I've noticed that my skin has been horrible. The face oil and moisturizer that the clinic gave me (for healing and soothing sensitive skin *pfft*) weren't helping to heal or soothe one bit. My skin was drier than usual, the pores were huge, and my face felt awful. By Friday I had completely given up and switched back to my usual ECO Essentials Vit C oil (which is no longer available but they have an all in one oil now which will probably work just as well) AND did a bunch of research on a brand I had been wanting to switch over to - Beauty of Joseon - which I had written about before. I've since chucked out the clinic-provided oil and cream and switched over to the BoJ Revive Serum (ginseng+snail mucin) ...

... and Dynasty Cream. The magic ingredient? GINSENG!

From their website - 

What it is

This is Beauty of Joseon's first product, 'Dynasty Cream', which has been loved by many for quite a long time. With its firm texture, it provides dense moisture and nourishment preventing skin from drying out even after long hours.

It is a multi-functional cream containing rice bran water, ginseng water, squalane, and niacinamide for skin health, moisture, and to maintain the oil and moisture balance.

Its firm texture provides moisture and nourishment from deep within.

Long-lasting moisture

Containing 2% niacinamide and 2% squalane, it balances oil and moisture and protects skin from external stimuli.

So is ginseng all that it's hyped up to be? Can it work miracles? Studies seem to think so - 

"Panax ginseng (aka red ginseng) and ginsenosides have shown to prevent aging of skin. Two separate clinical trials indicated that ginseng extract improved facial wrinkling."

"Ginseng, an ancient Chinese herb widely used in Eastern medicine, has been studied for its anti-aging properties., and has been shown to have beneficial effects with regards to anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, cardiovascular regulation, neurological improvement, anti-tumor, skin protection and immune modulation."   from HERE. 

and : 

"The main active ingredient in ginseng is ginsenoside, and its effects on the skin are mostly anti-aging and whitening. Ginseng extract regulates the levels of matrix metalloproteinases in human fibroblast type I collagen to improve the elasticity and water content of skin. In addition, ginseng inhibits the transcription factors or signaling pathways involved in the formation of melanin, it exerts a whitening effect. "  from HERE. 

And yes. It made a difference. Visible enough that my caregiver looked at me on Sat morning and said that my skin looked bright and hydrated! 

The other thing I've picked up recently is the Edelweiss Liquid Peel from The Body Shop. It's a gommage peel and works like an exfoliator, but a super gentle one. None of those harsh facial scrubs (hands up if you're thinking of the St Ives Apricot Scrub) or peel-off charcoal masks (which, as one Youtuber described it, is just one huge pore strip for the face - and likely to peel off the top layer of your skin along with the blackheads!)

Since I was feeling so dehydrated on Friday afternoon I actually stuck a sheet mask on my face (something I don't usually do) that my caregiver passed back to me (one of the samples I had given her previously).  I felt heaps better after that. I figured I should pick up a few more for the time being while I'm trying to nurse my skin back to health. And guess what, we found some edelweiss serum masks at cheap store galore.

Edelweiss apparently is another one of those anti-ageing ingredients with super antioxidant properties.

BUT since it's going to get expensive (even tho it only cost me $2 a sheet) if I'm going to make it a regular thing (for both of us - BIKSS needs it more than I do if you ask me - more on that later) I did some research and found a reusable silicone mask online for also $2. You just stick whatever serum you want on your face (which is a better idea, imo cos that way you get to choose) and then place the mask over it and lie back for 15 mins. 

Wash, dry, re-use. No packaging waste, sheet mask waste, or product waste - there's always a ton of serum left in the pack which I try and use up but there's just so much!

And so I am now trying my darndest to finish using up all my other products in tandem with the current ginseng skin-savers, and then switch my entire skincare line over to BoJ. I'd love to get some of the Edelweiss range from The Body Shop but their stuff is just way too pricey. So after I'm done with this bottle I might just switch back to the BoJ gommage peel.

OK, so back to shopping. I found a huge roll of disposable cotton facial wipes (that look something like this - Shein sells them too) for about $5. I'd been looking for these for some time - for use with facial cleansers - but since I now have my Pond's Cold Cream as well, they'll be great for that too! The catch - not so great for the environment, but hey, at least I'm saving on those sheet masks. Plus, better for the skin than tissues, AND they're washable and reuasble to some degree. Maybe 2-3 uses per sheet. 

Here's one from Amazon that costs a bomb - but I'm just showing it to you for the description :

Anyway, when we got back from shopping I chucked BIKSS in bed and grabbed that Edelweiss peel to get rid of the gunk on his face. He was quite amused at the little bits of stuff that rubbed off. I took a pic for him to see what he looked like. 

After that I stuck a sheet mask on him, to soothe and hydrate. And while he was lying there with his eyes closed I grabbed a warm towel and wiped Roger down then proceeded to give him a BJ while I played some spa music on Youtube.

The deal was that he wasn't supposed to make any expression with his face while the mask was on. He accepted the challenge and I must say he was doing a pretty good job of it ... until I decided I wanted in on the fun too! 

So I took the mask off him, had him pat his skin to use up / spread out whatever liquid was left and then announced that I wanted to play too! LOL

And so it came to pass that BIKSS got a facial and BJ at the same time. I mean, he did suffer the crowd and traipsing up and down at the megastore with me. And I *know* it isn't one his favourite places to be. The least I could do was thank him for it. ;)

I could do with some chips right now! Enjoy!

More Self-Care

I suppose one could call it self care even if it doesn't involve pampering and feeling awesome afterwards, as long as it's stuff that in the big scheme of things "takes care of oneself" right? 

I had a facial today. At the aesthetic clinic that is the sister company to my actual clinic. I had a bunch of comedones that were throwing parties and inviting friends and family to come round and stay the night / week / year... so it was time I got them dealt with. 

They're basically whiteheads... hardly visible in normal light, and if left unextracted could flare up into an acne breakout. I.DON'T.EVEN.HAVE.OILY.SKIN. Never did. It's just that the one used-to-be-tiny one below the eye has grown... and I'm not keen for the others to follow suit. And I have an illegal gathering of bumps between the inner corner of my other eye and nose bridge. 

So off we went. And did a shingles jab while I was there. And now, $400 (damned vaccine is super expensive, this one!), 2 hours of bump-extractions and an oxygen bubble mask later, I'm sitting here with a sore left deltoid and a spotted face.  

She assures me it won't be as bad tomorrow, but while I'm certain the inflammation and swelling on each dot site will subside by morning, I forgot about the larger ones scabbing over. 

AAAND we have a concert to attend on Wednesday. Sigh. I supposed I'll just leave my fringe be and don't style it up in the usual fashion cos I have a constellation on my right temple!  Here's hoping it's less noticeable by Wednesday!

PSA - I urge you to get the shingles vaccine if you're over 50 and especially if you've had it before. People who have had it are more likely to get it again. And sometimes the nerve damage is permanent, causing pain and tingling that persist through the rest of one's life. It's seriously not worth taking the risk, imo. 

Today's public service announcement was brought to you by chocolate chips!

So Relieved I Fell Asleep

When BIKSS gets stressed he tends to sleep more. He's tired, grouchy, and escapes into zzland. 

I don't get sleep issues, but I do hold a lot of tension in my muscles. 

Today tho, I think mixed in with my period-induced and NSAID-induced drowsiness, the relief from having my caregiver's dental procedures go smoothly knocked me out good and proper. 

She'd been having some pain coming from her wisdom tooth, and when we got her in to see the dentist her x-ray showed a horrible state of affairs. Many of our foreign caregivers come from less developed countries, and of those the majority are NOT from the cities. There is limited excess to education and the modern trappings of life that we are accustomed to and take for granted. Personal care is sometimes part of that mix.

Our standard contract states that as her employer I am responsible for medical and dental and any other bills that may arise as a result of her needing treatment without which she would be unable to carry out her duties adequately. I mean, one cannot work if one is in pain, right?

And so last week we went to the clinic to get it seen to. Her wisdom tooth was decayed and so are some of her other teeth, but the upper first molar in particular also looked like it might be problematic. The dentist could speak her native language, thankfully, so communication wasn't going to be an issue, (I mean, I can speak a similar dialect but not exactly, and also I can get by with daily stuff but I'm not great at proper nouns and specialist words involving teeth!) and when she asked her if it hurt, my caregiver (CG) said no, but when she went poking around inside and tapped on that tooth CG winced and said ow. LOL. 

Yeah, it hurt. And so we were advised to extract BOTH teeth. 

Now the way dental (and medical) care works here is that if you're a citizen you can use your government-mandated personal healthcare savings fund that you contribute to every month (they just zap it out of your salary) to pay for certain procedures and medications. There are limits and requirements of course, so that one only draws from that fund for larger, costly tests and procedures like, well, a wisdom tooth extraction or surgery.

Anyhoo, CG doesn't have this fund and so it has to come out of my pocket. Now these things cost about $300 easy, so I was surprised to find out that most dental clinics / surgeries have preferential rates for some segments of foreign workers (specifically those who work as domestic helpers / caregivers / construction / mainly the blue collar jobs)! I think that's really good of them, since it's a well known fact that in such scenarios the employers foot the bill in cash!

So dentist says to me we'll probably have to pull BOTH of them out. But she'll try a straightforward extraction first - which will cost me $80 a tooth. That's heaps more affordable than $300! But if anything happens during the procedure like the root breaks off or whatever, then she might have to open up the gums and that would then become a "minor surgery" which would cost $350. Ok, I can handle that. Bye bye Everlane shoes. 

And in the event after that (worst case scenario) she discovers that the roots / bits / shards  are still unable to be extracted for whatever reason and an oral surgeon is required then we're talking about a referral and scheduling her for day surgery which could be in the $1.2-1.5k range. Say what now? 

Ok, but that's the worst case scenario, she says, she just has to lay everything out before we go ahead and schedule the extraction. Yes, yes, I understand. 

And so that's what I was carrying around with me for the last week. 

This morning I dropped CG off at the dentist and instead of sitting around for an hour I decided to get my haircut. 

I got a text while waiting for my turn to get into the hairdresser's chair. Shle was done in under 20 mins. Hah! That's either very good news or very bad news. 

I rang the clinic to find out what the outcome was - my worry was that she would say something had gone wrong and she couldn't go ahead with the extractions. Turns out she was DONE with both extractions, plugged up the larger wisdom tooth hole (with some special thing that would help coagulate the blood and then dissolve on its own in time) and was very optimistic about her recovery. 

I was so relieved I told CG to head on home to rest while I finished up at the hair place before heading back to the clinic to settle the bill. 

And then this evening after an early dinner I couldn't keep my eyes open despite loving Doctor Who, so I paused the episode, and totally out of character-ly just rolled into bed and closed my eyes. 

I didn't text BIKSS to let him know, I didn't set my laptop to sleep, I didn't turn off the lights or speakers or anything. 

I contemplated setting an alarm so I wouldn't sleep for too long, then decided ah fuck it. And I slept. Dead to the world for 3 hours or so. 

It felt so good. 

And maybe I CAN still afford to get those shoes. (Still thinking about it... not 100% certain...)

(I do like me an avocado, but I'm not sure I'd like 'em as chips!)

Because Blogger is Being a Brat

Here's the sitch - for the longest time I didn't need the sensitive content warning. Then one day I wrote something naughty and Blogger kept saying it didn't want to let me publish. Cos, I dunno, it bit of the fruit of the tree of knowledge or something and figured out what I was writing wasn't kosher for the general public. 

So I stuck the warning page on. 

And then it decided some of my friends weren't allowed to come in and read. And some who were, couldn't post any comments. 

So I removed the warning page. After all, it's not like I'm writing anything kinky anymore these days. 

BUT - in the event I do, please excuse the lack of detail or explicit descriptions. I'm trying to keep from getting shown the "please display sensitive content warning" message.

Like last night, for example. 

We went out to dinner at a vegetarian place in the same building that housed the theatre we were going to to watch a play. 

They had 'Spam' fries - vegetarian of course  - but it was as good as the real thing. I mean, if BIKSS was impressed, it must have been good. I couldn't tell cos it's been years since I ate any luncheon meat at all.

The otah or otak-otak (a Southeast Asian fish cake made of ground fish mixed with spices and wrapped in leaf parcels. Otak-otak is traditionally served steamed or grilled, encased within the leaf parcel it is cooked in, and can be eaten solely as a snack or with steamed rice as part of a meal. 👈 from Wiki) was also a very good dupe of the real thing! 

Our main was a lion's mane mushroom version of Bak Kut Teh  - pork rib soup (click 👉 here to see a previous post in which I shared a pic) 

We headed to the theatre for our play and then met up with my cousin who was acting in it after. Turns out he didn't drive that night so I volunteered BIKSS to send him home.We could go for a drive, he'd get a comfy ride home, and we could chat and catch up along the way. It was too early for us to head home ourselves anyway, cos you know, there's that whole deal with mum now. 

Eventually we ended up in my room and as we were chatting I asked him if we were going to have  s-- (rhymes with plex 😆). He said well yes, but only if I was up to it. I explained that because of all the stuff that's going on with me, I'm not feeling "it" at all these days (perimenopause and birth control pills do a serious number on your libido let me tell you) and I suspect I'll be perfectly fine never doing it ever again too. So if he wants to get some he's gotta do the work! LOL. I assured him I'm not s-- averse, "well, if you're not averse", he echoes, and I emphasise it this time "nope, I'm not a-verse. In fact I think I'm more of a chorus"... he didn't hear that one at first... cos he was busy taking off his pants. But eventually he realised what I had said! 

Ok, I had to throw in a lame dad joke in there just cos. Anyway, I get to um, saying my hellos to Roger in the way I do, and he's having a thoroughly good time of it. All that muscle twitching and grunting and expelling of air inspired me to ask (through sounds, which he clearly understood) if he wanted to c-- in my mouth. The answer was yes. 

I think that's a brilliant way to do it. No fuss, no mess, he's happy, I'm happy. I mean, it's not going to come as a shock to anyone who reads here that I enjoy a good bj as much as I used to enjoy s--. These days, more. 

And there you have it. I'm going to hit "publish" now and see if Blogger still thinks this is too raunchy for the general readership. Fingers crossed. 

And have a luncheon Spam chip while you're at it!

 

At the Makeup Counter

At one point while looking for some blush I exclaimed in frustration that it was ridiculous just how expensive make-up had gotten. 

I mean, if I want a little colour on my cheeks maybe I should just slap them. Then I proceeded to pat my own cheeks... and turning to face BIKSS I said, hey, or YOU could do it... have a go! 

He pulled away and said no no no, there's CCTV all around and he could get into big trouble! LOL. 

We played abit in the store, I said, nah they won't think you're abusing me, I'm smiling and touching your chest and we're obviously getting along, I don't look like I'm distress! 

He went on to say that it might also look like I was trying to placate him in an effort to stop him from continuing with the slapping. It was funny. 

Not abuse. That's NEVER funny. And it's NEVER ok. But it was funny how he twisted everything I said or did into something that might have been misconstrued. 

And isn't that the real problem with the world? One thing said or done under one circumstance could be misinterpreted VERY VERY badly. 

That's all I wanted to say today. 

Enjoy! Cos these are ALSO Chips :)