Lara's sidekick

From today onwards, I have to report for sidekick duty for at least 1 hour daily until the mission is completed. I play Totec in "Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light" and I have to assist Lara in her adventure. So far, Lara has taught me how to handle my spear, jump and walk on her rope and carry my shield above my head so that she can stand on it to jump to higher places. I am not skillful yet so I get scolded by Lara quite often. When there are many enemies around, I get too excited and forget how to fight so I simply plant and detonate bombs until I blow up Lara. Ah, the joy of cooperative game play between a skillful and an unskillful player. And who says playing games together strengthens the relationship?

The Guild

My spouse got me hooked on this web series entitled "The Guild". If you are a gamer or know someone who is a gamer, then you may be interested to watch this show. It is a comedy about a group of online gamers and each episode takes only about 5 to 8 minutes. We have been watching season 1 to 3 on youtube and season 4 on www.watchtheguild.com during the weekend.

The story behind this web series is very inspiring. It is created and written by Felicia Day, an avid online gamer and struggling actress in Hollywood. The first few episodes were self-funded and then the money ran out so the next few episodes were financed by donations via PayPal. More information available here. What's important is that some people are inspired by what she has achieved to start doing something about their dreams without waiting for external funding.

I wanted to know more about how she is living with her success now so I found and read two articles: "Farpoint 2010: A Conversation with Felicia Day" and "How Felicia Day Recruited Millions for Her Guild". Very interesting.

Sunday dim sum

My spouse woke me up at 7.30am today to go to eat dim sum so I got up but was quite bad-tempered as I am not a morning person. Got to the dim sum place (6.6km drive) at about 8am and the place was quite full but we managed to get a table.

I took photos of all the dishes we ordered so that I could remember what we had eaten but somehow left out a bowl of congee. We did not order any fried items as I wanted to refrain from eating oily food. The bill came up to RM54.60 inclusive of 6% government tax and 5% service charge. The dim sum dishes were categorized as small (RM 3.6), medium (RM4) and big (RM4.5) and we had 1 pot of tea (RM 1.5 per person), 2 small, 3 medium and 6 big dim sums but we did not ask which is which, we just sort of guess.

Overall, the savoury dim sums are a bit too salty and the pork taste is a bit too strong for me but my spouse said his bowl of century egg, salty duck egg, and lean pork meat congee is nice. No second visit for me.We ate the following:

L: Steamed prawn dumplings (4.5) R: Steamed pork ribs (4.5)

L:Chives pork dumplings (4.5) R: Steamed pork dumplings (siew mai - 4.5)

L:Lotus glutinous rice (4.5) R:Scallop prawn dumplings (4.5)

L:Red bean pao/buns (3.6) R: BBQ pork (char siew) pao/buns (3.6)

L: Fish paste balls (4) R:Glutinous chicken rice (lo mai kai - 4)

Restaurant 錦選

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

It does not take much
to express your love
to your loved ones.
Just a phonecall,
an email,
or a whisper in their ears
to let them know
how much you love
and cherish them

everyday.

A delightful find

While cleaning the house recently, I came across a long-forgotten item. I couldn't even remember its existence so it was a surprise when I found it. It was a handmade Valentine's Day card given to me 18 years ago by my then one-and-only boyfriend (now my spouse).

Looking at it, I wonder what would it take for him to hand make a card for me this coming Valentine's Day. Showing him the card, I asked him this question and he told me jokingly that he hired someone to make the card for him then. I know it is not true because I can recognise his handwriting. He even painstakingly wrote

all along the edges of the card. Like me, he also does not remember anything about this card at all.

After being together for 19 years 3 months 1 week and 5 days, I honestly do not expect nor want a meticulously handmade card from him anymore because our love for each other has grown and moved past this stage. Now, we focus more on mutual respect, open communication and acceptance of each others' shortcomings without wanting to change each other.

So for this coming Valentine's Day, we won't be going out for any meals. We will just eat a simple dinner at home, enjoy watching a movie together in the comfort of our sofa-bed and share a heart-to-heart talk before calling it a day.

To those who love and those who are loved, may all of you enjoy a Happy Valentine's Day on 14 Feb 2011!

P/S Although I aim to keep my belongings to a minimal because I do not want to become a hoarder, I'm glad that I kept the card because it does bring back such fond memories of the time when we were young and love struck. So I am putting the card back into my "sentimental treasure box" so that I can look at it again when I am old and grey.

So are you a keeper or a thrower when it comes to things like cards and sentimental gifts?

人日

Today is the 7th day of CNY. It is known as "人日" (人:people, 日:day). From what I gather, according to one of the many Chinese legends about the creation of the world, the world was created by 女娲 (Nuwa - a goddess) and on the 7th day, she created human beings. Therefore, the 7th day is known as mankind's day or mankind's birthday.

For dinner today, I went over to my mother's place and we ate a homemade modified version of 鱼生 (鱼: fish, 生:raw, Yusheng , yee sang), a raw fish salad. We did not include any raw fish slices in our version. Our dish consists of shredded apples, chinese pears, yam beans, japanese cucumbers, carrots, daikons, pineapples; slices of pickled ginger; crushed peanuts; sesame seeds; pomelos (flesh); cornflakes; fish crackers; plum sauce and sesame oil.

I had only this dish for dinner and it was enough for me. So maybe I'll eat this dish minus the oil, cornflakes, fish crackers and plum sauce for dinner every night.

The dish before the "tossing" starts

The "tossing" in progress - mix 'em all up!

Flesh of a pomelo - my contribution: I cut the pomelo and remove its flesh

Taking a breather

Today is the 5th day of CNY. I have not switched on my netbook for the last 5 days because I was busy shuttling between my in-laws' and my mother's place which are located 3km apart. I was barely at home. When I was at my mother's place, I can't help popping her home made cookies into my mouth as they were made with less sugar and less butter so they are just right for me. Got to remember to take care of my health and not overeat. Ten more days of eating and merry making to go before CNY is officially over and then it's back to the daily grind.

CNY Home made Cookies: cashew nuts, oats, peanuts, almonds