Went running this morning, 5miles to the flag and back. Seeing that it was free slurpee day (7/11 and all), I ran to the 7-eleven and got this tiny cup of slurpee. I mean, tiny.

Watched the world cup final on tv. Very scrappy game, I was getting bored and not wanting to sit through the extra time. I wanted holland to win but am fine with Spain winning, they were the better team.

Took the bus down to navy pier. Parents are so familiar with the buses, better than me lol. Walked to the end, sat there for a bit, then had dinner at bubba gump. I take everyone there, and usually it’s well received. We ordered crab legs and assorted shrimps. Papa and I had margaritas. It started raining mid-way through dinner and by the time we got home it got heavy. They had a small umbrella between them, I had to be content with running very fast home.

I don’t have my wits with me. Most of me is still in orlando. sigh. Ran 5 miles after work, it helped a bit.

When I opened my eyes this morning it was 7.02am. ARGH! I had a 8am conference call and should have woken 1 hour earlier. I got ready, but had to spend 10mins finishing paris on mw. Still, wouldn’t have made it. So I drove in. Half an hour. So why don’t I drive to work everyday? Because it costs 3 times as much as taking the “L”, and even though it was fast going in, it was a solid block of traffic on lake shore drive going home.

Went to a birthday gathering with the family. One adult and 3 children whose birthdays were close together, so celebrating together. Lots of food — italian beef, meatballs, sausage, pasta, potato salad, regular salad, big cake.

I spent most of the time after eating playing with some of the kids. Mostly a 2-year old, who decided I was her personal toy for the day. So cute. She was one of the birthday kids and got tons of presents. The only one she was interested in was a pair of simple shiny butterfly sandals. I was sitting on the bottom steps of the stairs, she ran into my arms and we played at taking her sandals off and putting them back on. It was exhausting. But fun.

Back to doing the usual stuff — running, cooking, laundry. Running was horrible. I did 8k and just couldn’t get a rhythm. The outsides of both feet hurt. Left knee threatened to give out a couple of times. Whole left leg was stiff. It’s only been a week, I can’t believe how out of practice I got, it’s not like it’s the first time I’ve had a week off running. Hmm. May be it’s too much eating. All those fry-up breakfasts at the hotel surely didn’t help.

Got 4 chicken leg quarters from edgewater produce yesterday, at 45cents a pound. Total cost $1.70. Incredible value. Chopped them up into 8 pieces, took out the skin and roasted with thyme and cumin. There is a difference when cooking with herbs and spices, I must remember that.

Watched another dvd, then settled to an evening of reality tv. TAR final was satisfying and celebrity apprentice wasn’t as boring as usual.

I took today off, it wasn’t practical to get home so late and go straight to work the next day. Supermarket, vacuum, make lunch for the rest of the week, the day went by really quickly.

Links to pics for the trip: shunde | hong kong general | eating out start here

 

Lunch at city hall with ubs people. Then an afternoon of errands. Long overdue haircut, massage, last minute shopping.

Dinner with SC and AK. Jap food, naturally. Highlight was fresh sashimi from the fish, then the bones were made into soup. Nice.

It’s a long weekend this week, Monday is Martin Luther King Day. Plans, plans, plans.

I want to go skiing. Yes, there is skiing around Chicago. The nearest is four lakes at Lisle, only 35mins drive away. Okay, it’s not Flumserberg, more like a man-made hill, but it’s so near that it’s worth checking out.

I want to make braised turkey legs, another winter stew that sounds tasty and is economical. I also want to do some baking. Either a repeat of the chocolate quinoa cake I made a couple of weeks ago, or blueberry muffins.

I want to go get some quinoa to bring back to my parents and sis. Coincidentally I read that cb2 at lincoln will be closing, although they are keeping their North Ave shop. It’s decided then, gonna hit Trader Joe’s.

I shovelled the back and the front of the house before I left this morning. And all around my car, it was all surrounded by snow and ice. Driving was okay, visibility wasn’t too good and other drivers were driving way too fast for the conditions. When I got home I had to shovel the snow out of my parking space. Then for good measure I shovelled and salted the back so there’s a path from the back door to my car; and then i did the same for the front so I won’t slip tomorrow. No wonder I don’t feel like playing on the wii fit or doing strength training tonight.

I’d planned to go running on the treadmill at work today, my colleague and I were hosting a 3pm meeting and I thought I’d go afterwards. Needless to say the meeting overran, and then we were debriefing, and then I had to take care of some emails. I had planned on cooking tonight so there wasn’t time to go on the treadmill. At least I have the stuff in my office now, may be I’ll try tomorrow. It looks like snow over the weekend so the prospect of going outside is slim. Sigh.

My car was full coming home. In the boot were: the printer, wii fit, bags of grocery including carrots, celery, onion, potato, mushroom, spinach, cherry tomatoes, apples, lemons, quince, chicken thigh, oxtail, ham, liver sausage, canned tomato, wine, guinness, container upon container of leftover thanksgiving food, turkey bones, my puma bag and backpack. I don’t have a large boot, so the puma bag had to go in the backseat. I feel so privileged, every time I visit, I come home and I need to make 3-4 trips upstairs.

I’m taking tomorrow off. First because my kitchen table and chairs are being delivered. And secondly because I have too many days’ annual leave left over. I’m pretty certain I won’t lose them, because we’re good at enforcing rules for every department except our own, but still. So it’s nice to have a long weekend to look forward to. No plans beyond: assembling said kitchen table, watching dvds, running, going to the supermarket and making chicken stock.

We came home to some sombre and devastating news, but it’s not my place to post about it. I don’t quite know how to deal with it myself, yet.

I finally got home home mid-afternoon. Unpacked, did laundry, sorted photos, went outside to buy milk, made lunch for tomorrow, that’s really been the rest of my Sunday. I’m fighting off the cough that I must have picked up in Ptown — between Chef, DK, Jo all being sick, the wind, and not much sleep last night, it’s not a surprise.

My pics are all sorted and uploaded, but I will need to mooch some off other people to complete the set. Here’s the flickr set.

Not looking forward to work tomorrow. It’s gonna be a tough week.

I left work early today to drive down to the dealership to get my radio installed. Finally. When I bought the car they couldn’t find the faceplate but for some silly reason they could only order the whole unit and that had to be replaced. Ah well, whatever, as long as I get some form of radio.

Then Car and I went to Walmart to buy sweets and stuff for our trip. While I was at it, I bought laundry stuff and shampoo and heavy stuff.

On the way home it started pissing with rain. Some people were still driving like maniacs, sigh. There’s recent talk about banning texting while driving, oh man these laws can’t come soon enough for me.

Spent the day running around in one place. Very excited but very tired. More news tomorrow.

It took me 2 hours to get home. Then I had to dump my stuff immediately and trek to the supermarket to get stuff I couldn’t get a Costco — milk, juice, fruit & veg.

I know I say it doesn’t matter, but I really would like a car soon.

It’s been a beautiful weekend, just the right temperature and the sun coming out both days. But I have a cough, and it’s been one of those weekends when I stayed indoors all the time. Went running twice on the treadmill, that’s about it. Reading, facebooking, just doing nothing much.

It’s been one of those weekends.

 

no spa today, but equally great. mm and i took the common ferry to the small fishing village on the other side. It’s quite a touristy area and famous for its seafood. You buy the seafood from a specialised shop then bring it to a restaurant to cook. mm treated me to a real treat — geoduck sashimi, a great steamed fish, steamed clams and cockles. The restaurant’s name was Happiness, and it was a happy meal.

We walked around the village a little, hitting a local temple and life buoys on fences that were marked decoration only. Stopped for a tea, then our walk was cut short when it started raining.

Resting back home, then went out to the wet market to get frog. Yes, frog. mm is so good at cooking that. Simply cooked with mushroom, and we both love frog. I even took a video of the legs and portions twitching when salt was added. A bit surreal and not for the squeamish, so I’ve put it behind the cut.

I couldn’t sleep last night. My throat was burning like hell and I was feeling miserable. We have a massage booked at 11am, but I decided I really needed to see the doctor. So mm, bless her, got ready quickly and took me there. Throat infection, 4 types of medicine and 1 bottle of cough syrup. 3 days’ worth of drugs, let’s see.

The massage was at L’Occitane spa, i had a deep tissue massage, a complimentary relaxing back massage and a facial. Niiiice.

Lunch at our Japanese “canteen” cos we were in the same area as work.

Still feeling miserable so we went home for a much needed nap. Heh, I headed straight for bed as soon as we got home and didn’t wake up till the alarm.

I had dinner plans with my parents. If it were anyone else I would have cancelled but I did not want to stand my parents up. I enjoyed the meal, glad I made the effort. Back early, so plenty of time to rest. I thought about going running, but decided against it cos of sickliness. There’s a tinge of guilt but it’s probably for the best.

  

I woke up early, and was playing around in fb when mm woke up. Discussed a little where we’d go for lunch, and decided at a nice Jap place. I had a fantastic chirashi, she had a sashimi set, we also ordered a mixed tempura to share.

Took one of the long distance buses into the countryside. Walked around the markets and shops. Had some skewers at a street food place and dessert at the famous B’s dessert place.

The bus back stopped at the bus terminal near our foot massage place, so we took advantage of the location. 2 parts later, our feet are much better. And after a late meal of steamed crab and roast goose, we were truly satisfied.