BIKSS is Back, Treats and Dramatic Plants

He bought me a bunch of chocolates. So far I've tried this one - it is absolutely the best praline/chocolate I've ever eaten. I look forward to popping a square everyday, and I don't even like chocolate tbh. Not as a general rule. I'll eat it if it's really good but otherwise the chocolate that lives in my fridge ends up in baked goods. Granola mainly. This one won't end up in baked goods. This one is for eating as is.

I also got a couple of magnets for my fridge - a most adorable doggo with bouncy head from Switzerland and green Arabic door design from Dubai. 

More treats - chocolate covered dates with a whole almond centre - a specialty of Dubai, costs about half the price there as it does here (I mean, you can get ANYTHING online these days innit?) - a very yummy treat. And a box of assorted Kambly cookies! Yes, we can get those here too, but it's just a bit more exciting when it's brought back from the land where it's made! 

Since I'm still house-bound, with mum needing assistance to go potty every 2 hours or so, BIKSS popped over a couple days ago for a little picnic nearby. We had a ham, egg and mushroom wrap each, and veggies / soup with chikuwa (type of Japanese fishcake) on the side. 

On the topic of cooking, I was craving MAKING some yorkshire pudding yesterday. I wasn't craving HAVING some. Just cooking some. 

So I went online and found a recipe for air fryer and made a tiny one.  (I halved this recipe.)

1 cup flour + pinch of salt

1 cup milk

2 large eggs

Mix well and chill for 20 mins

Heat the pan or baking dish with some oil or leftover meat drippings, then pour chilled batter into hot fat, enjoying the sizzling sounds as you do.

Cook at 190° for 12-14 mins, turning over once midway through if needed.

On an unrelated note, here are my peace lily and "mini monstera" (aka Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma) being overly dramatic when I forgot to check on their soil for a couple of days. It worked tho. I panicked, shoved some water into them and the next day they both perked right back up.

Tsk. Dramatic much? 

I'm off to continue planning tomorrow's breakfast with BIKSS. Meanwhile, have some chips!

New Buses and Other Things

Sex. Sex is one of the other things. It's not been great. Mostly I think because of the missing libido. But also because when I DO get around to feeling, you know, randy, the lady bits end up not enjoying it anymore. 

BIKSS went to fiddle with the girly parts down below and when he brushed against my clit I pushed away from his hand. It didn't feel good. AT ALL. This might be a problem. It wasn't painful, but it wasn't pleasurable. It was like the kind of negative response you might get from having someone brush up against a 3 day old sunburn. The response mind you, not the actual sensation on the skin, just to be clear. 

Anyway. Things aren't fabulous on the inside either. It's a bit hurt-y and painful and I'm looking into getting some Premarin cream for it. The boss has told me about this on a couple of occasions. I think it's time to invest in a tube. 

The hot flushes have disappeared tho. That's a plus. My period can be timed now that I'm on the pill. Which is also a plus. I'll see what I can do about not being on a bleed while I'm escaped with BIKSS on the first weekend of June. 

This week my orchid decided to bloom, and I see 2 more stalks of buds forming. Must be all the sun. I know they're known to be indoor plants, but mine seem to only come alive when the sun is crazy scorching. 

On the topic of new life, we've also upgraded our transport service. There's free wifi on some buses, USB ports in others. And today I sat on a bus that had an extra door. The regular ones have an entrance at the front and an exit in the middle. This one has another exit right at the end of the bus. I suppose it will help with convincing passengers to move to the back of the bluddy bus already. I hate it when they all crowd around the middle cos no one wants to be the ass who got stuck on the bus and couldn't make his way down in time. 

USB port beside my seat

Last Thursday I took the day off cos the mother had a tele-appointment with her audiologist and I had to be home to assist. 

After that we went to lunch, DIM SUM FOR THE WIN! I love it. And then sent the car in for a windscreen change cos something hit the glass and there was a crack about 1/3 way down the middle. While waiting for the replacement to be done we caught the new Dr Strange movie. 

After that it was Chinese hotpot for dinner at Chinatown - Roz look away. We ordered a seafood platter - and it came on a bed of ice! There were skewered prawns on there too but by the time I took a pic the prawns were swimming in a herbal chicken soup.

The next day we went out to the marina for dinner. Hadn't been to the Thai place in a bit, so I made a reservation and off we went. 

Top - steamed salmon with Thai spicy sauce (very spicy, but very good)

Left - cucumber juice 

Right - stir fried veggies

We also had tomyum seafood soup but it wasn't much to look at.

After that we went in search of some salted nuts. I managed about 5 different bags from the nuts-by-weight counter at a grocery store, AND they had yoghurt covered raisins! I love those things. For someone who doesn't have a sweet tooth, it's really strange (even to me) that I like the stuff so much. But I do. It's been almost 48 hours and this is all I have left. The bottle was full when I got it. Now I'm down to 18 raisins. 

Mouse and lappy for comparison

Well then. At least I know now where I can get more. :D

Have a great week ahead!

NOT A to Z - I is for Indoors

It rained something crazy on Friday morning and I woke up to this - our caregiver loves plants too so she's happy to take care of the flora around the house when I'm not able to. 

When it's dry out we have the flowering plants and the tradescantia sit outside the window-sill to soak up the sun. But when it rains they get rescued and placed indoors, but where there is still daylight so they don't suffer too much! 

What a Week Part I - Physio and Spinach

Yes I'm ok. I'm still here. Thanks to Baker for reaching out and checking in with me. I find that one of the things I'm most grateful for is that from time to time Blogfriends will email or text to see that everything's ok. It's very much appreciated! 

Last week has been a busy one for me. I had a physiotherapy appointment - basically my gait (pronating left foot) and the constant turning to one side (teaching piano for 35 years) has stressed out my lower back (which is why it's aching now) around the L1 L2 region and those nerves might be causing pain in my hip as well. 

He thinks it may be a combination - iliopsoas tendinopathy in ADDITION to an isolated hip flexor tightness.

Iliopsoas Tendonitis

He made me move this way and that and also concluded that the knee pain is NOT a knee ligament issue (thank goodness), but a shortening of the IT band which is causing it to pull on the kneecap. The pronation probably doesn't help.

IT Band Syndrome

My right shoulder is also out of alignment, so he massaged that a little bit (ok, more like tried to push it backwards) and then taught me a bunch of strengthening exercises to do to keep the muscles strong enough to hold all the bones steady and in place. This is EXACTLY what my shoulder is doing. The ball of my ball-and-socket joint is sitting too high so that when I move my arm it pinches the tendon. 

Top Rotator Cuff Exercises and Stretches for Strengthening

Let's see... what else. Oh, so there is some disc degeneration in my neck area but we already knew that. He suspects those lower cervical nerves are causing my rhomboids (under the scapula) to feel sore - circled in the picture below. 

Levator Scapula Tension

Phew. That's it for now. It was quite a journey of discovery. Some things we thought were the culprits were correctly diagnosed, and others were not what we suspected at all. 

But all in all it was an hour and a half well spent. I have my answers, and we're working on solving the back and shoulder issues first. I might look at getting new walking shoes with higher arch support to help with the pronation, but that's something to just think about for now. Not running out (haha) to spend more money at the moment. 

At least I got 25% off this consult on account of him being my boss's friend. 

In plant news - my sister decoupaged a planter and brought me some Brazilian spianch stalks to stick in it. 

It's been a week since I stuck them in the pot and I'm happy to announce that new leaves have appeared. 

I'll write more later... stay tuned for Part II.

It's Been a Slow and Tedious Week

I squirted some Vit C serum on my tee shirt the ONE day I decide to wear white. So that caused a bit of a delay getting to work. 

Mum woke up at 4 one morning and decided to go to the market! We had a bit of a tussle and I took a day off work cos I was groggy beyond belief. 

BIKSS and I had a fight about something and that didn't help my mood or ability to concentrate on anything either. Thankfully that's over now and he's apologised and made reparations. Still, we haven't had a chance to meet this week cos one of his staff tested positive and I'm not going to take the risk. 

I went for my IPL treatment and left my lunch bag on their counter. I only realised when I got home so I had to make a trip out again to go pick it up. 

I needed a massage so I rang my usual place. When I got there I was told by the proprietor that the usual masseuse wasn't available but they had set me up with a new guy. 1) I have told them before that I didn't want a new person, and not a guy, and have cancelled TWICE before when I was told my usual masseuse was unavailable. So it's not like they don't know. 2) Why didn't they tell me over the phone when I booked the appointment? Anyway, since I didn't specify this time, I let it go, and decided to just go ahead with it. 

He was all proper and above board, nothing bad to say about the session. BUT when it was over I realised that I wasn't able to relax the whole time for being vigilant and on my guard. AND I woke up with an even worse ache down my neck and shoulders the next day. 

So thanks but no thanks. I think I'm just going to quit this place and go back to the alternative spa I sometimes go to one block down. They're a little more expensive but at leat I won't feel like my preferences are being ignored. 

In good news, the Kailan seedlings are growing. 

And the euphorbia my cousin brought to me during CNY is starting to put out some blooms too!

The curry plant above it is also growing well, and I'm getting continuous blooms from the hibiscus mum bought before CNY. So it's all good outside my kitchen window. 

Today's chip pic ~ I could do with some truffle fries right about now.

Here Comes the Plant

 

Can you see the little green sprouts? 

I'm attempting to grow some Kailan (TIL - also known as Chinese broccoli, altho no one calls them that in Asia lol). They're the things they cross with broccoli to make broccolini. 

I got hold of some seeds and decided to try growing them. I stuck them into some soil on Saturday and 2 days later I got this!  I have a 6-hole tray but so far I'm seeing seedlings in only 3 of them. I'm hoping I'll see the rest tomorrow or the day after. I will post updates here - feel free to follow their development along with me :) 

Today's chip pic ~ I seriously love these things. I get them from iHerb. But they don't come cheap. So it's just an occasional treat for me. (The bag is VERY light. There isn't a whole heck of a lot in there.)

Dinner and Divine Intervention

When the orange jasmine is as good as dead.. and then new leaves appear. 

That's divine intervention.

[Edit: Here's what it looked like when it was alive and well - so you know, I do kill 

(or almost-kill) my plants too. But they're tenacious things. Some of them, anyway.]

When the hibiscus flowers despite a week of rain and overcast skies. 

That's divine intervention. 

And when BIKSS and I both happen to be well and everyone is stable and calm, that's DINNER DATE TIME!

Grilled pork skewers

Stir fried veggies

A deep fried seabass - it was impossible to get a pretty picture. This fish has got to be the most unphotogenic thing I've ever eaten! And it didn't taste awesome either. But there was a decent amount of it. And by the end of dinner we were full!

My chip pic today ~ 

They're called prawn crackers. I like the stick version better - easier to eat, and feels like I'm munching on fries. Only, they're super crispy and crunchy and I love them! 

Have you tried these? Let me know what you think of them if you have. 

Update - I'm Alive ... Just Tired As Heck

BIKSS had a birthday this week. He also got a bug on his birthday. So he's at home sleeping it off right now. We were supposed to make a day of it today but I went to work and had a class in the afternoon instead since he isn't in any fit state to do anything except sleep. 

Don't worry, it's not Covid. It's not even respiratory system related. He has a viral tummy bug. 

I feel funny saying that cos you know, there's no such thing as a stomach flu or gastric flu. There's gastroenteritis. A stomach ache is usually down in the intestines. Not in the stomach. An ache in your actual stomach would be a gastric pain. But ok, we've all been taught that if it hurts up top it's gastric and if it hurts at the belly button it's a stomachache / tummy-ache. It's all very confusing. But yes, so he has viral gastroenteritis, to be exact. 

It's been going around recently, so I'm not too surprised. 

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Meanwhile, I've had a tiring couple of days cooking and hosting visitors. I've also had to deal with an over-stimulated mother who had a delirious episode on Wednesday evening. I made sure to keep things quiet and calm on Thursday and in some awesome news - SHE SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! HURRAY! 

I changed the timing on her meds, and this new regime seems to work best. So far she's had two nights of complete no-somnambulism-sleeps in the last 7 days. I am hopeful. 

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Here are some pics of what's been going on. 

First, while browsing on the Shein app during our last waffle encounter I showed these to BIKSS and ended up purchasing a couple of tees. 

That face! 

In honour of the year of the tiger!

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Speaking of CNY, this is what the inside of a lapis looks like - 

Yes, you spread a layer of batter, then pop it into the oven, 

wait for it to cook, take it out, spread another layer of batter. Repeat.

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Here's a picture of the nanouk with a tiny shoot I promised - when I first discovered it, and again about 4 days later - 

I'm happy it's growing. It'll probably never flower again (given that I don't get 

direct sun of any kind) but the foliage is very pretty even without the flowers. 

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I've gone back to work. We had two days off for Chinese New Year, and both days I was so tired I ended up napping in the evenings. And then felt like my limbs were made of lead when I woke up. 

Being back at work has been good for my health LOL. I'm at least feeling alive again, and definitely not as exhausted as I'd been the previous couple of days! 

Today's chip pic is not a chip pic. But it's one of my favourite CNY snacks~

It's known as prawn roll, or prawn spring roll, or hae bee hiam roll...

First some hae bee hiam [say hay/bee/hee-um] (or sambal udang kering in Malay) is made with dried shrimp, then gets rolled up into mini spring rolls and fried. 

It's strong in flavour, crunchy beyond belief, and just spicy enough that you want to keep going so the heat doesn't sit in your mouth too long without new food getting introduced. One of things I find about chilli-ed foods is that if you keep eating it's not as bad as letting the heat sit in your mouth with nothing else going in there!

THIS Wikihow page that teaches you how to make hae bee hiam has pictures and instructions if anyone wants to be adventurous. 

THIS Wiki page tells you all about the dried shrimp used in the making of the hae bee hiam. 

And here's a video showing you how to make this yummy thing. It might help you imagine what it tastes like... maybe. LOL.  Bon appetit!

Sprouts, Treats, Games, Geri and The Girl's Perfume

OK that was a summary, not a title. But I figure if you read that and were still interested, then you'd click to see the whole post. If that seemed like it would be boring, then you could click away and I would have saved you 1.5 seconds. 

But for those of you still here, I saw a tiny shoot emerging from the base of my Nanouk just a while ago. I'll take a picture when it's more discernible. It's night time now and the light isn't great outside. 

I promised a picture of some pineapple tarts - first, background. Pineapple tarts are very popular around the Chinese New Year period among Hokkien communities because the word for pineapple is Ong Lai and sounds like one is inviting prosperity to visit. Ong literally translated means 'fortune / abundance', and Lai means 'to come'. It's like saying, hey, good fortune, come pay me a visit. The giving of the pineapple tarts isn't the important thing, its the having it in your house that we're gunning for. So buying it from the shops works too. 

I was lucky to have been gifted 3 bottles so far - with another coming my way this Saturday (from a cousin). 

Left Top - from a distant cousin but we keep in touch with their family cos they live really nearby and she attended the same school and they go to the same church etc etc. 

Left Bottom - from my colleague - her sister makes them every year (and she gives me a bottle every year) because I mentioned one year that I really liked her recipe!

Right - my student's mum ordered these from a home baker - the ball types usually have very soft melt-in-your-mouth pastries and this one did not disappoint. The pineapple filling was also very soft and mum managed to eat one of these even after removing her dentures!

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The other thing I wanted to show you was the Tiger Boy and Tiger Girl pair of cut outs that we usually stick on the door / wall / cupboard doors around this time - boy on the left, and girl on the right. That's just how it is. 

This is on my main door. The Chinese words are traditional New Year greetings, and this pair happens to be sitting on fluffy red cushions (cushions in ancient times were reserved only for people of a higher status as their comfort was important whereas the common folk would just sit on the hard floor). 

A couple of decades ago these paper cut outs tended to be "realistic" looking, but over the years people have favoured a cuter / more cartoon-like rendering. 

Also, here's a quick pic of the big ass Tiger Lantern Light Up in Chinatown - 

From a news article - The design features Bengal tigers, with the largest measuring up to 4.5m in length and almost 5m in height. Spanning 880m the light-up has more than 300 lanterns, giving form to more than 60 tigers.

Here's a picture for scale (from the same news article) - 

Yup. The Chinatown light up is a thing I make BIKSS do a drive-by of every year! It's really beautiful. On the stretch of road behind that huge tiger is a wide divider which is like a huge long planter that, for most of the year, is all about shrubs and trees, but come CNY turns into a platform for lanterns and CNY decor!

Speaking of CNY, I coloured my hair. Not because I wanted to cover the grey, but just cos I wanted something different. I've gotten bored with the grey-streaks-in-black look. 

It's called purple ash. And I'm loving it. And yes, I bought a L'Oreal Excellence box and did it myself. There's no way I'm paying $80 to colour my hair at the salon. 

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I've also become a bit addicted to Evermerge and the whole time I'm writing this post and fixing the fotos I'm thinking of all the things I could be merging in my game. But I shall persist. 

The other thing that I've been playing is Wordle.

Apparently it's taking the world by storm. Do you play? 

If you've missed the first 200 games, fret not. There's an archive. You're welcome. The only annoying this is you have to scroll forever (down 200 lines) if you want to start at game number 1. 

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Today we saw geri. As usual, I commandeered the entire encounter. 

Me - So the Escitalopram for her anxiety, is it an upper or downer? I mean, since her other tranquilizing meds seem to cause her to have somnambulism, couldn't the Escitalopram also cause the same effects since they're all meant to be tranquilizing? If two of the other transquilizing ones have this effect on her, mightn't this one too?

Geri - Oh yes! That's a very good thought. For some patients it's sedating but in some it can be a stimulant. 

Me (wanting to punch her in the face because why didn't she say/think of this as soon as I said mum was having trouble sleeping) - So can I stop/ reduce the dose? Will the depression come back? 

She - It's not advisable to stop it cos if the anxiety is a prodrome to the dementia then with the progression we’re seeing it might recur if we stop it.  Mmm.. I think we should just keep on giving her the medication.

Me - If it can act as a stimulant in some patients, can we do the same thing we did for the Olanzepine, which is give it to her earlier in the day so that it doesn't keep her up nights, assuming it may also be contributing to the somnambulism? 

She - Oh, yes that's actually a good idea. Let's try changing it to a morning dosing.

And that was that. We came home around 430 and I popped the pill in mum's mouth at 5. That's 3-4 hours earlier than she usually takes it. We'll see what happens tonight. 

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The girl sitting across from me on the bus smelled awesome. Not awesome like I wanted to jump her bones, but awesome like Dammit I Wanna Smell Like That. 

So after thinking about it for a bit, I waved at her the next time she opened her eyes to see where we were (she was resting her eyes, it was an early morning commute), leaned forward (she was in a seat facing mine) and said "Hi, I'm so sorry to bother you but would you mind telling me what perfume you're wearing?" - all the while praying hard that she spoke English. She did, not well, but she did.

She was caught off-guard, pulled out one of her earbuds so that she could hear me properly (we're all still masked up in public) and then regained some composure and proceeded to pull up the brand of perfume on her mobile phone. She turned it towards me and showed me a page of images. 

LIKE. I. CAN. SEE. TSK. I squinted and said "Oh, how do you spell the brand?" And she Googled the brand for me and showed me a result page with the word DYPTIQUE in big bold letters. Now we're getting somewhere. 

I think it's called Do Son EDT and I'm now dying to get to the shops in town to see if it's the right one. If not, I'll be sniffing around their perfumes till I find it I suppose. At least we've narrowed down the brand! 

My chip pic today ~ 

Crabstick / seafood stick chips are a popular snack during CNY too. They're absolutely unhealthy, but so satisfyingly crunchy! I have a bottle on standby and I've told myself NOT to open it till CNY. I mean, I've already finished a bottle of seaweed chips... hehe. I need to have *something* to munch when the actual day comes rolling round.

Rx Updates and CNY is Coming

For those of you who celebrate the Lunar New Year (or Chinese New Year aka CNY), you have less than a week to finish up preparations! While Christmas is a bigger affair for me personally, CNY requires more "doing" cos there is more interaction in the days leading up to it, as well as DURING the first few days of the season (it's 15 days, officially). 

Main visiting days are the first and second days of CNY, but BEFORE that everyone is busy passing each other gifts! My boss and colleague and I have already done our gifts exchange! I've picked up a bottle of pineapple tarts from a distant cousin, BIKSS has ordered and taken delivery of some pork jerky for me (bak kwa 👈 I wrote about it at the bottom of that post) and will be passing that to me on Friday, along with some seaweed crackers I think! Hurray! (CLICK HERE to have a look at some pictures of CNY goodies I posted a few years ago!)

My sister and uncle have also come round to pick up their lapis from last Sunday's batch. 

I'm making considerably fewer cakes this year with the mum's condition the way it is, and Betty was over last Sunday, and will be here again this Saturday, to assist. My yearly count of 40+ cakes has been drastically chopped down to a mere 12. 

BIKSS took a long lunch on Monday to come round to where my main clinic is to pick up his xylitol lapis and we ended up having a quick bite at a steak and rib place. Only we had neither steak nor ribs 🤣🤣 !

Pumpkin soup - thick, rich, tasty.

Chicken Caesar - more chicken than I expected, so half of this came home with me.

Blackened Salmon - not sure what part was supposed to be blackened but I did enjoy the salmon - cooked to perfection. I hate it when it's over-done and everything gets dry and tough.

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I have also been busy making trellises for my climbing plants. Stripped the white buds from my old cut pussywillow stems and tied them up with string. 

Left - a smaller trellis for Monstera Adansonii; Right - Pothos NJoy and Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma on either side of a larger trellis that I stuck in the centre of the pot. I am rather pleased with myself for having thought of this idea and successfully fashioning the trellises! So far so good, but we'll see how they hold up once the plants decide to creep.

My Freddie Calathea went from a big bushy plant to having only 2 leaves left. And for the longest time nothing happened. BUT a week ago I found THIS - 

Top right arrow - that's what was left of my Freddie Calathea - 2 leaves

Bottom right - a tiny green thing poking out of the soil

Left - 4 days later, a definite leaf!

I'm so glad it's growing again. There is hope. There is definitely hope. And again I am reminded - if the plants can survive, so can I!

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In medical news, BIKSS has been having intermittent hives breakouts. We think it was triggered by the red meat and beer combo on my birthday, cos that's when it started. Later on when he had another beef and beer dinner with ex colleagues it happened again. Since then he's had a few unprovoked breakouts. But those tend not to itch. 

The other doctor is in clinic this week and he said that he noticed people were coming in post-booster (who were fine before) with unexplained / sudden allergies, rashes, hives, eczema etc. 

The onset isn't immediate, but 1-2 months after the 3rd shot, and often triggered by one of the more common culprits - nuts, milk, alcohol, seafood etc. despite the person not having had any allergic reaction to it previously. Subsequent episodes may occur even without coming into contact with the allergen that triggered the first episode.

If this is you or someone you know, you might want to hear this : 

He says to try and get the body's histamine response to settle down with a daily dose of antihistamine for a month (whether or not there's a breakout that day) and then stop and see what happens. If it comes back then go for a second month. He says to do this for 3 months and by the end of that time if the rash (or whatever) appears again whenever you stop the antihistamine then there might be a chance you would either 1) have to live with it, or 2) consider a course of steroids to get the body's immune response to take a break. 

So this is the plan for now. The last few days BIKSS has been hives-free. But if he gets it again I'm putting him on cetirizine for a month.

Meanwhile, the mum has been sleeping slightly better, now that we've taken her off her sleeping pills, and adjusted her anti-psychotics to half the dose at 11am in the morning instead of in the evening. We see the doctor again tomorrow and I will ask her if there is any other medication that we could try which might eliminate the sleep-talking altogether, ie, doesn't have this as a side effect. Altho I'm not hopeful cos she didn't seem to have any "a-ha" moment when I mentioned it to her the last time. You would think that if I came in with complaints of a side effect the doctor would recognise it as a side effect. Anyway, my caregiver says it's not too bad now, she's not as disruptive, only waking up to turn around in her bed (head to foot, foot to head) and then going back to sleep, unlike before where she would want to get OUT of bed and go wandering around the place to do whatever it was she thought she had to do. Sigh. 

That's all from here. I'll try and pop round to read your blogs but I haven't the energy or willpower to do much else except tap on my crop in Evermerge while lying in bed LOL. 

My chip pic today ~

(Seaweed chips are still chips - and this is one of my favourite CNY snacks!)