PINK

I've been tech savy this week. Thanks to the great minds behind Nokia, I got a free upgrade of the operating system in my phone. This new OS favours more personalisation, it is quite user friendly, very easy on the eyes and it's got some cool new features like NFC and Microsoft Lync. The icons and backgrounds look so much prettier now, that I feel like I have a new phone suddenly. So I have spent a significant amount of time this week personalising my phone and getting new and useful applications.

I thought I'd mention this peculiar application in the blog. It's called "The Period" (read on, don't roll eyes yet). My first reaction when I saw it was "What?? That's ridiculous!", but then a wise friend said it might be useful for me. Actually, it is ideal. I have a disorder resulting in irregular cycles (the joys of being female) and my doctor had asked me to record all dates and durations of my cycle. Previously, I would record it in my diary the old fashioned way. But this application has taken record keeping to a new level. Apart from the records, the application predicts when the next expected date is, how many days left, where in the menstrual cycle I am now - these being the features useful to me. Then it also tells when I ovulate, when I should get busy if I wanted to get pregnant, days which have a higher probability of conceiving boys or girls (that, I'm skeptical) - these being the useless features to me. The developers had also given an email address for any feedback. I was thinking of telling them to include a random alert to make the user aware of: "PMS zone approaching, please try to stay away from loved ones and warn them of expected disturbances in your behaviour".

Google images was only able to provide a picture of an iphone version of it. The one in the Nokia store looks very similar. 

So the lesson to take away from all that is not to be too quick to jump into judgements and conclusions. Like this morning another friend told me that she happened to observe a couple of girls in a club reduce to tears when the David Guetta ft. Usher song "Without You" played. I was quick to judge and say with much sarcasm "Oh they must have had their menstrual cycles in sync". Later though, I thought maybe there were other reasons for their behaviour that we would not have known, like a sad farewell perhaps. 

Another interesting thing happened today. I had been expecting a card from Singapore. It was unusual for a card to take 3 weeks in the post. I had almost given it up for a lost mail when it arrived today (to my joy), in good condition AND with an explanation for the delay. The letter had a stamp on it which read;

 SAUDI POST

MISS SENT TO SAUDI ARABIA

(when it was rightly addressed to arrive in the UAE)

The way I see it, the postal service is a love or hate thing. Only a few friends I know use it. It is a hassle to go buy stamps and envelopes, write old fashioned post cards/ letters/ cards, find post boxes to drop them in, wait for weeks till the recipient receives it and then wait many more weeks for the recipient to get back to you. There is a chance your item might be lost in transit or take a longer route like what happened to my card! And all this can be avoided by embracing newer and faster advances technology like courier, email, mms, instant messaging, VOIP etc. Yet, some of us want to keep the postal service from shutting down for good. 

I'll admit, I was once crazy over this song. Heck, freaky Shu still loves it.

Laziness, I fear, might be a dominant genotype

What do you do when you are a slave of your mind?
You sit and watch your boat (of life) sail by, further and further and further away from the dock of your dreams and goals.

I just discovered a very yummy recipe for a very lazy type of meal. As follows:

Cheapy n Tasty Steamed Corn
1 can of whole kernel corn
Salt and butter to taste

Open the can, drain and warm up the corn. Warming by steam is preferred, however a microwave would work too. Avoid boiling the corn in water (that would give you tasteless and nutrition-less corn). Add lots of butter and a pinch of salt. Mix. Sit back and enjoy while you blog, read or watch TV.

Today, I was caught by a sympathetic colleague while eating the same food for lunch from 3 days back. Although, it was prepared in such away that it can be preserved for several days, she took pity on me and offered (forcefully) to bring me lunch tomorrow despite objections.

This is the latest addition to my room decor. A curious gift, but one that perfectly suits a curious creature as I. I have managed to assemble it while the family was away, as junior might find joy in taking a bird bath in it or introduce foreign material to the setup. The sound of running water, apart from serving as a timely reminder to pee regularly, has a very soothing effect. I must admit, it sets a great atmosphere to write. All I miss now is sound of birds chirping away (the air conditioning can replace a cool breeze).

Last night my computer crashed in an attempt to fix a malfunctioning phone. I was forced to reformat it on my own. All this while I had never attempted a reformat out of several imagined situations, where things might go wrong and I'll end up without a laptop. Regardless of gender, I think it is important for all to try to learn to change a bulb, reformat a computer, change a tyre, change a diaper, cook a meal and sew a tear (who knows when it might save you an inconvenience?). Anyway, I had failed to create a backup of my documents recently, so a lot of important documents, chat logs, cherished photos and videos have been lost. Then again, life goes on, with or without your important files. We adapt to circumstances.

Through life's hardships, debts and obligations, one must not forget to live a little. So today, I said yes to a friend who wanted to buy discounted tickets to a themed water park. Guess my haircut will have to be sacrificed this month to make up for additional entertainment costs. Now that wasn't a difficult choice to make!

My computer tricked me into sleeping an hour early last night. Instead of 10:45pm, it read 11:45pm and that was enough to send me running off to bed in disappointment as my "pre-Monday blues" had already kicked in by then.

But not tonight, you evil thing.

Whatsapp???!

The good winds are catch up once again! I'm off on a sailing trip tomorrow. Yay!

Smart phones are the best invention since winged sanitary napkins (WHY the hell is it called a napkin???) Oh well, nevermind... I have been instant messaging with my friends and family from all over the world, thanks to Whatsapp! I try to strike a work-life balance while at work.

Just renewed Bumblebee's registration and insurance and I have 1 year of accident free driving on record. *pats myself*. I wanted to make it fine-free too, but that failed when I got one parking fine early this year . Seriously governments earn back all costs of roadside cameras and electricity for traffic lights just by collecting fines from idiot drivers, and probably make a huge profit margin too!

Sadly, we cant install hi-tec cameras in our country. There are plenty of people with brains that tell them to go steal such a sophisticated piece of equipment, just for the heck of it! So for now, it is good old-fashioned police uncles standing behind bushes with radar guns - the type with "erasable" memory" (meaning ones that can be erased with a small fee) :P.

The other day a colleague of mine asked me for walnuts from my nuts/ protein store at work (yes, I keep nuts at my desk). In return for those, she told me that I can take cigarettes from her pack ANY time I wanted. She KNOWS I don't smoke. Weird woman.

Recently while dad was visiting, I asked him if he wanted perfume when we were all dressed and ready to go out. He said, "Everyone around me wears enough perfume, I don't need any!". Today, I realised how true that is. I felt suffocated in the morning when 5 different people, cramped in one vehicle, wore 5 different perfumes!

Whaddaya know! This girl can actually sing! Wow, what an awesome sized bed :O