Sunday, January 23, 2022

A strange blob

I was sweeping up some leaves (a ton! -_- ) on the porch when I noticed something strange among them... 

What is it?

There was a smaller piece nearby.

I usually wait till the end of the week before posting my Photo Friday pic, so that I can choose the best fit for the theme from any ideas or opportunities that might arise throughout the whole week. But this is so strange that I think I won't find anything better. (or even if I do, I would still want to post this!)

Saturday, January 22, 2022

Catching 'em all

So Darlie has this promo where you get a free mug or bowl when you buy a box of two tubes of toothpaste.

Needless to say, I was tempted to “catch ‘em all”.

And guess what...


They’re all here! (well, almost…)

I first managed to get the Charmander mug from Giant. I bought two boxes, wanting both the Pikachu and Charmander mugs (there was not a bowl to be seen at Giant!), but when I got to the free gift counter, I was told that there were no Pikachu left. :'(

Luckily, they allowed me to return the second box of toothpaste (they didn’t refund me, but I got to exchange it with other products)

Here's what's on the other side of the Charmander mug:

And on the bottom:

It looks like the only time I buy Darlie is when they give me mugs…I still have the previous box I bought, when I got a Hello Kitty mug!

Like I said, I only managed to get a Charmander mug from Giant. So where did the Pikachu mug and Eevee bowl come from?

When I went to Sunshine, I decided to check at the free gift counter whether they had any of the mugs or bowls left, and in what designs. There was only one Pikachu left! I asked the lady at the counter whether she could keep it for me, and she said no (as expected). She said that I could go in and buy the toothpaste immediately.

I hesitated for a while, because I didn’t want to be extra-disappointed if I went and bought the toothpaste immediately and then have someone else take the Pikachu away before I reached the counter… But then I decided to just go for it. So I bought one of each (there are different kinds of toothpaste for the mug and the bowl), paid for them immediately, and went to the counter to claim my gifts.

And so here they are! This is the design on the other side.

During my first visit to the counter, I had also checked that they had Eevee available. (There were only two or three left, I think) When the lady took out the Eevee bowl for me, she remarked, “There’s a Pikachu on the other side as well.” She also mentioned that a number of people also came to the free gift counter to check the availability of the gifts first. (everyone wanting to catch the one they want :P )

So the only one missing from the collection is the Squirtle bowl… sorry Squirtle, but I really can’t afford to buy any more Darlie. However, I have a lovely 3D Squirtle to complete my collection. :P

(I caught a glimpse of the other side of the Squirtle bowl as the lady at the counter was moving things around…I think it had Charmander and Squirtle on it, with the Charmander having a similar pose as the one with Bulbasaur.)

A delicate situation

When you have only one pair of walking shoes left, and they look like this:

(Yes, I'm already looking for another pair...)

Before the whole Covid thing started, I had three pairs of shoes, which I was interchanging. During Covid, I definitely wore them less...though I did try to wear them once in a while, even if it meant only wearing them to the market or to buy groceries.

But I guess that may not have been enough. They didn't immediately break apart when I started wearing them again for longer periods of time, but gradually two of them broke apart (as in, a sole separated from the shoe) So now I am left with this one...which looks to be approaching the same fate. :(

The thing is, on those two pairs of shoes that fell apart, each one broke on a different shoe (one was the left, the other was the right). Now what if I were to wear the remaining (lonely) ones with each other? :P Problem is, the shoes look extremely different; one is bright pink while the other is a light green...I wonder whether I can pull off this new fashion. :P 

Psst...last week's photo theme was delicate!

Friday, January 14, 2022

Memories...or lack of

This week's photo theme was memories.

I found the perfect pages in the my SABS yearbook and INSA graduation book ("Souvenirs" in French means "memories" in English).

Not all the memories are mine though... and I'm sorry to say that I can't even remember some of these people!

And I had forgotten all about it...but my name doesn't even figure on the page, although I'm supposedly mentioned twice, because they misspelled it both times! -_-

Saturday, January 08, 2022

Those "good" players

This post has been brewing for a long time.

If you are a “good” badminton player, please do not go getting all the shots you can reach without caring whether your partner can get them or not! If you want to disregard your partner, just go and play singles…

Being a lousy player in my group, I can’t count the number of times (or the number of people who have done so) my partner has taken a shot that I could clearly have taken, and which I was clearly supposed to take. (there are some basic rules about who should take which kind of shot in doubles, I may be lousy but I did learn the theory) Some even stay right in the middle of the court, playing every shot except those where they would have to physically push me aside to play. (thankfully huh! *eyeroll*)

If you are so “good”, please just take your own shots and the shots that your partner cannot get, instead of leaving your lousy partner to take the shots that you cannot get!

One of the worst ways this has happened was when I was taking a shot at the net (hmm, not even sure whether I’ve written about it before; my annoyance was at its peak, and even thinking of it now, it makes me annoyed again!), and my partner dashed up from behind and suddenly hit the shot right before I was going to. My racquet was already there, there was no way I was not going to reach it in time! And since my partner was coming from behind me, he could clearly see that I had reached the shot. I, on the other hand, didn’t even know he was coming for the shot, and would have never dreamed that someone would do such a thing! (if I can’t get there in time, then I would understand that he might want to try taking the shot…but I was already there, he should have stopped and left it to me!)

Anyway, today I was triggered to finally write this because someone played practically all my shots (my forehand, his backhand), and was standing practically in the middle of the court. After leaving a number of shots to him, even after telling him that some were “mine”, there was one forehand shot that I refused to let go off even though I saw him coming for it (his backhand). Racquets clashed. -_- Luckily, not too hard because we were both at a comfortable distance to get it, and I believe we both slowed down because we saw the other, just that he probably expected me to cede to him again! I refuse! -_- At the expense of a light clash, unfortunately :( But at least, after that he backed off a bit, probably to save his racquet.

Wednesday, January 05, 2022

Stories from last year

Years back, someone told me that OTL was the image of someone down on their hands and knees. So it was with amusement that I noticed a truck with a stylized OTL written on it, presumably the initials of the company!

An online search found me the name of the company: Overland Total Logistics.

And here's the logo:

With a bit of imagination, you can really see the person on hands and knees, with head down.

On the same day, during lunchtime, I had a laugh when I noticed that the hand wash provided in the office pantry was called "enchanted romance". I guess they really really REALLY want employees to reconnect after working from home for so long! :P

Monday, January 03, 2022

Best of 2021

As usual, Photo Friday gives a year end theme that runs for two weeks: Best of 2021.

Since 2021 is already over, I don't think that I can get another photo representative of the theme, so here goes: The best of 2021 is probably having every Covid self test turn out negative.

We have to take the test every week if we are going into the office (earlier it was every two weeks). Each time I take the test, there is a slight apprehension of "What if two lines show up?' (even though I'm feeling perfectly fine).

Anyway, here's to continuously having this kind of results!

Sunday, January 02, 2022

Expectation vs reality

The other day I ordered a pesto pork meatball dish from Coffeeric. Grab had the usual 50% off deal, and this dish cost RM25, just the amount to get the discount.

After selecting the dish, I found that it actually came with a drink. The only drinks without a surcharge were americano and tea (earl grey, I believe), so I selected the tea.

But then I realized that Coffeeric was having a discount, which took RM5 off the bill. Well, that's nice...but after the discount, I couldn't use Grab's 50% off any more, since the total was now less than RM25.

So back to the drinks selection, I looked for something at around RM5. Just nice, there was dark chocolate at exactly RM5.

Which is why I ended up with a pesto pork meatball Moroccan-inspired couscous set, with a dark chocolate drink.

I was surprised when the dish came in two containers, separately wrapped with cling wrap. I guess that since Coffeeric is really just a coffee shop, all these meals are simply packed in advance.

It is a far cry from the picture in the menu! :P

All in all, the taste was not bad. There were almond flakes on the couscous, unlike the kuaci in the menu photo, but I'm not complaining since almonds are better!

At the beginning, I felt that the couscous lacked sauce (since the sauce was only on the meatballs, and it was really thick, not something that you can "pour" over the couscous), but after eating, I realized that the amount of sauce was actually just right. The couscous itself wasn't dry, so it didn't need that much sauce. The meatballs were good too, though I didn't taste much pesto in them.

As for the salad, they really delivered...it really had the flakes (whatever it was..I couldn't tell what even after eating it) on top of it. It was just slightly difficult to take out each salad leaf on its own...they seemed all intertwined together! But maybe we're supposed to take out the whole clump and plate it with our couscous and meatballs, on another (bigger) plate. :P

The dark chocolate, on the other hand, had cooled to the point where it was only just warm. So I reheated it in the microwave. The taste was thick enough, so it was not bad either.

As you may have noticed, I keep saying "not bad"...so the food was all right but it wasn't amazing either! :P