In Motion

Durham weather is capital C-r-a-z-y. Just last weekend, there was a snowpocalypse that had us snowed in for a good 4 days, and then a mere two days after that, the temperature went up to 16 degrees Celsius. Today it's a beautiful day out, with temperatures as high as 22 degrees Celsius. It's like LATE SPRING/EARLY SUMMER weather in January. Not that I'm complaining, no sirree, I'm not. =P Tomorrow it's going to plunge back to 7 degrees Celsius so I'd better make the most of today. Gonna air out the apartment, let Jasmine run around a little more, maybe persuade JW to come home early so that we can have a nice long walk before the sun goes down. I love warm days (in winter). This winter hasn't been too bad. I feel like our current apartment is more humid that our previous apartments, so my eczema is practically non-existent (as long as I moisturize faithfully). I've also slowly built up my winter collection of woolly, warm knitwear and sweaters, so ...

Ok, so not many of you know that I like Pokemon. That's fine, considering that I usually stay away from video games of all types, mainly because I don't like getting addicted committed to things. It's no biggie, just another facet of my control issues. =P However, I really like Pokemon and this started way back when I was a kid and Pokemon was showing on TV right after piano lessons. I recently started playing Pokemon FireRed because everyone was playing Pokemon GO and it made me miss Pokemon battling. Yesterday, I managed to beat the Elite Four and Gary on my first try without even - in JW's words - "training seriously", so I have to conclude that I just have an eye for for picking a great attacking team. I guess I have innate talent when it comes to Pokemon training, if nothing else. =P And yes, I go for fast, overpowered, kill-in-one-strike kind of Pokemon. Defensive moves aren't for me, because oftentimes whoever strikes first makes or breaks the ba...

Bright, cheery sunshine certainly makes everything else in the world seem brighter and cheerier. On that note, it's mid December and the weather has been surprisingly pleasant - think 24 degrees Celsius last week, and right now it's still pretty warm (for December, that is). Checked the weather forecast for Christmas, and it's going to be 21 degrees Celsius! Every Malaysian's dream come true! =D And to think that just a month ago, it hit -1 degree Celsius. Uncanny, eh? Apparently the South fluctuates pretty unpredictably when it comes to the weather. Warm winters aren't all that uncommon, and I'm hoping this one stays warm for a longer time. It'd be a wonderful Christmas gift to have Malaysian-like weather instead of the bitter, dry cold. =D On another note, Jia Wern and I finally went to the library to get our library cards made! I wonder why I never thought of this earlier. Perhaps it's because e-books are cheap here and can be auto-delivered in...

I know you're dying to see pictures of our new place. Or maybe I'm just projecting. =P But here they are anyways! The living room. The study/extra table for miscellaneous junk in the corner of the living room. The 'end table' there which also doubles as a bookshelf is a converted laptop table. Close up of the coffee table. Some flowers to make you happy! Now, I'm a self-confessed really bad photographer, and I don't have the patience (nor the aptitude) to edit photos to perfection. So what you're seeing is truly "no filter", "not that tidy" and I even left out the dining table because it was cluttered haha. As you can tell, the place is so spacious that I can't really get everything into one shot. That was just the prettiest part of the apartment, and I haven't even shown you the dining area, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom yet. Granted, I'm pretty sure no one's really interested in the bathroom (or maybe th...

Baking is exciting. It's exciting because whatever you throw in the oven usually looks and smells nothing like the final product, so quoting Ariel, "It's like magic". It's also the very nature of its unpredictability that makes it so frustrating sometimes. I doubt anyone enjoys wasting ingredients (2 cups of flour, hey!) on a failed baking endeavour which may have been caused by forgetting an ingredient, improper mixing, over-beating, not knowing what the jargon means (folding? What's that ?), and various other factors (*cough* the lack of a state-of-the-art oven *cough*). So here I present to you the pros and cons of taking up baking as a hobby: Pros : 1. It's exciting. Magic is exciting. The smell of baked goods is exciting. And you never know what's gonna come out of the oven. 2. It's fun. There's something fun about measuring two cups of this, one tablespoon of that, three teaspoons of this, and two eggs into a huge bowl and s...