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I just didn’t know what to write as the title of this blog entry. haha. It has been a while since my last blog entry and I even forgot my password. It took me a while to remember the password. I’ve been telling Lisa that I’ll be blogging soon but weeks later, I still haven’t written anything. Today, I am ‘free’ for a few hours and I might as well start writing once again.

If you are wondering about the title of this blog entry, it is kinda true. I got stuck in the bathroom for one hour this morning. I had pressed the lock on the door knob and by the time I wanted to leave the bathroom, I was stuck. There was something wrong with the door knob. I pounded on the door and Annick heard me. She went to get Colas who tried to open the door from outside but couldn’t. In the end, Colas had to call a locksmith who came about half an hour later. It took him a while to remove the door knob.

If Annick and Colas weren’t at home, i would have been stuck in the bathroom all day.

When I was stuck in the bathroom, Annick helped me phone my supervisor to explain the situation and I had to take a half-day urgent leave. Urgent leave = leave without pay. >.< Now I have about 2 hours left with nothing to do before work.
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I have so many photos and so many things to blog about and I don’t know where to start. >.<
I have to admit that I have thought of deleting everything and closing this blog down but each time I go through my blog archives, I just cannot do it.
For the time being, I am BACK.

There’s a small blender that Lisa left behind in the kitchen after she moved out ( ) but I wanted to get my own blender. I went to Tangs after work the other day and I finally decided to buy a Philips HR 2094. There was a similar Philips blender which was about SGD 50 cheaper but they didn’t have it in stock on that day. The one I bought was at SGD 150.

Now I’m thinking if I should get a juicer as well.

I probably won’t have time to make smoothies on a daily basis but at least I’ll try to make smoothies once a week.

I thought that I’d start with a papaya smoothie.

That’s Audrey in the background.

Two different types of papaya smoothies I made:

One of them had soya milk in it. Should be easy to guess which one it was.

My conclusion: I prefer to eat the fruit. Will try other smoothies soon.

I’ve just realized that I don’t blog much ever since I’ve left Shanghai. I still remember how painful it was when I decided to leave Shanghai after being there for more than 4 years. I’ve left a lot behind and started anew in Singapore. Now that I’ve finally bought my plane ticket and will be going back for a few days, I don’t feel ‘excited’ about going back. I kinda dread going back to Shanghai.
20 days to go….

Continuing my Photo of the Day series…
I asked Ryan to take this photo for me when we were walking to Bedok Station.

The ever-changing work schedule + Chatting with my sisters late at night = a very tired Aline + bad skin + headaches. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately and not sleeping very well. I keep having weird dreams.

I just enjoyed 3 days off work and feeling great today. I feel like I’m ready to tackle the long week ahead.
I will have 8 a.m shifts for the next few days. I hate having to wake up early and leave home by 06:15 but at least I will be back home before 19:30 . I kinda prefer the 11 a.m shifts.

Mike came to Singapore for a couple of days with other friends and we met up at Vivo. The others went back to their hotel after shopping.

As usual, food pics.
At Thai Accent restaurant:
Mango Salad

Tom Yum soup

Mango Tango

Phat Thai (Pad Thai)

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m still around and I haven’t forgotten this blog. I log in from time to time but I still couldn’t bring myself to write anything. I didn’t think that work life could be so tiring. Like I mentioned in my previous blog entry, I spend about 3 hrs just travelling to and from work. The good news is that I am finally getting a netbook this weekend at the PC Show. i’m still not sure which netbook I’ll be buying but I know that at least I will start to blog more often now. =)
Back to my topic…..
I was still using Wordpress 2.7 and didn’t bother to update to the latest versions all this while. On Sunday, I got an email saying Password Lost and Changed for user: Dr.s4udi . My user name is not Dr.s4udi . As soon as I read that email, I tried to log in but couldn’t . Even the password retrieval wasn’t working due to the email address was also changed to another one. The good thing is that I could still log in my cpanel and went to my database to see what changes have been made.
Here is what I saw in phpMyadmin under wp_users table:

By now, I have already changed the user name, email address and the hashed password to my own but I still wonder how the hacker managed to do that. I have updated my blog to the latest wordpress 2.9.2 version now and just made a new backup of everything.
I have to activate a few plugins and make a few changes before everything will be running smoothly but I will keep that for another day. Going to bed soon.

It felt so weird having to go to work during the weekend. I even missed the Wine and Cheese party organized by Colas. argh. Today is Monday and I have to go to work again. My rest days for this week will be Tuesday and Friday. Can’t wait!
I really need to get a netbook to carry around with me. I always feel too tired after work and just want to have dinner (sometimes even skip dinner) , shower and go to bed. I spent about 1 1/2 hrs on public transport (bus, train and bus again) in the morning and another 1 1/2 hrs in the evening with nothing to do while waiting to reach work/home. I start work at 10:45 today but I need to leave home by 9 a.m. I have some time left and decided to update this blog of mine. (finally!!!)
Until I get a netbook, I will only update once in a while.

Here’s one food update!

I love Indian food.
I went to teach French for one hour the other day and I was given an Indian breakfast. It was good. I don’t remember the name of this dish and forgot to ask them which part of India it originates from. It was a bit spicy but I love it. I ate my breakfast while my student worked on the small test I gave him. He is on hols right now and I don’t have to tutor him until mid-April. I forgot to ask if he is going back to India during the hols. Anyway, I can just concentrate on work now and enjoy my off days.
Time to eat something before I leave for work. >.< A cheese and ham sandwich………
I want Indian food! :laughing:

Did you think that I was disappearing again? Those who follow me on Twitter or who are friends with me on Facebook probably know that I went back to Mauritius.

Everything happened too fast. On Christmas eve, all job-related procedures were completed (medical check-up, work visa etc) and I phoned my youngest sis. She bought my plane tickets on that same day & emailed me the e-tickets. I packed my small suitcase with some clothes, filled my big suitcase with things for my sisters, went shopping and on Christmas day, I took a cab to Changi airport at 10 p.m. I took the 1:20 am flight on 26th December. It was my first time flying Singapore-Dubai-Mauritius. I couldn’t get a seat on Air Mauritius and that’s why I flew on Emirates instead. I don’t want to criticise Air Mauritius but I’m seriously considering flying on Emirates again if I need to go back to Mauritius in the future & of course if I’m not in a hurry.
Singapore to Dubai took about 7 hours and I had to wait at Dubai airport for 4 to 5 hours (didn’t feel long because I was in the duty free shops) before the Dubai to Mauritius flight. Dubai to Mauritius took another 6 ¹/₂ hours. The tickets are more expensive than for Singapore to Mauritius on Air Mauritius but the food was better, the service was better. Enough said.

Something I noticed when disembarking from the Singapore to Dubai flight was that the plane was quite clean. I was impressed. Were most passengers Singaporeans? I couldn’t help wondering. In Singapore, people usually don’t litter because they risk getting fined heavily. On the other hand, I noticed that the plane for the Dubai to Mauritius flight wasn’t that clean when I got off the plane. The passengers were mostly Indians, French and Mauritians.

After I reached Mauritius, it took me a few minutes to get used to hearing most people around me speak Creole or French again and I smiled. This is home. I love that feeling of being back home, back to our sunny little island. :love: Well it wasn’t really sunny because it rained for a few days but my stay was still enjoyable.

I went to the beach once, went to Shout & Shotz once (but didn’t enjoy myself much because of cigarette smoke. I don’t have anything against smokers but I have breathing difficulties on and off. FYI, people aren’t allowed to smoke in bars/clubs in Singapore), met up with a few friends for lunch or dinner but I’ve been spending most of my time with my family. I didn’t have time to meet all my friends but hopefully, I’ll be able to see them next time. My parents weren’t keen on letting me go out at night and I had to stay at friends’ places instead of going back home after midnight because they reckon that our neighbourhood isn’t as safe as it used to be years ago. Mauritius is said to be an ideal destination for tourists but how do the local people rate Mauritius when it comes to safety, esp. when it’s not in the city centre? I’ve heard a few stories about people driving back home after clubbing , seeing bricks/crates/barrels on the road, getting out of the car to move them and then getting attacked & robbed? Something like that. Can anyone confirm those stories? To my non-Mauritian friends, please don’t get a bad impression of Mauritius. No country is 100% safe. I love Mauritius. (note: 2009 report about Crime and Safety in Mauritius. )

Staying in Mauritius from 26 December 2009 to 7th January 2010 was NOT ENOUGH. The last time I went back home was 2 ¹/₂ years ago and I had stayed for about 1 ¹/₂ months.

The good thing is that I’m back to Singapore with a clearer mind and feeling better than the last couple of months. Hopefully, 2010 will be a better year for me. :flowers:

I will write about my stay in Mauritius soon and of course, I’ll upload some photos.
I want to enjoy my Saturday lazying around at home after this long, tiring week.