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there are probably more things swirling in my mind than i could properly digest and share it with sensibility… but i feel the spasmic urge of a bit of verbal diarrhoea…
i am still suffering my sleepless nights thanks to the loud snoring of my neighbour?! which i think is worth the whiney mention since snoring is a sign of a health problem that people usually don’t look into for it CAN BE a rather awkward thing to talk about… i’ve bought green coloured soft spongy ear plugs that you squeeze to insert into your ear and let them expand within the canal to assume their noise-blocking role… but the pressure is uncomfortable… either i’ll have to learn to get used to the perpetual unpleasant rhythm or i get myself totally exhausted through work or chores (neither is a healthy thing) and sleep through it… maybe i need to carpet the wooden floors…
anyways…
work has been stressful… frustrating… one waits for this busy boss for his approval on things and meanwhile one needs to remain busy. sometimes all this waiting makes everything seem meaningless. instant gratification… if only you can get that to manifest more easily in science… physical work is often more satisfying in my opinion… but no one noticed that the previously filthy microwave-oven in the lab library is looking squeeky clean… sigh.
and
i can’t seem to find a decent loaf of bread here! everything is FORTIFIED with something… and the centre bits of the bread is an airy fluff of insubstantial stuff… if the brits are criticised by the continental europeans for not having good bread… the americans have lousy ones. sorry if it seems harsh… can’t help being honest… now, i am on the quest for quality bread… and i got these wonderful cookbooks (Apetite by Nigel Slater — one book i highly recommend for the kitchen… if i only owned my own kitchen! Slater’s cooking philosophy is one which all of us should aspire to have… and Breads (The Good Cook Series) by Time Life) out from the neighbourhood library the evening i gleefully joined and thought i really should try to make my own bread… but the first attempt on sunday was an utter disaster… i was in a terrible mood… cooking can be so influenced by the mind and soul… amazing. and so i tried it again the night after… it’s still not quite what i’m craving for… so i’ll have to try again… sigh.
sigh…
when things get a little down… i often find solace in a cuppa… a good cuppa…
but even then…
people here have been finding me a little peculiar… for i add fresh milk into my mug/cup before i pour hot tea… and they don’t understand why this ritual is more ‘proper’ nor why it should taste sweeter that way… but it does… and here is one fun instructional guide on how to enjoy a good cuppa tea! (click on the animation!)
now… i feel a little less miserable… ahhh the wonders of catharsis!
i recently discovered this spiffy site: ScienceWeek gives little updates and news on current interests in various scientific topics and you could sign up for the weekly updates!
i think you already know how much i love visiting ruth at her place in portobello… but i won’t hesitate to tell you again (and again if i so feel the need to!).
yesterday evening, i went over to join in ruth’s flatmate emily’s little farewell-do (she’s going to namibia next week for a few months to help with the health work there)… and coupled with the glorious 22degC yesterday… it made a perfect escape from the frustrations i’ve had to face. i particularly enjoyed the stroll along the beach with ruth… bare-footed, we pranced in between the ugg-worms that surfaced on the moistened sand… the fresh soft lime-green seaweed washed ashore… the buried seashells and under the canopy of the beautiful skies…
we also indulged in a very ‘proper’ dinner-picnic by the sea… we had salads galore, veggie sticks that we greedily dipped into the lush roasted-peppers-and-tomatoes humus and there was also yummy coconut-banana-pineapple smoothie that tasted like virgin pinacolada…
with a company of english, scots and irish (united-kingdom sans welsh — perhaps i could represent that since atlantic college is there!) we couldn’t possibly have escaped the typical scenario of utter-politeness… the usage of “could… possibly… perhaps… maybe… might… lovely….” dotted much of the conversations particularly when everyone was starting to feel the chill and would like to go into the warmth… it was hilarious… and i couldn’t stop giggling over our irish friend’s utterances… the combination of the accent and the way everything was said was just so amusing… he reminds me of Pippin… and it all made sense why ruth said he’s a hobbit (*wink*)… i wonder if my cousin-in-law has that accent too… hmm.
before it got too cold… we dashed to say hello to the sea… i dipped my feet into the gentle lapping of the dissipated wave while some of the others were brave enough to soak their legs in the cold sea… and then we walked back into the warmth of the little house to have some profiteroles laced with hot chocolate sauce and ice-cream.
sadly, i had to catch the last bus back into town and i couldn’t witness the much-renowned moon-illusion that was supposed to have occured last night.
i don’t know how i became obsessed with them… they were hardly available when i was a wee lassie in singapore… but given how wonderfully rich in anti-oxidants and how lovely they taste… and how beautifully blue they are, who really cares?
blueberries are my all-time favourite of all berries… i don’t care much for strawberries, nor raspberries nor blackberries, or gooseberries… but the blues…
according to my new “fresh” food magazine, which i picked up by chance when i tried to get some change to buy some stamps from the automated machine, blueberries rank top in their Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity among fruits and veggies, i.e. super high in anti-oxidants… these molecules help neutralise free-radicals (chemicals that often lead to cell-degeneration when found in access… and this process, termed as oxidative stress, is linked to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s).
i was also amazed to find out that these little berries are good for you in more than one great way! apart from the protective influence of the variety of anti-oxidants that 1) help strengthen collagen, 2) help improve vision (via increased production of retinal — the precursor to visual pigment; by filtering harmful ultra-violet light via carotenoid-induced pigment growth in the lens and macular of the eye) and 3) help in preventing the formation of leaky capillaries, blueberries are also found to be both anti-inflammatory and anti-clotting.
thus, they are not only great for keeping you looking younger, helping you keep your vision clearer, they also help improve your blood circulation and help reduce your risk of having cardiovascular problems. and as if that weren’t good enough, they also have naturally occuring acids that appear to help prevent cervical cancer and protect the womb… and have i already mentioned that they are also said to have antiseptic and antibacterial properties?
my golly… i will never run out of reasons to gobble them now! heee.
and to indulge in my blueberry-lust… i baked a lovely blueberry tart from the blueberry bliss i brought home (and froze) the other day… and i dedicate this to stella who requested it but i am unable to ship it to HK before it all disappeared! ooops.
NYT – techie news reports the mac-intel coorporation… i hope this will churn out some better powerbooks… and hopefully at more affordable prices…
=c) i shall be patient…
[Tony Avelar/Reuters]
HIDEOUS RANT — you are forewarned!
kindly excuse the sometimes pent-up angst that is unwittingly spewed here…
i was trying to figure out if Yukawa Hideki whom i quoted in the entry below was also the Nobel Prize winner for Physics in 1949 for his postulation of the existence of mesons in the nucleus of the atom, whose forces of attraction keep protons and neutrons of the nucleus together… i still don’t know for sure if it is him, but my silly search led me to something else…
Prof. Steven Weinberg’s Four Golden Lessons… this couldn’t have been more encouraging! =c)
enormous flying machine takes to the air… perhaps i’ll get to travel in one of these someday soon?
i was tidying up my stuff after my trip and came across 2 paper slips in the pockets of my coat… fortune cookie slips from the dinner with my auntie at Lily’s in NewYork… where you can find really good authentic chinese dishes! it was so funny though how we ended up with the cookies… we thought that with a company of 4 we would get a complimentary plate of cut oranges as dessert but the waitress said we weren’t a party-size and when we asked what a party-sized group was she replied that we had to pre-book a table — which we did… and she said we should have gotten our fortune cookies but we didn’t… and so she gave us one each.
i don’t know how or why fortune cookies are so popular in the states… it’s quite amusing really… a silly sort of fun.
anyways, we opened up ours and found our fortune slips… 2 were complete nonsense and my brother spotted the bowl of fortune cookies lying not far away from our table and saw that the close was clear and helped us to 4 more cookies to find our fortunes! heeeeheee
while we were happily reading the next set of fortunes, my auntie remarked that maybe we had better go because the waitress who then passed by our table seemed perplexed; possibly wondering how our 4 cookie slips multiplied to 8… but this time we had better luck!
1st cookie slip : “With your beautiful voice, please sing a song for everyone. some random numbers :[38 18 48 41 11 14]; Speak Chinese: Grape — 葡萄 Pu(2)Tao(2)”
2nd cookie slip: “Reach for the stars, but keep your feet on the ground. random numbers :[8 48 36 44 6 19]; Speak Chinese: Grey — 灰 Hui(1)”
