Stupid chicken pox. I hate you.

The little bastards started to appear on Friday. Had a big one right in the middle of my back, which I thought was a pimple. Head felt a bit warm too, but did not tie the two together. At night, ask the hubby to check out the pimple which bothered me the whole day. He lifted up my shirt, took a look, and exclaimed that there were a few more small red spots on my back. The humongous one was filled with clear liquid. I hate you chicken pox!

To the doctor’s I went, picked up anti-viral medication, calamine, paracetamol, and anti-itch pills. The calamine felt good, i tell ya, but dries up the skin like a snake in Death Valley. The fever subsided by Saturday evening. Each day more spots appeared to taunt me into scratching them. Did I say I hate chicken pox?

Today’s day 5 since the doctor’s visit, and no new spots seem to be appearing, some are drying up, and some still content to sit on my skin with a bag full of water, daring me to squeeze them. A couple days more, and I’ll get to pick on dry scabs.

Can’t believe I’m saying this: I can’t wait to get back to work!

Gotta ciao, X-factor USA’s coming up on TV!

New toy

It’s heavier than your standard paperback, but it’s slimmer, and I have nearly 600 titles in it to choose from. After I Auto-Nootered it, it’s also a decent Android tablet; good for times when I just want to do a quick check on the internet at home without the need to whip out the notebook. Yes, it may not have a camera, 3G, or GPS, but that’s what my phone is for. With my phone as a wireless hotspot, I can also surf on the go with my Nook Color.

Decent toy for a decent price. iPad? I don’t need one.

Highlight of the night: Draught Hoegaarden at $9.90 per pint for happy hour
Draught Hoegaarden tastes a little sweeter, and doesn’t turn bitter even if it’s not cold. I like.

I gotta say, I got tipsy after downing that pint…. I blame it on alcohol on an empty stomach!

We took lots of useless pictures, ate lots of bread, washed clothes in hotel sinks every other night, and looked at more paintings that we thought was humanly possible.

In the next few weeks, I’ll try to pen down our humble adventures through well-trodden cities of Europe, and maybe relive the experience in my head as I do so.

Hubby and I rarely sit down together for a nice dinner in a restaurant. Our meals usually come from food courts prepared by mainland Chinese cook and wait staff.

Once on a while, we get sick of bak chor mee or chicken rice. That’s when we will hunt for food seldom eaten or new dining places, usually on Fridays.

This time, we went to s small restaurant that specialized in German pork knuckles, sausages, and stews. Prices are reasonable, and though the tastes are not earth-shattering, they have a homely, comfort-food feel to it. We had the pork knuckles served with a side of mashed potatoes and acar(!), sausages, garden salad, and mushroom soup. By the end of the meal, our stomachs were thoroughly satisfied.

We treasure these little food excursions; it’s one of those things we promised to do to add a little variety to our oft-monotonous days.

These little things are part of what keeps our life together interesting.

Well, yesterday, hubby and I decided to buy the darned bookcase and ferry it across the causeway no matter what. So off to IKEA we went. Seems like 1/4 of Singaporeans were at IKEA; all payment counters were at least 5 deep, with some trolleys filled to the brim with mugs, lamps and assorted furry toys. Bought the Billy with an extra shelf , and loaded into the car.

I can now confirm that a Honda Fit, with the backseat and front passenger seat down, can fit a 2m Billy flat pack box comfortably.

Whilst on the TPE/SLE heading to the checkpoint, we rehearsed on potential answers to inquisitive customs officers…

“Company lucky draw dapat”,

“Christmas present”,

“Pindah rumah, ni lama punya”,

… and so on.

When we reached JB customs, hubby was a bit worried, cos there was a lot of cars, which means the officers may be checking the green lanes too. As cold sweat started to creep up, we entered the green lane, and saw officers chatting away at a distance. Don’t look at them! Keep going! Exit coming up…. in 10m…5m…. 100% check passed……hallelujah!

Will assemble this weekend.

As a consequence of a voracious reading habit, I have a sizable collection of books, mostly paperbacks. They laid in every corner of my room, and stuffed in the bookshelf in the living room. That was before I got married and moved to my current home.

This is not a post on reading though. This is all about bookshelves, or more accurately, lack of bookshelves. I have no bookshelf in my home. My books are packed into boxes, on the very spot my imaginary bookshelves are suppose to be.

I have hunted for bookshelves at furniture shops around town, but the solid wood ones are all at least RM600 and upwards. I need at least 2 sizable bookshelves for my books and my growing collection of cookbooks. 2 of them, with extra shelves will cost around RM1600!

I have been eyeing on the Ikea Billy bookcases for a long while; they are cheap and functional.  A Billy, although made of particleboard, costs $79 (for the white one), or RM185 at the KL branch. I can buy 3 Billys and still cost less than the solid wood ones I have been looking at. And white Billys blend into the white walls! Every time I drop by Ikea for cheap hotdogs, I would wander off to the Billy displays, drool a bit, then walk away one hour later to the cashier counter with a bunch of stuff I didn’t know I need an hour before. I want a 2 3 Billy bookcases for my home!

The only problem was, KL is 300km away, and how do you get a 202cm long box in a car across the JB customs? My little car can fit the flat packed case if I flatten the backseat and front passenger seat. But, driving through JB customs like that will surely attract the attention of customs officers, and goodness knows how I could get away with that.

What shall I do? Has anyone ever carted a Billy bookcase or other similar items across JB customs with their wallets intact?

21km.

More running than I’ve ever done in my life.

And I’m glad to say I have done it

Prologue

I can’t say I prepared adequately for it, unless you count  6-8 1 hour runs in the last 3 months as preparation. I know I have the stamina for an hour of running in a slow-pokey 7.5km/hour pace, but anything beyond that is unknown to me. Hubby helpfully suggested that as long as I can do half the distance without keeling over, I most probably will be able to drag myself over the finish line.

Even bought myself a pair of new running shoes 2 weeks  before the race, because my old running shoes were a bit heavy, and wore once for a proper run before the race. Not advisable, as I’ll explain a little later.

D-Day

Hubby and I woke up at 4.45am, made coffee (for me) and milo (for him), and set off to the race ground, while munching on a granola bar in the car. Reached The Adelphi and was happy that the road leading to the carpark is not closed to traffic (yay!).

Parked our car, took a sip of water, girded our loins and walked to the starting point.

The place was packed with runners, race crew, and even TV crew. We walked to the starting point, which was already fairly packed with people. Feeling a little confident, hubby led us closer to the starting point, saying he doesn’t want to get stuck behind slow runners. Did some stretching exercises, and waited for the starting horn. This was a great time for people watching: the flabby white chicken types, skinny white chicken types, the hulking muscle types, the slim and wiry types, the decked-out-in-performance-bodywear-and-running-belt-with-water-bottle-and-power-gel types, and more. At exactly 6.45am, the half marathon race was flagged off.

The first hour of running was uneventful, and the 10km mark was reached at around 1:10. At each drink station I took a few sips of water and 100Plus, and used the rest of the water to splash on my face. But as I continued running, I found out why it was important to break in a new pair of running shoes BEFORE running a half marathon. My feet started to hurt from the hardness of the shoes and the constant pounding it took from my 130lb frame . At the 11km mark I stopped running and walked.

I usually run with music, either from my (now dead) iPod mini, or my phone. After my iPod died, I decided to run this race with no music. I think it was the right decision. During the race, I constantly saw runners stopping to select music, adjusting their earphones, or tucking the wires out of the way. I just entertained myself with people-watching, reading messages off the back of other runners’ jersey, and the scenery around the race route. It’s not every day that you get to run in the middle of the CBD, you know.

By the 15km, it was a constant run-walk-run-walk-run routine. My feet were hurting enough to stop me from running any faster. The last 5 km was torture. Every drink station was an excuse to stop. Everyone around me was struggling and trying to overcome their own soreness and fatigue. The medics who dispensed heating cream were the most popular, with lots of runners waiting for some cream to soothe their sore body parts.

When the final kilometer beckoned, I decided to swallow the pain and just slowly jog. The supporters by the side of the road were cheering the runners on. Others also started jogging/sprinting the final stretch.

As the finish line appeared, I felt a little shudder going through my body. At the very moment of stamping my foot on the timing mat, I actually breathed a sigh of relief, and a real sense of satisfaction. Imagine, me, always struggling with my weight, with a lack of stamina, and here I am at the finish line of a half marathon!

Finished the race in 2:52.

Epilogue

Collected the finisher’s medal, drinks, and headed to the meeting point. Found hubby sitting on a footpath with shoes kicked off. He finished the race about 10 minutes earlier, and was a little surprised to see me so soon (hehe). Pigged out at McDonalds for our post-race celebration. We were a really odd couple at Funan, dragging our stiff legs around the mall while window shopping.

Finally reached home at 2pm, washed our shoes, ourselves and threw the clothes into the laundry machine.

As we sat on our couch and watched badminton on telly, all sore and stiff, we could see the smile on our faces telling each other, “My darling, the half-marathon runner !”

Things are moving slowly, but steadily….

I started from the middle, and is working my way outward. I try to cover as much ground with a single colour before I go back to the middle and start with a new colour. I don’t know if this will work out well, but it does break the monotony of doing only one colour for long periods of time. It’s not very obvious in the pic, but there’s actually 3 different colours on the aida cloth.

Gambate!

iPod Mini showing error screen!

Upgrade Your iPod Mini With Flash Memory – No More Hard Drive!

and many other similar resources.

Has anyone done the harddisk swap before and lived to tell it?