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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.

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)

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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:

It all started when I went back to Mauritius in 2007. My sisters got into a hula hoop craze and even my mum was learning a bit. haha. It was so funny. I joined in and it wasn’t long before I got the hang of it.
After I went back to Shanghai, I bought a hula hoop at Carrefour. (or maybe Wumei? Not sure.)

This is the hula hoop I was using back in Shanghai.

It is the only photo that I’ve managed to find. Please ignore the mess. I had started packing and getting ready to leave Shanghai when I took this photo. I left it behind in Shanghai and bought a new one in Singapore.

I don’t remember where I bought this super hula hoop. At Marina Square maybe? I’ve been calling it super hula hoop because it is huge. It is so much thicker and heavier than my old hula hoop.
I remember lifting the other hula hoops available at the sports shop and thinking that they were too light. This one caught my eye because… well simply because I had never seen anything like it before. Apparently, it is called a weighted hula hoop. (note: People with a history of back problems should avoid using weighted hula hoops or traditional hula hoops.)

This hula hoop gave me bruises but then I got used to it. It’s so easy to forget about the hula hoop swirling around my waist as I watch a movie. I never attempt more than 10 mins (non-stop) and hula hooping is probably not even enough of a workout but it’s an excuse for me to move about a bit. I haven’t touched it since June but today I woke up at about 6 a.m and was in a great mood. 6 a.m is usually the time I go to bed. I managed to fall asleep at about 1 a.m this time. I felt like shouting good morning when I rolled over to look at the time when I opened my eyes this morning. It’s high time to start sleeping at normal hours.
I had my breakfast, a cup of coffee, my hula hoop workout and I’m feeling great. I’ll probably stay home all day because it looks like it’s going to rain.
*Listening to my favourite Koreans songs… * It’s going to be a lovely day. :flowers:

If you know me well enough, then you should have been able to guess that I’ll be writing about food. :laughing:

What I like to eat when I’m feeling hungry late at night or early in the morning:
Glutinous rice balls! They are called tāng yuán (汤圆).

(frozen and not yet cooked.)

This Chinese dessert is usually served when it is Winter Solstice. (Some information about the celebration of winter solstice here.) It is also eaten during other Chinese festivals to indicate togetherness or reunion. Since it is so easily available at the supermarkets here in Singapore, I eat glutinous rice balls whenever I feel like it. I was also buying glutinous rice balls quite often when I was still in Shanghai. There are many types of fillings available: peanut, red beans, black sesame etc.
I don’t remember if ready-made frozen glutinous rice balls are sold in Mauritius. We usually make our own glutinous rice balls at home. :flowers: I miss that .

I bought those with peanut fillings.

Boiled in water + a few slices of ginger . Most people like to add sugar to the ginger soup but I don’t add sugar if the glutinous rice balls have sweet fillings inside. I only add sugar if I’m having plain glutinous rice balls with no fillings inside.


I like my glutinous rice balls dry but back in Mauritius, mum was telling us to drink the ginger soup. The fact that I don’t drink the ginger soup is also another reason why I don’t add sugar. If you plan to drink the ginger soup, add sugar.

I don’t really like peanuts but if it is inside glutinous rice balls, then it’s alright. This filling also contains white sesame.
I always feel a bit weird when I eat glutinous rice balls all alone. If I’m going home this December, one of the first things that I’ll do back in Mauritius will be to make glutinous rice balls with my family and eat, sitting at the round dining table. Yes. Let’s not forget the round dining table.

I like to keep myself busy so that I don’t have time to think. I’ve been staying at home since Monday and now I have too much time on my hands. This means that I have more time to think. I hate this feeling.

Everyone says that sick people should just stay in bed and rest but I’ve already slept for 10 hours and if I sleep any longer, I’ll go crazy. I’m not that sick anyway. It’s just an infection. I’ve just taken my medicine and unlike yesterday, I don’t feel drowsy at all today. I’m wide awake and feeling very alert.
I’ve decided to clean my room today. Someone once told me that I always seem to be cleaning my room. Whenever I clean my room, it takes me a couple of hours and the results are great. Somehow I always have bags of trash to throw away after I’m done. Within 2 weeks, chaos reign supreme yet again. I guess that my room kinda reflects the way my life is right now. I love that feeling I get when I’m cleaning. Cleaning is my outlet for stress. Everyday cleaning can be drudgery but cleaning whenever I have to deal with strong emotions… well, that feels good. :flowers:

I have already opened some of the boxes which I had previously stored away in a corner. I know that there is no point in holding on to things which are full of bad memories. Scraps of paper where I’ve jotted down my thoughts, old letters, old postcards, clothes that I no longer wear etc. Everything must go.

I have a sore throat since Monday. I thought that it was because of the burger and fries I ate the day before when I went out with friends to eat at Blooies. I drank more water and slept more but nothing changed. I still had a sore throat. I was coughing a little but I didn’t have fever or a runny nose. The first thing I did when I woke up this morning was to drink some barley juice and then I went to the bathroom. I puked and it was orange in color. Ewwwwwwwwwwww. (Barley juice is not orange in color.)
I went back to my room and coughed up phlegm. It’s the first and the only one that I have coughed up since Monday. It looked like a mixture of red and yellow. hmm.. Orange color? Yuck. It was thicker than normal phlegm. D and Liz told me to go see a doctor. I took a photo of the phlegm which was still on a piece of tissue paper. I’m not going to post the photo because it is so gross. I was trying to describe the phlegm to the doctor but then I asked her “Can I show you a photo of my phlegm?” :laughing: She laughed. I showed her the photo and she told me that there was blood in it. Well, that explains the color.
Anyway it turns out to be some kind of upper respiratory tract infection and I went back home with a syrup, two types of pills, some antibiotics and $28 lighter. The medicine made me very drowsy and I slept till 9 p.m.

Out of these 4, the disgusting syrup is probably what I like the most. I hate pills. I hate capsules.