Dental Dilemma by non
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Take good care of your teeth. If not, making it good again when you are an adult will cost you an arm and a leg (somewhat). In Malaysia at least.

I don't know why one of my gigi geraham decided to go rotten. It just did. It was not like I was some kampung girl with no toothbrush and toothpaste to clense my teeth with (not that kampung girls thesedays are lacking in hygiene items).

It isn't just one. Bad things comes in pairs (kind of like sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga thing). I've managed to have a dentist pull one out. It wasn't called "cabut gigi", it was an MOS = Minor Oral Surgery. Which sounds scary. Rightfully so. It was then that I found, you probably have to work out and have some muscles to be a dentist. At least arm work-outs. The dentist had to anchor her (yep, a she dentist who was half my size) foot onto the base of the dentist chair, hold on to these awful pinchers with both hands, and used all her might to pull out a stubborn rotten geraham (I can be such a lazy bum to find what gigi geraham is in English....even the lights in my head is a bit dim). All this was done while I was heavily nipped with some strong numbing pain killer thing.

I think the dentist chucked my tooth in a dustbin. I'd forgotten to ask for it. Then again, would I even want a rotten tooth as a souvenir.

So there I was, my face half distorted, with a tingling sensation running through what felt like a clay of a face. I was fully warned beforehand that when the pain killer wears off, I would be experiencing some sort of pain. The way she said it was like I'd be under waves and waves of pain and I had to consume pain killers on time.

I waited until 10 pm for this wave of pain to overwhelm me. The wave never arrive.

So how much damage did the whole thing cause to my pocket? About RM500. And the company only have an RM300 subsidy per year for dental care. Which means, for the rest of the year, all dental cost will be under my own facility. Great. I have another tooth that needs to be taken care off.

What I've learnt : make full use of dental floss. Once a month just doesn't cut it.

Things aren't always peachy by non
9th Jul 2008 @ 9:41 pm - Subscribe

Ever since the big boss got promoted elsewhere, and the replacement guy yet to move in, things have not been the same.

Physically, everything is the same. But there is some emotional attachment to the previous leader that almost borders fanatical worship to put it mildly.

That sounded wrong.

What I am trying to say is that, we had good leadership. Had. After all, he was the one who started the company and all. Many even joined because of their trust in his capabilities and vision.

We just need person to steer the ship again.

Things are a wee bit sombre around here. I hate hearing people saying that they feel things are getting mundane and they might even be thinking of shifting place. Worse off is when it is someone my group is close to.

Cupcake by non
13th Jul 2008 @ 5:37 pm - Subscribe



And that, was my first attempt at making cupcakes. I have had this sudden impulse to go on a cupcake baking spree. Since last Monday.

I can't quite put my finger on what triggered this insanely expensive trials and error type of kitchen mayhem. I have been oogling lots at cupcakes and whatnots, but I haven't really been contemplating on making any. Cake-making have always been a no-no zone for me as I have this stigma of cakes being too ruled to cook with. By rule, I mean too many constraint.

I'm still right about rules and steps, but I found some rules and steps can be easy. And there are always room for adjustments to my lazy approach.

Now that I think about it, it must have been the time where I went to the bakery shop with my friends, to show them the shop. I ended up taking one thing after another off the shelves, and when I saw the rigid cupcakes cup, I of course made up my mind I would make some.

The little ones (not so little anymore) love them. Ibu was mighty skeptical about the buttercream frosting, but I forced her to try one, and she had to grudgingly admit it was palatable even for her dislike of icings of any sorts. Ayah stayed away from the frosted ones.

I made more batches afterwards. Testing out chocolate ones. Let me just tell you this, chocolate (or double chocolate) cupcakes are just divine. So much so that I forgot to take pictures of them! I made a batch for Ell's Birthday. Too bad there was not much. The Peight loved it of course (whats new).

Just finished another batch earlier on. Missed my weekly dose of CSI for that. It was a batch of four by the way. My feet began to ache after a while. Standing for far too long have not been favourable for me. I really must shave off these kilos. Don't tell me the cupcakes aren't helping. I hardly ever eat any of them (maybe one or two at the most). But by baking them, and frosting them, it gives me a sense of calmness and also a sense of accomplishment seeing them all neatly and prettily lined up for consumption. Plus, I love seeing happy faces with a smidgen of frosting on the corner of people's mouth. A joy.

Oh ye, despite many telling me I could start a business with this, I don't think I have the dedication (yet) to pursue anything like this. I am also not business minded enough, my mind thinks like a customer too much which render me helpless in marking up cost. Heh. At any rate, I'll probably take minor small orders once in a while. Or at the very least, I can always bake for people's birthdays right?

Getaway by non
15th Jul 2008 @ 12:26 am - Subscribe

We're planning our Lngkawi getaway. The three glue girl (well, that is what Ayme calls us). Maybe because we're seen together a lot of the time.

The plane tickets are all booked and confirmed. The room is booked and confirmed. Even the car rental is sorted out. There is still a matter of planning our activities. It is just a 3 day stint, but then Lngkawi is just a small island, you could cover it in half a day in a car.

I got my nikon40 back, so that will be the main tool I'd lug about over there. I doubt that I would be bringing much. In fact, it is times like these I sort of envy skimpy clothed people. Not for the skin baring part, but for the fact that they don't have to pack such big bags to bring so many clothes. Just for that fact. If I had some gadget that could magically make clothes smaller when packing and resize it again when I need it, I would think I'd have the most terrific invention ever known to man. Que for memories of that "Honey I Shrunk The Kid" movie.

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Cupcake updates.

I have managed to make my cupcakes in a more or less orderly fashion. First being the test batch. That turned out pretty well. Then came the cost effective batch. Not so bad, the quality was preserved somewhat, but I had a rough idea on what cost what and how I should levy the cost of ingredients throughout the baking period (of other batches). The final batches were basically quality control testing. Happy to say, they all turned out well.

So I'm a happy camper alright.

I just need to take a breather for my cake-allocation-account to fill up again. Investing in baking things is not a cheap hobby.

Eating dilemma by non
17th Jul 2008 @ 9:03 am - Subscribe

Every day, we gluegirls have this huge dilemma.

"Where to eat for lunch."

Now, I have no idea why we can't eat at the same place everyday, but we just don't. Maybe it stemmed from the fact that nearest restaurant was one that forced us to boycott it due to its unbelievably high priced food.

This one time, I had a scoop of rice, one slice of telur dadar and a spoon of spinach and a cup of hot tea. That was calculated at RM4. Shocker. I had somehow lost the slip of price these restauranteers like to give customers upon counting what they have upon their plate. So when I went to pay, I was asked to repeat what I had ordered, and the bossy lady at the counter punched a couple of keys on the calculator, and said "RM4.20". Tsk. I didn't even take a livestock form of food on the plate. We avoid the place like a plague.

Still, it is annoying to approach 1pm, and still not know where to eat. And if we chose not to eat at that horribly expensive place, we would have to take the car and drive a good ten or twenty minutes away for some good food.

And yet, figuring where to eat every day is still a task I absolutely detest. There are even times when we would get into the car and still ask "Nak makan mana ek?"

A couple of days ago, L jokingly blurted out the idea of writing names of restaurants and eateries on strips of paper, and fold it into a big container. And every day, one folded paper is to be pulled and that would be the place where we'd eat.

Brainy.

We have yet to do that. But it is an idea to be greatly considered.

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On a different note, my application have been approved! Yayness.