The Third Life

 

The third life!

As I enter this phase of my life, there are obvious and inevitable changes to me, be it physically, mentally and even circumstances around me.

Firstly, my father and aunt are aging. And with aging, the inevitable decline of health that brings about the need with daily personal care. I’m  so glad that I have brothers and sister-in-laws and sister who are more caring than me and will chip in to help with these needs.

Sunny, my once cute little doggie, is now a grandpa dog. He is also exhibiting a decline in physical health. He is falling more often nowadays and I reckon that it is probably a result of weak legs. Not long ago, he also had a condition that made him unbalanced. His condition improved after some treatment to his ears for infection and burnt our pocket with $600 in damages.

I just hoped that as we aged, and with all the consequential deterioration of physical ability, we are still able to maintain the positivity and optimism that enable us to lead life to the fullest in our third life.

I am also feeling tired all the time, and the mental alertness is also lacking. Recently, I just made a mistake at work even though I have put effort to check for accuracy, there was still a mistake made. I am seriously thinking of slowing things down by leaving the permanent employment and go into part-time or contract service. This will also allow me to do things that I love and not just slogging for a pay Cheque at the end of the month.

 

Seeing with a different lens

Sometimes, it’s interesting to see your hometown like a tourist. With a different lens, you will discover different aspects of a place that you are so familiar with, otherwise you would likely to let the amazing views slip pass you. 

Look at the beautiful golden dome glittering against the clear blue sky. I’m glad I captured this scene with my camera. 

Photo editing #2

Today, I managed to changed the background of a photo. 

Using LR mobile and Pic Art Apps. 

Photo editing #1

To create this effect, I’ve used LR CC Mobile and Pic Art Apps.

Giving the photo a slight purple hue.

Is it better than the original?

LTR CC Mobile

I’ve known of Lightroom software for sometime but just did not get to try it  as I’ve always been using photoshop as well as other Apps on the mobile. 

Lately, I chanced upon a tutorial on YouTube teaching how to use LTR CC Mobile to improve on a portrait. I think I’ll focus this month on trying out this App. I hope I could achieve using the App to make my portrait photos into professional portrait shots. 

Sony WX500

When you want to buy a toy, you tend to give yourself so many reasons to buy it. You will make many justifications to assure yourself that it is a wise purchase. 

Do I need a camera?

I think I do. 

My mirrorless four thirds is slightly faulty. 

A camera has better resolution than smartphone. 

I love photography and having a camera is justifiable. 

A compact camera is small and light enough for me to carry with me all the time. 

Needless to say, I bought the Sony WX500 for $419.

Private Event

When your friend is willing to spend the whole day cooking up a storm for you, it speaks a lot about the friendship. 

When someone is willing to give you his/her time, that’s the most precious gift. 

Thanks Kat for inviting us over for the sumptuous dinner. Your simple dinner

was indeed very elaborate and time consuming to prepare. 

Really appreciate it!

Thanks for your hospitality and for including me. 

This pistachio tart was just heavenly. 

Love the right level of sweetness and the natural taste of the ingredients. 

I’m just so lucky to have friend like Kat who bake like a pro and always treat us to her creations. Her longan sourdough bread was to die for too. I just love it. Ate a whole slice even though I was like 110% full. 

Thank God for the angels in my life. 

Blogging

Last year, I wanted to start blogging again but it didn’t take off.  Let’s try again this year to see whether I can be more consistent. 

Habit doesn’t form by itself. It takes planning and effort to make it into action. Setting a goal is one thing, making it into a system of repeated action takes effort and planning that orchestrate the action to repeat. 

Let’s see whether I can make it this time.

Penang Streets

Penang streets are filled with a kaleidoscope of street art, delicious street food and colourful vintage buildings. Walking down the streets is like walking down memory lane of Singapoe in the 60s. It brought back childhood memories. While Singapore original landscape is losing it's foothold to a contemporary modern Urban facade of the 21st century city, Penang streets permeate nostalgic attachment for those who have witness the "old" Singapore.

I love walking down the Penang Streets.    

A disciplined lifestyle

I've been doing my one-minute exercise routine for more than a year. I first started with one-min planking, now I've extended it to two minutes.

In addition, I've also included other one-minute routines such as squat, leg raise, dip, and dumbbell shoulder lift. The result is visible, I'm more toned than a year ago. Also, after I've cut carbo, I managed to bring my weight down to 70.2kg, weighed this morning. Sometimes, it crosses below the 70kg mark.

My bio data as follows as at today:

Height: 173 cm

Mass: 70.2 kg

Waist: 35.5 inches

Chest: 38 inches

BMI: 23.5

Hope to reduce more mid section fats.

A commitment to come back to blogging

After a long hiatus from blogging,

I decided to make a come back.

I just viewed a YouTube clip which suggest

that if we commit to a certain activity 

daily for just one minute, we will kind of do it daily.

So this is what I'm going to do, I'll just blog for one minute daily.

To start with, I'm going to start a one minute plank training with 20 push-up daily (it takes about two minutes only) in the attempt to become fitter.

My bio data as follows as at today:

Height: 173 cm

Mass: 72.5 kg

Waist: 36 inches

Chest: 38 inches

BMI: 24.2

Baking Day

My second bake for this year. 

And last night was a total failure. I forgot to add my sugar to my flour and in the end, when I added the sugar to my dough last, it became too soggy. Threw away my dough and went to bed disappointed. 

This morning tried again and thank God I didn't make any silly mistake. The scones turned out nice and flavorful. The shape could be improved though. 

Breaking 70

For a long long time, my mass has never gone below the 70 Kg mark. 

Ever since Yoshi shared his secret to his weight loss, I have lost about 4 Kg. His weight loss regime is not as daunting as it seems at first, and I managed to stick to eat for a whole month. 

Weight loss regime:

Cycle 1:

First 3 days, breakfast, lunch and dinner on fruit and water only. Any kind of fruit and only drinking water. 

Next 4 days, breakfast on fruits, lunch and dinner eat normally starting with vegetable first. 

Repeat the cycle for another 3 times. 

After that will be just breakfast fruits and lunch and dinner normal starting we the consumption of vegetable first for each meal. 

Initially, thinking of not having my sinful chinese breakfast with my morning coffee will let me have withdrawal syndrome. However, I manage to survive that. The first week, I felt a little latargic at first then it was manageable until cycle four where I really crave for normal food again. 

I'm not the only living example the this regime works, some of my friends who tried it have lost at least 3 Kg. 

Durian Feast

Kat, the durian queen, organized a durian feast at her one and only durian supplier she goes to. She shared that she has been patronising the same supplier since as a girl. And she doesn't eat any other kind of durian except the "branded" kind, 猫山皇. 

We arrived at 717 Trading, #01-01 Highland Center, 22 Yio Chu Kang Road at about 7pm. There was already a long queue. All the eat in make shift tables along the pavement were occupied. Apparently, there was a company event going on. So we decided to take away and feast at Siew Boon's place instead. 

Kat and I queued for an hour before we managed to get hold of six of the king of fruits. They cost us S$164 @ S$18 per Kg. 

The rest who left earlier had prepared cold coconut juice at home for us. All our six prized possessions turned out good, soft creamy and with shrunk seed. 

I had told Kat that that was my first time queue ing for an hour for food. Before we departed from SB's place, Kat suggested to go for another round of durian at 818 at Telok Kurau, before the durian season ends. 

Durian Feast

Kat, the durian queen, organized a durian feast at her one and only durian supplier she goes to. She shared that she has been patronising the same supplier since as a girl. And she doesn't eat any other kind of durian except the "branded" kind, 猫山皇. 

We arrived at 717 Trading, #01-01 Highland Center, 22 Yio Chu Kang Road at about 7pm. There was already a long queue. All the eat in make shift tables along the pavement were occupied. Apparently, there was a company event going on. So we decided to take away and feast at Siew Boon's place instead. 

Kat and I queued for an hour before we managed to get hold of six of the king of fruits. They cost us S$164 @ S$18 per Kg. 

The rest who left earlier had prepared cold coconut juice at home for us. All our six prized possessions turned out good, soft creamy and with shrunk seed. 

I had told Kat that that was my first time queue ing for an hour for food. Before we departed from SB's place, Kat suggested to go for another round of durian at 818 at Telok Kurau, before the durian season ends. 

Aquarium

This is my first time setting up an aquarium. Knowing nuts about keeping fish in a transparent cuboid tank, I had to ask the store keeper's for advice from step 1 to the end. 

In the end, bought this small glass tank with 12 small fish, complete with a filter and LED illuminating light. 

Hope this little fish tank will give my father some thing to focus on, else void with any hobby and interest, life can be aimless and painful. 

Umeda 11 Jun 2015

I drove down to Umeda. It was a shopping day. 

We met up with Ayumi Chan at Grand Front Osaka, a new shopping complex. 

Rika brought us to The Cosmopolitan Restaurant for lunch. A very hip place, somewhat like fine dining. 

The food was exquisite and tasty. And it just cost us about S$30 per person for the set lunch. So worth!

We did our shopping really unhurriedly. The whole day was just Grand Front Osaka and Lucua. 

Had buffet dinner at almost the same price as lunch. 

Tired out after a day of shopping, though was doing it leisurely. 

Osaka 10 Jun 2015

It was a rest day for Rika and for ourselves. Yoshi left about 10 for his work trip to Tokyo. 

The morning was spent relaxing at home.  Then we went out for lunch at this nice Udon restaurant. 

After lunch was just some casual shopping at Aeon. 

A relaxing "zho-bo" (doing nothing) day

Kobe 9 June

Today, we broke camp, not literally though as we were supposedly on a camping trip. It was raining the whole time the night before and we were glad that we managed to book a cabin for the second night of our camping trip. 

We headed straight to Kobe and was praying in my heart that we would not encounter an earthquake. That night, my friend text me that there were earthquakes in Japan and Greece, Athens. Thank God. 

First stop in Kobe was a restaurant which was converted from a church. Five of us shared three breakfast sets. 

Then it was shopping at Kobe Sannomiya in the afternoon. We went to Tomorrowland and just opposite, there was a building that has a level that sells cloth. And I bought $80 worth of cloth. 

By the time we reached home, it was about eight. Rika cooked us Yoshi's favourite pasta dish - Cod Roe Pasta. It was a simple dish but was delicious. 

Put the cod roe, some butter, a little cream and soy sauce in a big bowl, then put in the boiled linguini into the bowl and mix well. There you go, we have the delicious Cod Roe Pasta. 

Oishi neh!