Harbinger

This is going to be an eccentric post, so please bear with me.

This year’s Chinese New Year falls on the same day as Valentine’s Day (February 14) Do I give a hoot about the former? No. The latter? Yes ;-) Anyways, I’ll be working the whole weekend…I prefer it that way. The only nice thing about Chinese New Year is that I get to take a break from my teaching, so that’s definitely a plus point (this is one of our major Malaysian holidays, Miss Miller, and yes I do work)

It was very nice of my music school administrator to give me this New Year hamper (or basket, for my American friends) There’s a variety of stuff inside, including edibles and dunno what else, LOL. And yes, I’ll open it later. The picture was taken as usual with my Canon PowerShot SX120 IS; I just love this camera, the colors are so vibrant.

Full of goodies

I’ve written two new posts for My Musical Life, my other blog. Please have a look.

I’ve watched Avatar twice…once by myself and once with my Mom. Since the tickets only cost $1.80 per adult, why not? I thought Mom would doze off halfway thru the movie but my word, she was glued to the screen! She said it was a good flick. Rumors are flying about the Internet that James Cameron will make a sequel. Of course I’m not going to hold my breath (it took him 7 years before Terminator 2 hit the screens)

Unlike all the other citizens here, I am not a fan of Chinese movies. In fact I absolutely despise them with a vengeance, especially the Cantonese soaps and serials—yuck! Give me NCIS, Fringe, CSI, Criminal Minds, and Bones any time—these are my favorite TV shows.

Music? My current fave is Katherine Jenkins, the Welsh singer. Beautiful voice, and her latest album Believe is pure magic. My favorite songs there are Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry, Richard Marx’ Fear of Falling, and Queen’s Who wants to live forever. Buy this album, it’s superb.

Unfortunately I’ve had to cut down on my swimming—the doc said I was overdoing it, can you imagine that? So I now swim maybe about 3 or 4 times a week, 16 laps maximum. And I’m supposed to eat more protein, so all you chickens had better watch out. My glucose levels have actually decreased, which is good since my Mom’s diabetic. My cholesterol level has dropped from 5.8 (2 years ago) to 5.4 now. I’ll be guzzling the oatmeal for sometime yet!

I still give thanks to God for everything that I have, especially my health and my eyes—it’s been months since my cataract operation last year and I still can’t get over the fact that I wake up each morning and can see clearly when I open my eyes!

I’ve been having ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, besides oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches. Bananas are my favorite fruit because they’re good for…oh well never mind (don’t blech, Miss M) And Tudor Gold dark chocolate is simply wonderful, full of antioxidants and it does elevate my happiness levels.

There are challenges coming up for me this year—I don’t like them, but I have to face them. Might as well get them over with.

Penang’s weather is awful at this time of the year. Hot, with very little rain, and pollutants make my nose itchy and sore—ugh!

For you lovebirds out there, yes Love does make the world go round. My favorite quote for now is this one: “You don’t love a woman because she is beautiful. She is beautiful because you love her.” Happy Valentine’s Day.

Told you this would be a quirky post.

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Needle time (again)

I can’t believe that more than one and a half years have passed since my last blood test. My mom had been nagging me lately about having one done, but I’ve always procrastinated, until last Wednesday when I had some free time. So I made a bargain with myself—I’d go for that blood test, and then reward myself by going to watch Avatar afterwards. It was an awesome movie, coming from James Cameron (seems the man can’t do anything wrong) and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even forgetting the fact that it was 2 hours 40 minutes long. The only weak link was James Horner’s prosaic soundtrack—he’s written good ones in the past (just listen to Titanic) but this one was tired and appeared more like a rehash of what he had written before. Cameron should have enlisted John Williams to compose the music for Avatar. That would have been stupendous.

Anyways, back to my blood tests. The good doc said he’d call me when he got the results but you know me, I get so edgy and impatient. So I called him up yesterday afternoon; my heart was pounding because he did appear to be a tad worried about my loss of weight—my mom is diabetic after all, so that got me all worked up too. It was a great relief when he said over the phone that all my results were normal, thank God.

I’ve been told to cut back on my swims (wah!) Apparently I’ve been overdoing it, what with the 30 laps and swimming five to six times a week. Now I’m doing just 16 laps and plan to swim a maximum of four times a week (I’ll still continue with my morning walks)

I’ve also been told to increase my protein intake, so if you have any suggestions feel free to drop me a comment. Now where’s that chicken?

Lemme at it!

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