Steak Dinner

I've been resting over the weekend and I felt much better on Saturday. Friday night was bad - weak, giddy and could hardly eat properly. But I managed to pull myself out for tennis, although the weather was FREAKING hot and I was recovering from blood loss.

Bunny cooked a fantastic meal on Sunday! Her signature steak with grilled asparagus and mushrooms, mashed potatoes and a salad:

Mash...mash...mash...

Grill...grill...grill...


Ta-da!!!


Taking a closer look

I love the way she cooks steak. We shall do this more often.

During last night's dinner, we were already deciding what to make for this year's Christmas dinner. Hehehe! A bit early, but what the heck!

Death Scare

I just had a near death experience. Or rather, fear of death experience.

We went for lunch during office hours with a lawyer and his friend, to some high-class Japanese restaurant. Without knowing, they opened two bottles of champagne. I had only two glasses. But everyone knows my alcohol tolerance is 0, and I still had two glasses.

All was fine, the food was great. I had strange sashimi which I've never had before; chawanmushi with sharks fin, and all sorts of weird stuff which I've never knew existed. All was fine, until I reached my office building, smoked two cigarettes and wham! That was it. I was blacking out in the toilet, shat and puked, and to top things up, I had BAD period cramps.

So bad that I experienced seizures. My hands and fingers wouldn't moved and were cramped in an awkward position. My feet were rooted to the floor and I was moaning and groaning in pain. The pain I was experiencing was such an excruciating one; one which I've never felt before. My mind was closing in on me and I wanted to just switch it off and shut it down, so that my brain wouldn't experience such torture.

But then I thought of my family, friends, Bunny, stuff I've not yet experienced, places I've not been to, and I kept telling myself I can't let my mind shut down, in fear of not waking up again. Because who knows, I might just black out and never wake up again to see the faces of my loved ones. I was even deliberating if I should just close it up and switch off, so that I wouldn't experience physical pain anymore, or should I remain alert in order to see my loved ones again.

And I chose the latter. Somehow or another, I managed to pull through. My pain stopped even before I took any medication. Doctors and nurses from my office building came down and were calling for an ambulance. I opened my mouth and could barely utter a "no, no hospitals, no ambulance." I'm ok, I really am.

True enough, I was fine. In 15 minutes. Albeit weak and exhausted, I was ok. The pain vanished on its own accord and I was mentally alert once again.

So it IS true when people say: mind over body. I've never, ever experienced it till today.

And I'm so glad my mind pulled me through this ordeal, that I could shut out the pain and regain self-consciousness.

I'm going to fix an appointment with the office doctor for an examination, as the pain I experience each month is so excruciating that perhaps something might be wrong inside of me.

So, after this drama, I just want to say: I love you guys. And you're the only reason why I pulled through. :)

Wear a pink ribbon

Richard's back from Melbourne for a short visit and we met up for lunch today. I popped by Watson's to get myself some chocolates to refill my office stash and came across this at the counter:

Wear a pink ribbon to raise breast cancer awareness (oops, the ribbon isn't sitting properly)

On the back of the card writes, "Be spotted wearing a pink ribbon this month and you stand a chance to win blah blah blah..."

Honestly, what has a charity drive got to do with winning prizes? I cannot comprehend such ideas, so I've decided to pin it up on my desk instead:

She's got small hands...

Bunny was a hand model....of all things. Look at her petite and dainty hands. Hehe.

Our mini celebration

After the wasabi torture in the office, Bunny and I went to Waraku for dinner. We were soooo hungry and craving for sushi and sashimi. She also went all the way to Bakerz Inn to get me a slice of strawberry cream cake, because I mentioned to her before that I luuurvee strawberries with cream.

Sushi...sashimi...

...and beef kaminabe

Stuffing our faces:

Photo-whoring while waiting for the taxi:

STILL photo-whoring:

We went back and I did the popular aspirin mask...and it works! Not fantastically as it was only my first time doing so, but it kind of works! Shall do it again either tonight or tomorrow!

And at the 11th hour (11:17pm to be exact), we performed the birthday ritual again:

Making another wish

I didn't celebrate my birthday with a big bang, but I did celebrate it with my loved ones and those who made an effort when they didn't need to: my colleagues.

I enjoyed my day thoroughly and everyone was so sweet! Thanks to those who wished me via sms, msn, email, and in-person. *beams*

I had a GREAT day!

A wasabi filled 26th birthday

It's my birthday today!!! (and I can do whatever I want!)

It seems like everyone shares the same thought. It's only 10:51am now and I've received a few comments from friends saying: "you should take the day off! It's your birthday!". Erm, yes. I DO have a day off on Friday (yay, long weekend!). Not today. Such similar thoughts! Hehe.

My mom has been really sweet and silly today. After forwarding an e-card to me which she received from Great Eastern for her birthday in July, she also sent a text message with sweet greetings and affectionate words.

It's such an awkward feeling when parents show their affections. I'm happy and very touched, yet feeling a bit strange inside too. But happy, nonetheless.

I'm wearing Bunny's other birthday present for me which we chanced upon last week at Tangs:

My first pair of cufflinks!

I've been looking around for cufflinks and initially wanted a silver letter "K", but I simply love this one! There were other nice cufflinks which had loud designs and were rather showy, but I chose this pair as I thought that it really suited me perfectly! I think it's quite "me". Thank you, Bunny!

###

26 years of living on this planet doesn't make me any wiser, just a bit more old (and it's beginning to show!). I've started fretting about my skin, body and health condition. No, getting old doesn't make you any wiser, it makes you more worried about your body! I remember the times when we were young and how we "abused" our bodies - picked up smoking, didn't follow any skincare routine, hardly exercised, not giving a care about what we feed our bodies with, partied till the break of dawn, and barely slept a wink.

That was what happened to me. For others, I guess it was the constant abuse of drinking till the skin turns sallow, partying (with or without drugs) and barely sleeping a wink too. Such activities have taken a toll on my appearance and I'm beginning to worry!!! In time to come, I'll be getting health scares!

Urgh. I want to look youthful...I want...I want....I want to look like Bunny! She's a cow. She gets to look youthful ALL the time.


Shall do the highly recommended homemade aspirin mask tonight.

###

Our team's birthday ritual is either to "sabo" the birthday person or make them hunt for their present. Mine was getting sabo-ed and they made me eat crackers with wasabi:

Shit!


They look harmless but they're not


Stage 1: Choose one cracker



Safe!

Stage 2: Choose another cracker and eat it



Yucks! Wasabi and cheese!


Stage 3: Choose another cracker AGAIN!!!


They ALL contained wasabi!!!



THIS one was potent.


Taking a breather

Back to the ritual:

Group shot

Hahahahaha~~!! Off to dinner at Waraku later! Wasabi again!!!

I'm happy and cool

When compared with my list of "friends" in Facebook, I top the charts for being happier. Not 1st, 2nd or 3rd, but 4th happier and 5th coolest amongst other people within the circle.


What? Is that all I am? Happier and cool?! Not even nice, useful, creative, fun, smart, a better listener, and/or naturally talented when compared with other people?

..........

Facebook is so full of shit. I've refused to add more people to my list. Hahaha.

But this is funny lah:

Moo gets the trophy for being able to drink the most! LOL.

###

I shall update my tennis rankings as of this month, September:

Bean Open: 6-3

*wails*

Although there's a slight improvement compared to my previous score of 6-2, 6-0, there is still much, much more room for advancement.

###

Just blew some money at Times Bookshop last night. Well, I blew more on cosmetics and skincare products, but even when I'm almost broke this month, I still wanted to fork out a bit of money to buy some books. Bunny told me it's not a waste of money and I sure as hell could afford a few books. Haha. That's true!


I'm currently VERY hooked onto The Beach by Alex Garland. I'm a bit of a late bloomer and plenty of people have read the book prior to the release of the movie but I didn't realise it could be THAT good a read! Plus having been to Koh Samui, Bangkok, Maya Bay, and the surrounding national marine parks, The Beach is more significant to me than before. *winks at Bunny*

Right where Alex Garland got his inspiration from



And right where The Beach was filmed

I also bought a pack of two books for the price of one and I had a HARD time choosing which combination to buy:

Trainspotting + Oliver Twist, or
Grimm's Fairytales + The Bloody Chamber

And they both cost $15.99!!! They had more compilations but they didn't interest me as much as the above two.

I ended up buying the latter combination due to nostalgia. My dad bought me a hardcover vintange looking book on fairytales by the Brothers Grimm when I was a kid and it's all torn and tattered now because Whisky chewed on it years ago!

These shall be my birthday gifts for myself. *beams*

I've still got two books on my list which I'm halfway through:

- Mao by Jung Chang
- The Penguin History of the World (which I'm taking AGES to finish! I'm only at the 17th century!)

AND, I want to read the following:

- The Tesseract by Alex Garland
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (last book)
- The Witch of Portobello by Paolo Coelho
- Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
- For One More Day by Mitch Albom
- Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (maybe or maybe not...hmm)

Seriously, can one read so many books???