Almost there!

A colleague had organised a blood donation drive in the school and we are encouraged to have a go at it if we meet the "requirements". I had always thought that, by being underweight, I cannot donate blood. But apparently, I was wrong. It is not the weight and height ratio form of underweight. One is considered underweight and unsuitable for blood donation if he/she is under 45kg. So, having put on at least 5 kg in the almost 3 years since getting married, I decided to donate blood for the very first time in my life.

So, after filling up the form, and passed the next 2 "tests" with flying colours (the doctor's interview, and having the correct amount of haemoglobin balance), I was mentally prepared to be "poked and prodded" by some thick needle. Actually the thought of being pricked by needle was not as great as the worry that I might feel faint (or might really faint) after the donation.

But somehow, the appropriate veins needed are not "available" on both my arms. My right arm does not show the veins at all, while there is one on my left arm, but according to the nurse, it is too fine to do the donation. There is a risk of puncturing the vein with the needle. According to the nurse, my arms do not have enough exercise and she recommended me to do some weight-lifting, or similar sort of exercise to make the veins more visible.

It was kind of disappointing to having miss this experience, knowing that the blood might actually help someone in the future. But I have to admit that there was also a tiny sense of relief that I do not have to go through the sticking of the needle and having it in me for 10 minutes.

However, if there is another chance, I will certainly go for it again. :)

Auntie tips (16)

Tip 1:
To remove stinky smells from a container, place crumpled newspaper inside, close the lid and leave for the few days. Then wash as usual.

Tip 2:
To keep a vacuum flask odour-free, fill half the flask with vinegar, hot water and pieces of egg shells. Leave overnight, then wash with detergent.

Tip 3:
To get rid of fishy smells after handling seafood, wash your hands with salt.

Tip 4:
Place a dry scented tea bag under the mouth piece of the telephone to eliminate unwanted odours.

From : Simply Her - Aug 2007

PES Spaghetti

Check out this stop motion film by PES.

Found!

Recognise this fella? It could well be one of the most popular icon ever used in Tecent QQ and MSN. I had saved a whole bunch of them for my MSN, and even set a few of them as commonly-used short-cut keys. I see it dancing away on my MSN chatting windows almost daily, and never failed to perk me up despite its constant deadpan expression. It has even earned itself an entry in Wikipedia, and has also been appearing in certain Motorola mobile phone ads. But do you know its name and the owner?

Meet Tzuki.


Its owner is Wang Mao-Mao, a student from the Beijing Broadcasting Institute of Animation. To know more about the artist, or to get to know Tzuki better, or maybe you want to see more Tzukis dancing for you, here is the original blog in Chinese, and here is the English-translated blog.

It kind of reminds me of Mashimaro who took the world by storm a few years back. What is it about bunnies with attitudes that had managed to capture so much attention?

Flying in the rain

Thanks to my generous Uncle Martin, I got to take the famous Singapore Flyer for free yesterday. But no thanks to the weather, we only got a quick glance around as the capsule sets off, then it was rain, rain and more rain.

Super heavy rain. (and with some red and white balloons stuck to the wheel, most probably leftovers from the NDP on Saturday)

Buildings in Shenton Way

The floating platform

The Marina Barrage

I'm not sure if you can see clearly from the picture, but according to the guide with us in the capsule, he said that the exterior wall of the Conrad Hotel actually showed a number "13" (circled in red). I didn't managed to catch all the explanation, but the gist of it was that it had something to do with the Cantonese pronounciation of 13, which is actually meant to be good for business.

A miniature model of the upcoming IR

I thought it was good to have a guide to explain all that we were seeing from the capsule. It was all in all, quite a good experience (minus the rain and the ticket price). I'm sure it would be even better when the IRs are up, which I highly suspect that the ticket price will follow "up" as well.

A pity that it was pouring yesterday, and that we couldn't really see too far. But if there's anyone who is kind enough to sponsor me for another trip when the weather is good, I don't mind going again. Heh.

Ice Cream Cake

Don't be misled by the title of this dessert. It doesn't require you to make the ice-cream from scratch. It's more of like mixing whatever that you like with pure vanilla ice-cream, that's all. Simple, right? :)

I actually followed half of the stated ingredients, and for the other half, used whatever I liked. I was thinking of using chocolate biscuits as stated, but found this instead.

I have never eaten this before, but it looks good, and I thought it will go well with ice-cream. I sneaked one as I was making it and it tasted good. :) I guess the warning stated on the package saying "Highly Addictive", is quite true.

I got the rough guide of how to do it from a Youtube video of Nigella

Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients :

- 1.5 litres of vanilla ice-cream, softened

- a Crunchy bar

- 150g chocolate biscuits

- 200g chocolate chips / white chocolate chips

- 100g honey-coated peanuts

Directions :

1. Put the Crunchy bar and chocolate biscuits together and bash them up.

2. Mix in the ice-cream, chocolate chips and peanuts and stir all together.

3. Line a tin with cling wrap. Then pour the well-mixed ice-cream into the container.

4. Put the mixture into the freezer.

20 candles on the cake

In case you missed last year's entry, on this day, 20 years ago, my littlest sister came into this world, into our family to wreck havoc. Can't believe I've known this creature girl for 20 years, and not surprising, nothing much had changed within this past year.


Still the same kooky girl.

But then again, it's kind of hard to imagine life without her clowning around once in a while. Haha.

Things you might not know about the husband

Because of the "challenge" issued by Old Beng (in his entry on 9th July 08), I've spent the past couple of weeks trying to think of what are the things, or weird facts as Old Beng likes to use, that people do not know about the husband. I mean, of coz with the exception of close friends and relatives.

1) He was an ex-student from the same school which I'm working in now.

2) He keeps a small candle and lighter in the toilet coz he read somewhere that, by lighting up the candle for a while after doing the "big business", it will get rid of the smell fast.

3) He cannot drink coffee with milk most of the time. It has the same effect like laxatives for him.

4) He lost a Baby G Shock watch I bought for him while on an overseas army training session.

5) He does not like to kill little house critters like bettles, spiders and lizards... but a cockroach does not have the same good fortune.

6) Though I do more cooking than he does, he still makes better instant noodles than I do.

7) Though he always seems to like making fun of my younger siblings and cousins, he actually has a soft spot for each and every one of them.

8) He will not hesitate to help those less fortunate, even though he knows that some might be cheaters. (he believes in karma)

9) He does not like to try on new clothes at the shops. He will get the size he thinks will fit and buys it.

10) He has 3 pairs of spectacles. One is for use at home and the other two will alternate when he goes out or goes to work.