Bob is coming home tomorrow

Bob has been away for 5 weeks. It's a long time to be away. Angel in the beginning steered clear from my room. Recently, he dares venture into my room to just lie on the floor but on hearing any strange noise, he will run out of my room. Bob gets along with my friend's 2 other cats. I'm not sure if he misses me and sleeping with me but I'm glad he seems to enjoy his stay @ my friend's place.

He will be with us for 3 weeks before I have to put him up @ my friend's place again while I visit another friend in Perth end Dec.

Green tea yogurt cupcakes

I made a litre of low fat yogurt using my yogurt machine and on Sun afternoon, decided to try a recipe for green tea yogurt cupcake. My earlier attempts to bake lemon yogurt cake have mixed results (yummy the first time and not so great the second time). The green tea recipe doesn't deviate from the lemon one, so I only used half of the ingredients and baked 6 cupcakes.

Don't they look pretty?

I added some cranberries and blueberries for mom but she was disappointed that the choc chips and berries were only sprinkled on top and not inside the cake too. The cake wasn't sweet enough too. We couldn't taste the green tea in the cake too, even though I added twice the amount called for (ie. 1 teaspoon). Mom said the cake tasted bad while Dad thought it was ok.


This one with just berries on top was mine. I stuck one of the organic dark choc buttons that sis got from London into the cake. Other than the sadly lacking taste/smell of green tea, I quite enjoyed eating the cupcake. I wanted to bake a healthy cake but it didn't turn up tasting like a normal yummy cake :P

I made Sis one with lots of choc chips and 1 dark choc button embedded inside, @ her request.

She said it didn't taste like a normal cake. After hearing mom and I talking about yogurt cake, it then dawned on her that she was eating a yogurt cake. Haha. She said if she had known that earlier, she wouldn't want to eat it. She said it tasted ok but sour and luckily I added more choc chips for her.

At least I had the foresight to make only 6 cupcakes and only had to eat 3. I shall finish the rest of the yogurt with wheatgerm, nuts, berries and maybe some green tea powder too. :)

Tom yam soup with brown rice

I tried the vegetarian tom yam paste I bought recently to make a small pot of soup filled with veggies (broccoli, green leaf veggy, tomato, mushroom) and some fish cake to go with brown rice. That was lunch last Fri for me and Mom. We also sprinkled some seaweed and salmon flakes that Big Aunt bought from Tokyo. The soup tasted quite yummy but it was on the salty side as I used the Jap dashi (fish stock) in the soup too :)

Yay my CPU is revived

The computer repair man came before 8pm today. He opened up the CPU and cleaned up the gold finger of the RAM (which had oxidised). The CPU could be boot up after that. However, after some testing, he discovered the floppy disk drive was faulty. We have upgraded the PC last Dec but didn't think of removing that drive, so since it was faulty, I told him to go ahead and unplug it. It cost me $80 and I'm very happy that the CPU is working again and I can blog :) I told him the next time the CPU dies, I'm thinking of getting a laptop. He said the motherboard he upgraded for us last Dec is a good one and will last us for another 3 years. Wow. I can have more time to save my money for a MacBook Pro :)

Playing with MacBook Pro

Our CPU @ home is not working, so I have been using my Nokia handphone to check my emails. Small screen and keyboard aren't exactly conducive but the phone has served me well in allowing me to connect online. I'm getting the computer man to come down tomorrow to take a look @ our CPU.

I didn't bring home my office laptop but Sis has her office MacBook Pro, so I'm playing with it now. It looks cool and seems quite easy to navigate. If it's going to cost quite a bit to repair the CPU, I may consider just getting the computer man to retrieve our hard disk and I'll get a MacBook Pro. Hee.

Jogging in Fivefingers

I have worn Fivefingers for four 30 minute-jogging sessions on the following dates and venues:
(1) 15 Oct @ Botanic Gardens
(2) 22 Oct @ Botanic Gardens
(3) 6 Nov @ Bishan Park
(4) 11 Nov @ Bishan Park

For the 1st and 2nd sessions, I ended up with the back of my leg muscles aching for a day or 2 but no knee aches. I experienced no muscle aches at all for the 3rd and yesterday’s sessions. I have to wear my toe socks to prevent discomfort and blister of the skin from rubbing against the plastic piece of the shoe.

We’ll be jogging at Botanic Gardens next week, so I will be able to tell if the terrain/route makes a difference or Fivefingers is one of the greatest invention! J I notice that I feel lighter on my feet and can run slightly faster by landing on the balls of my feet. I can’t sustain the higher speed for more than a few minutes though and have to go back to a slower comfortable pace.

The odd 1 in the family :)

That was what Mom smilingly said earlier and I told her that I'm the normal 1 while the rest of them are weird :P

Guess I'm quite strange for being nonchalant about being single, sleeping with Bob, unusual taste for certain food, not satisfied with my job, always trying to keep myself occupied, sudden interest in learning Japanese after more than a decade, having different kind of friends, being stubborn and refusing to listen to advice as I want to learn from the experience before agreeing with my advisers, treating my parents like friends and lecturing them, etc. Dad said I seem to want to do things differently from others. Hmm. Guess it's what makes me tick, and it's my way of trying to find happiness or this inner peace :)

Cat & Bird in the park

"Cat & Bird in the park" by Coboypb

I was inspired to do some doodling as I'm happy that my home PC is working. The CPU seemed to have died for the whole of last week. I have actually called the repairman to take a look tomorrow evening and I just pressed the button on the CPU to make sure it was dead. Surprisingly, it started to make the usual noise and the start screen appeared on the monitor. But it restarted 3 times before it allowed me to update the antivirus software and go online. I think I better let the guy take a look as it's not the first time the PC just restarted by itself. Sis and I were discussing last week whether to get an iMac or Macbook if we have to upgrade our PC again. If it's just a problem that can be easily resolved, I'm more than happy to stick to this PC and save money :)

Taking a break from Bob

Bob has been away from home for a week because I asked a friend to help me take care of him for a few weeks. This is mainly to give Mom a break as it can be tough trying to feed the community cats in the morning, trying to get Angel to settle down in one of the rooms and let Bob out for a few hours. Bob will sometimes try to move the barrier away when Angel is protesting behind the door. Mom finds it stressful when the 2 cats do that, as the time for Bob out of his "prison cell" may have to be cut short.

See the photo below of Bob checking out the barrier comprising of detergent bottles, orange peel and fly swatter (from Daisho). Bob will retreat @ times when we wave the swatter in his face, but when he is intent in trying to get past the barrier, I can only stop him by carrying him away by the scruff of his neck.

The 2nd photo shows Bob's interest in other objects in the house. The open door leads to my bedroom aka Bob's "prison cell".

I feel stressed at times too when I'm out late @ night and Mom will have to accompany Bob in my room and Bob is harder to manage @ night and Mom won't be able to get him back into my room. Bob will meow loudly when he is alone in the room and we don't want our neighbours to complain. The only entertainment in my room is the radio and Bob :P so poor Mom will miss her favorite CSI on Tues/Wed. If I'm home, we can let him out for an hour while Angel is sleeping in Sis' room and I can easily carry him back to my room to sleep.

I had taken a number of photos of Bob before sending him to my friend's place. I miss him already - miss him keeping my head warm @ night, hugging him, touching my nose on his :) I may consider putting Bob @ my friend's place for short period like this, whenever we need a break.

Me bonding with Bob :)

Bob guarding the main door

Bob oblivious to the "big cat"

Bob in his cute sitting posture

A nice shot of Angel

I find it hard to get a good photo of Angel sometimes. It could be due to his colouring or he is very active :)

Soba in dashi soup with lots of veggies

I don't add oil when I cooked them, so I think they are healthy meals :)

Shoes investment

I like the 2 pairs of shoes I bought recently.

The first pair from this brand "Terra Plana" was bought at Barefoot shop at Orchard Ion. It cost me $159 but I'm happy with the purchase for being environmentally friendly (eg. recycled leather). The right shoe pinched my foot a little when I wore it the first time but subsequently, they feel comfortable.

The 2nd pair is Vibram Fivefingers. I read about it on a friend's blog, checked out online reviews and asked another friend how she feels wearing the shoes. I tried them @ Outdoor Life @ Velocity @ Novena Square and they felt comfortable. There was a 10% discount for cash payments and I got the shoes at $179. I walked in them for a few nights, when feeding the cats. When I jogged in them for the first time @ Botanic Gardens, I got blisters on the inner side of my feet. I rectified that when I wore them a week later by wearing my toe socks. My back leg muscles ached quite a bit and I felt good after the jog and best of all, my knees didn't ache :)