Covid, Cough, Coursework

Don't panic. Not me. My sister. She's got the Covid. It's her second time. There's an antiviral drug that can be administered within 5 days of showing symptoms, but it's only available at what we call polyclinics - sort of centralised government huge-ass clinic complexes. BUT according to the boss they're running low on stock (he has friends who are still in the public health system) and they're only giving it to the really old and frail. 

So since she's neither of the two, it's unlikely that she'll be a good candidate to receive the drug. I told her to stay home and save herself a trip to the megaclinic. 

She's not in too bad a shape. A bit of cough and feeling slightly lightheaded, as one does with the flu. 

I on the other hand have developed that annoying post-nasal-drip cough again. It was bugging me in December and with a week's Dymista it went away. Well. It's back. I blame the fried snacks. Now whenever I eat something I cough. BUT it doesn't start till about 5 mins into the meal. So I've been stuffing my face as quickly as possible to get thru all my food before it hits. Not too difficult since I'm a pretty fast eater in general. 

And EdX had a discount code for me in my inbox today so I decided to get back to my course. I have one last module to go before getting my cert in lifestyle medicine in chronic disease management - it's back to "school" for me. 

Just in time too cos BIKSS is away on a work trip next week. We'll miss his birthday so I think we're "celebrating" tomorrow. If celebrate is what you can call a visit to the physiotherapist (for him) and an audiometry test (for me) before we get to the business of getting some yummy grub! 

Here are today's chips - Raw diamond chips. Cos I really shouldn't be snacking on potato ones! 

Pre CNY Snacking, CNY Movie and Rose Gold Pieces

It's about 3 weeks to Chinese New Year. I've bought a couple of bottles of snackeroos. They're not gonna last till then but anticipation eating is a major part of the festivities!

I'm munching on this now - salted egg yolk powder dusted on fish crackers!

Seaweed + wanton skin crackers - not something BIKSS is a fan of I'm afraid. 

More for me then. I went through half the bottle at school yesterday.

In other CNY-related activities, I caught a Chinese film recently. When I was a wee lass I remember getting hauled down to the nearby cinema with my aunts, uncles and cousins to catch the latest Chinese film every Chinese New Year. For the rest of the year we'd watch the Hollywood movies in English, but once a year, at CNY we'd have to suffer a Chinese 'show'. That's what the adults called it. "Let's all go see Chinese show this Saturday," someone would announce, and that was that. We didn't get a choice. I guess it was an effort to do something Chinese-y altogether. Who knows. (Mind you we're Chinese Peranakan, but we all spoke Peranakan Malay and almost NO Chinese. So this tradition made ZERO sense to me.)

Anyway, last Friday BIKSS and I went to watch an Andy Lau / Tony Leung movie. They're veteran Hong Kong singers and actors... old school stars whom I watch even though I'm primarily English speaking, and while I can speak Chinese it's probably not enough to understand a whole film without reading the subtitles. 

We splurged on some "premier" seats, which included adjustable leather seats in twos, small panels on the side so you don't have to deal with other people to the side of you, a call button if you wanna get food or drinks, and a blanket! 

Looks something like that - 

The movie itself wasn't awesome... but I wasn't there for the plot. (Altho' I do prefer an action flick.)

My jewellery kick is still alive and, um, kicking... I'm afraid. A few more pieces landed in my mailbox yesterday. 

2 piece set - Zirconia & Rose Gold (which is my preferred metal colour these days)

A Van Cleef inspired bracelet (left) and an infinity design ring (right) 

All for the low low price of under $10. Sure, they're worthless in terms of resale / trade-in value, but for everyday mucking around, they're pretty enough to get the job done! Besides, I'm not a fan of the diamond industry. I have a few pieces from when I was young and clueless and would only wear real diamonds and gold, the kind you can sell (and I have sold some pieces I never wear anymore for a decent profit) but these days they make such high-quality-looking pieces that it doesn't bother me one bit to be seen with 'fake' jewellery. Besides, half the time my friends can't tell - especially if you wear them alongside the real ones. If Jackie Kennedy could do it, so can we! (That's your fashion tip for the day!)

That's it for this week's round up. I'm off to shower and get ready to take the mama out to the grocery store for a quick walkabout. The weather finally seems to be sunny enough for her to leave the house (it's been raining all week!) so we're going to take advantage of the clear skies!

Enjoy this close up of the salted egg yolk chips!

Birthday Week Update - Food, Fashion, Births and Deaths

Today I turned 51. 

2 days ago my aunt died at 82 - on her birthday. I haven't been to the wake yet. As both my mentor and boss told me - celebrate life. You can mourn her after you're done celebrating. I'll be off to the wake tomorrow. And then took a day off work to go to the funeral on Tuesday.

I ended up with two birthday cakes in the office cos they BOTH didn't think to check with each other if anyone was bringing cake. I'm not complaining.

I had a loklok / satay celup dinner with my best buds last night to celebrate.

And me and BIKSS went to an old Japanese yakitori joint to celebrate the night before - he had never been there so I wanted him to try it. We'd been meaning to go for a while now so I'm glad we managed to get a reservation for my birthday.

I bought a ton of jewellery - they arrived last night. Just in time for my birthday :) 

Top left - rhinestones and titanium bangle; silver bar bracelet 
Top right - zinc alloy bracelet, crystal rhinestone, square faced watch

Bottom left - moissanite ring, 925 silver (I LOVE IT)

Bottom right - stainless steel bangle with crystals - I'm still deciding if I want to keep it cos it's a real bother to put on and take off without help. 

Also picked up a couple of David Yurman dupes - this one turned out fine, but the other one was damaged so I'm getting a refund on that.

This VW inspired piece is CLEARLY meant to be a copy of the brand's Grace Bas-Relief Open Bangle but the star above the orb is a dead giveaway. Still it's a lovely piece and I'm pretty happy with it. 

(If you would like to have a look at more designer inspired items for cheap on Amazon, have a look at Shea Whitney's latest video.)

Also, the shoes from this post - I sent them both back. The company has pretty awesome customer service I must say. First they sent me a larger size without having to return the first pair. Compare them both and decide which one you prefer, they said.  Then I told them I didn't want both of them cos even tho the second pair fit better (bunions, balls of feet, back of heel ALL felt great!), the top of my toes - knuckles? - were getting chafed. I think the front of the shoe was too flat. 

Not only did they process the refund on the same day that I sent them the tracking number and receipt for the return shipment, they also sent me $30USD to cover the shipping cost. 

And that's the round up for the week. 

It's late. I'm going to bed. I had a lovely birthday week... or fortnight.... and it's time to get down to the business of getting ready for Chinese New Year!

(Oh - and I threw out a bunch of G-strings today. It's not like I've been wearing them anyway.... )

I Shall Live to Terrorize Another Year

The biggest thing this week - my blood test results came back good! Better than expected, and definitely better than last year! 

HDL went up (107) and managed to hit a level higher than my LDL (104) -which also came down, miraculously, despite not exercising much this last year because #LIFE&CAREGIVERDRAMA. 

Sugars are the same they were last year. All within normal range. Triglycerides went up. But who cares. It's still in the acceptable range and my ratio is a happy 2.3, down from last year's 2.8. 

We celebrated with a pizza on Tuesday night. Sadly, no pics. Cos I was starving and we were chatting about something that must have been so engaging I forgot to take a picture. 

It was their signature pizza, mozarella, ricotta, salami and sauteed spinach. Only I turned it into OUR signature pizza, by requesting they swap out the salami for some mushrooms. Which they were happy to do. Oh, and a drizzle of honey. 

(from their website, now just minus the salami and add some mushrooms)

And this is why I eat the food I eat and DON'T eat the foods I DON'T eat. It seems to be working well for me. So I'm sticking with it. 

We're celebrating my birthday this month with all the feasting! Actually, we eat at nice places almost all the time on our dates but I think we're putting extra effort into planning where to have dinners in the coming weeks. 

Also, I've promised BIKSS a tour of all the fried chicken chains for the month of Feb - HIS birthday month. He seemed quite pleased at that. 

That's all for now. I will update after the next two dinners. :)

Enjoy this Chip Pic