27 December 2019

Last post of the year!

I hope you have had a lovely Christmas with your loved ones. Mine surely was.

This year was the first time I’m spending Christmas with my partner. And it felt blissfully warm and domestic.

On Christmas day, a lunch hosted by his close friends that stretched into evening (always a good sign). Pigeon and suckling pig and vegetables galore. And lots of wine.

It was one of those afternoons where you just sit back and soak up the atmosphere. Conversation flowing among friends, warmth in the air. Good vibes which rub off on you. And the food was divine, as always.

Boxing Day we spent lazily at home. Watching Star Wars VII and VIII back to back in preparation for IX. And snacking and ordering in. Nothing exciting. A day of rest and recuperation in comfortable company of a loved one.

Add present opening in the morning of 25th December and that was my Christmas! Exchanging presents (which I love) and time with friends and my chosen family.

How did you spend your Christmas? Did you have a good time?

And how was your 2019? I haven’t fully reflected on the year, so some time in January you may hear from me again with my reflections on 2019.

Love,

Val

p.s. I did make it to the gym.

9 December 2019

It’s December! a.k.a. the most wonderful time… of the year!

I love Christmas. Don’t you love Christmas? Okay, maybe not. I know it’s not everyone’s favourite holiday. But I love it.

As soon as those Christmas decorations go up, the jingles start playing, my heart lifts off into another plane of existence. One where everything is fuzzy and warm and cuddly.

I probably experience something akin to putting on rose-tinted glasses. I’m walking on rose petals every day. Everything is just wonderful.

One wonderful thing, out of all the many wonderful things, in my life this month is my new app as of Sunday 24 November: Lose It!

(Caveat: calorie counting can sometimes be taken too far, which is counter-productive and potentially harmful to your health – so get informed and be moderate!)

Anyhow (and here is where I gush about the app), the app has worked wonderfully for me in the past 2 weeks. Yes, I’ve lost a little weight, but it’s not that. It’s my shift in perspective.

Only after a week counting calories did I realise why I never lost weight before despite exercising more: somehow, in my twisted mind, I was associating how “bad” a food is for diet with its size.

So for example, I would be eating small cakes all the time and thinking: ah, this is so light, it won’t add to my weight! Same goes with grilled pork skewers and sticky rice, etc. You get the idea… I know, twisted indeed!

Since the days of calorie counting, I’m now aware of how calorific different foods are. Oh the horror of realising that small does not equal not fat! It’s a big shift in perspective for me, and I think a good one.

So yes, that’s the wonderful thing about Lose It! The app has also encouraged me to walk more to counter the food I’m eating. On top of that I’m more aware of keeping a good balance of protein, carbs, and fat.

So far I think the approach is working. I haven’t had to cut all calorific foods. Only a few days ago I had a heavenly seafood risotto with buttered baguette pieces for dinner, and remained under my calorie budget!

Another wonderful thing that’s happening this month of Christmas: my laptop died. Yup. After over 6 years, it finally kicked the bucket.

The funny thing is: it showed no signs of dying before going. And the funnier thing is: only a few days before it died, I was talking about it with a co-worker. We were comparing how old our laptops were and she mentioned that hers had a battery that won’t charge anymore.

Then, a few days later, guess what happened…

You guessed it, my battery wouldn’t charge! No matter how many times I plug it in. I even took the battery out and put it back in (a method that solves many electrical issues). Nothing worked. So, inevitably, my laptop ran out of juice and died.

When I said it’s a wonderful thing, I’m not being sarcastic. For several months up until the fateful day, I’d been waiting for this to happen. I’d already acclimatised myself to the idea of getting a new laptop once my aged and faithful Dell died.

And now it’s actually happened. And not while I was doing something important. Nothing was damaged in the process. So yes, the wait is finally over. It’s nice when something you mildly dread actually happens and it turns out not to be that big a deal.

So sometime this week I’m going to hit the computer stores at the mall and see whether I can a) replace the battery or b) buy a new laptop. And I work in the mall! So that should be easy like a piece of cake. (That I’m not going to eat).

(In fact, now that I think about it: I haven’t had a single piece of cake since beginning calorie counting. I just can’t bring myself to it…)

Alright. I had planned to run on the treadmill this morning in lieu of my evening cycling class as I’m going out for Jamaican food! But I got lazy and decided to write instead. I know, lame excuse. Ah well, I’ll just… walk a lot today.

In any case, it was good to write. I do enjoy writing. It’s nice as a creative and reflective activity. Do you write too?

And with this question, I shall leave you.

Love,

Val

23 October 2015

We went shopping today! *fireworks*

Before I continue, let’s get this out of the way: no, I haven’t re-started my novel. Soon. Really. Pinky promise. (Confused readers go here.)

Now let’s get back to today’s topic: shopping.

I rarely go shopping. Only on national holidays with my parents (read: mom). Unlike most (?) girls, I never feel the urge to go shopping. I never look into my wardrobe and think, “Ah, I don’t have this in that colour; I need more of this; That’s getting old; so on and so forth”. I’m as far from a fashionista as can be and I usually make do with whatever I find in my closet (synonym for ‘wardrobe’. I don’t like repeating words; a habit from my IELTS days perhaps).

But I had fun today. In fact, I always have fun going shopping with my mom. It’s a fun activity to do together. (That’s three ‘fun’s in a row – for shame.) In fact, I generally enjoy hanging out with her: my mom can be really cute, in a very good way. I have gone shopping alone in the past, when I was living abroad. But I didn’t really enjoy it and I only went when I really had nothing in the closet. (Two ‘really’s – what’s up with me today!) I’d buy a million things at once and that would last me years. One of the items I wore today actually came from a shopping trip four or five years ago. It’s funny; I always wear the same clothes but they never wear out. Not that I’m complaining; that’s more money I can spend on books.

Today’s trip to the department store was unexpectedly productive. I hadn’t planned on buying anything; I had recently gained weight (hospital food was amazeballs) and in an effort to commit to losing it have pledged not to buy new clothes that accommodate my protruding belly. But I found this really cute longish white shirt that conveniently makes me look not fat. And then there were two other shirts which were okay but one can never have too many shirts. So yes, three shirts in total.

Then my mom reminded me that I needed a black eyeliner (which I do) and we went over to the MAC counter where we forked over THB 765 for this. For some reason, way back when I first encountered the concept of face paint, I started using MAC eyeliners. And I’ve stuck with the brand since. Not that it’s especially good (it always smudges). It’s just that I’ve formed a habit and I do not have neither the desire nor the patience to research on alternative eyeliners. I just can’t be bothered. (That’s behavioural economics for you.)

So yes, we bought the eyeliner. Then we went over to Daiso. In case you’re not familiar with the store, it’s a chain from Japan where you can buy most things for THB 60. (Though not in Japan obviously. They don’t accept the Thai baht over there, though who knows what will happen with the constant influx of Thai tourists; you cannot go anywhere without bumping into Thai people, and stores usually have signs written in Thai.) Tangent over, guess what was the first thing we saw when we went inside the store?

Yes, an eyeliner. A whole rack of them. THB 60 apiece. That’s THB 705 cheaper than the one I had bought not even a half hour before. I could trade the MAC eyeliner for a dozen of these Daiso ones. So I bought one. And if it turns out to be good (made in Korea; I have high hopes), today will be the last MAC sees of me. Gosh, I am getting mildly distressed thinking of all that money I’ve potentially wasted.

It’s crazy how much three letters cost: M-A-C. And it’s not even one of the more expensive cosmetics brands. Or maybe it is? I’m really not learnt in the economics of cosmetics goods. Maybe you could enlighten me as to the relative ranking of MAC compared to other cosmetics brands. I would appreciate it. *smiley face*

Anyways, let’s talk of better and brighter things: books! I bought books! So many books! I was extremely pleased to find that Sophie Kinsella’s latest Shopaholic book (THB 595) is out. This is the second Shopaholic book (after Shopaholic to the Stars) she’s released this year (money, money, money). And for an avid reader of the series such as myself, this is excellent news. So I bought that. Along with Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (it’s tiny!) and a bunch of other classics. I’m especially looking forward to reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night (THB 125). I read The Great Gatsby some years ago and it was a powerful read (yes, powerful; I cannot think of a better way to express the book’s impact on me).

Note how classics are so much cheaper than modern reads. Interestingly, books become cheaper, rather than more expensive, the older they get. Hail to the printing press! May no books ever go out of print. (I’ve had to track down out-of-print books before. It’s more expensive of course but if you don’t mind the condition of the book you could usually find willing sellers of second-hand copies easily enough.)

What else did we do? Ah yes. We ate. A lot. So much food. So much good food. Hmmm. No wonder the weight-losing has been so many months in the making. I do exercise a lot. Just not enough to outweigh the food intake. (Eat less. That’s one more thing to add to my to-do list after ‘write novel’.) It doesn’t help that I bought snacks to stock up at home. Oops. My excuse is that we rarely go out and that I deserve a treat from time to time. (I convince no one.)

This has turned out to be a lengthier post than expected. Well, it’s been an eventful day. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this. I’ve certainly enjoyed writing it.

Now it’s time for me to get on with my German. (Yes, I’m still doing that every day. A hooray for me!) Today’s word to master is der Magen (stomach). It looks easy but for some reason it’s resolutely refusing to enter my memory. Urgh. I hate sticky words. Then I also have to memorise which prepositions are followed by the Accusative case and which by the Dative case. I have a feeling this will be one of the more difficult tasks yet. Good. I like difficult. The more difficult, the more fun (it’s got to do with a sense of accomplishment you see).

I’ll stop blabbering now.

Tschüss!

Val

 

 

 

 

 

23 March 2014

I. Am. So. Hungry right now.

Today is Sunday. Like most of my Sundays, it is spent at home. For two main reasons: (1) it is my dad’s day off (so, like a good daughter, I stay home to spend some quality Sunday time with him), and (2) I’m too lazy to leave the house.

I mean. Why would they call it ‘lazy Sunday’ if you’re not meant to be lazy on the day? (Actually, come to think of it, I wonder whence the expression came… A religious reference, most likely?)

Getting back to my Sunday, it was much like any other Sunday, except that I annoyingly woke up really early (tends to happen when I’ve had something to drink the night before). Waking up early in itself I am fine with, though not when I haven’t actually had enough sleep nor when the first thing I feel, eyes open, is the after-effects of that pint of beer.

Not enough to call a hangover, just enough to annoy and irritate.

So, I proceeded to do as best I could to have a productive Sunday. (See, I’m not actually that lazy. I just pretend to be. Or so I claim.)

I might have mentioned to you before that I’m a morning person. If not, “I am a morning person”. So, naturally, I expected that getting up early today meant that I could take advantage of my morning-person-ness and get some revision under the belt by noon.

Oh no. No no no. Doesn’t work when you haven’t had enough sleep. And yesterday’s pint didn’t make things any easier either.

After trying for a few hours to plough through a reading, I decided that my time would be better spent on other things. So I went to the post. Washed the car (for the second time this week, thanks to it conveniently raining the day after I gave my car a thorough wash).

Having done all that, it was still only 2pm. That’s how awesome waking up at 6am is – despite the almost-hangover and the not-getting-enough-sleep. See why I’m a morning person?

So I decided to go help my dad with the gardening. And the following two and a half hours, maybe three, were happily spent cutting, trimming, and pulling various species of trees and herbs. I can still feel it on my finger. No blister this time though (unlike two weeks ago when I ended up with a hideous blister the size of a really small pebble on my middle finger – damn oversized tree trunk).

Have you tried using physical activity to stimulate your brain’s capacity for mental activity? It usually works for me. After the gardening, I came back to the reading, and it’s like I’m another person.

Everything suddenly seems interesting. And I’m no longer just typing my notes up so I can finish the damned article and move on. I actually feel like I’m learning things.

The wonderful effects of physical exertion shall never cease to amaze me.

But now I’m hungry. Like, really hungry.

They say the brain consumes the most calories of all your body parts (well, it’s actually a scientifically-backed fact, but “Scientists say” just reads weird).

So me being hungrier now than before I started this post can only mean one thing: it’s a brilliant post.

Since, you know, my brain used up so much energy writing it.

Don’t we love logic. *wink*

Seriously now, though, let me go eat something before my stomach eats itself up. I’ve been told that’s no good.

Until tomorrow,

Hungry Val