What a Whopper!!

Look what we have here! A Burger King Double Whopper Meal!! What a change to my usual dietary habits eh! Lol! Aye, I had a sudden urge for 'last junk food meal' of 2009 as I don't plan to have anymore fast food in 2010.

But even though I had this meal, I was careful not to go "full out" and go for a soda. Instead I had a hot tea, because I did not want to solidify the fats and oils with a cold drink. Haha!

I had this meal with Ming at the Buchanan Galleries food court. The place was busy as it was lunchtime for all those post-Christmas bargain hunters. I had forgotten how good a fast food burger tastes like actually. I had thought of going to McDonald's for my 'last junk food meal', but then Cat reminded me of the fries in Burger King. Yes, those King fries which are different from McDonald's or KFC fries in that they have a crispier skin which keeps them hotter as well. So I went for the Double Whopper as that has more meat. Yum!! =9

Last week I looked through the videos I had uploade on Facebook in the past year and came across this one taken from McDonald's in May. Yes, fun can be had at fastfood joints. Haha! Maybe I'll have another Whopper one day! Haha!


(Video was recorded in Cantonese, May 2009)

(6180)

Last day off work

Had a day off work today, in place of the Boxing Day which fell on a Saturday this year, so the public holiday got pushed to the next available working day - today =)

Spent most of the day with Matt my driving instructor friend who showed me around the training areas for Shieldhall test centre, Paisley test centre and parts of Anniesland test centre. We covered a lot of ground and there are lots to take in, so I will need to sleep over it and let it all sink in. After which I will need to go back and visit certain areas as I prepare myself for taking on three more pupils in January. Challenging yet exciting times ahead =) I am thankful to God for Matt's kindness in offering up his time to help me and show me around (for nothing in return!) when he could be spending time with his family at home.

After we finished up I went to the gym and attended my first Body Combat class. This is the third class I've attended in Greens and I'd have to say it was not very challenging compared to Body Attack (tired me for four days!) and Body Pump (almost killed me as I had done a weights workout beforehand). This class I expected something similar perhaps, and so I only did some warm up stretches before going in. I was the only guy in the class!! Haha! So I went over to talk to Angela who has been in each class I've been to so far. She's hardcore man! Almost attends every classes every day! Been a gym member for three years she says. Anyway, it was better to train next to someone I knew rather than feel like a lamb to the slaughter! Haha! The 45mins wasn't very tough and before I knew it we were stretching off and I headed in for a shower and came home for lovely dinner. More turkey and rice!! More protein and carbs!! Yummy ah!!

I am working a full day tomorrow, as a favour for my team, to cover David's annual leave. After work I will go to my first spinning class (fast cycling on stationary bikes in a studio). The receptionist whom I spoke to last week said she tried it once and couldn't sit down for two days!! Lol! That intense meh? Haha! I hope not la! But at least it'll be a great cardio workout and the following two days I will focus on weights training only. I really need to bulk up man. An auntie from church told me yesterday that I looked slimmer; that my face looks thinner but that it was good-looking. I thanked her for her compliment but told her I'd rather bulk up. Haha! It's true! That's the second Sunday that someone in church said I looked thinner. I don't want to look fat, but I want to be more muscular. I don't want to look srawney and weak. I want to look powerful and strong and look like A MAN!! Haha! =D

Boyakasha!!

(6148)

Boxing Day!!

As the above picture shows, I went to the Next Sale at 7am this morning. It was my fourth Boxing Day visit and was Alfred's third visit in four years. It has become somewhat of a tradition that we go to the Next Sale, but this year Aaron and Charlotte were not out with us. Me and Alfred drove from the east and the west of Glasgow and parked at Buchanan Bus Station whilst we shopped for a little over an hour. Bumped into Epon as well. The early bird catches the worm they say. And I managed to grab a few bargains :) After we got our stuff Alfred and I went to Costa for a drink and a wee chat. Cheers for the creme brulee latte, bro! :)

Parted with Alfred and I went home to unpack my shopping and had some lunch. It was whilst trying on the stuff I discovered two things: one of the zippers I bought in medium was a bit tight around my shoulders, and the zipper I bought still had the electronic tag on!! Haha! No wonder we still beeped when we left Boots! However, I don't remember beeping on the way in though! Weird!! Anyway, I definitely had to get the tag removed lest I'd set off all security alarms each time I go into shops. Lol!

After lunch I drove back out to Buchanan Galleries. This time through the snow and managed to return my medium zipper, got the electronic tag removed and guess what? Whilst in Next I ended up seeing and liking another three items so ended up getting them too, which brought my total tally to ten items. I then went to the Springburn driving test centre and drove around the surrounding areas taking in the different roads in the area that I might be teaching in one day soon. Last Wednesday a colleague from the office asked me to take her for driving lessons starting the last week of January so that's another pupil count. Just hoping the weather will have improved by then =)

I took a half hour nap before I put the turkey in the oven for tonight's dinner. Within two hours I was eating again! Haha! Oh yeah, immediately after I got up from my nap I actually had a bowl of cereal. Felt peckish but didn't want to snack, so cereal was the healthiest option :) And for the rest of the night, well I had planned to do some reading, but for the third night in a row my hands didn't even pick up the book. In fact, my eyes didn't even look at the cover! Haha! So... unproductive in that sense, but at least productive points of the day were the ten items I got from Next and also allowed mum to watch more episodes of "Still Game" on dvd and I played some online games on Kongregate. I like puzzle games. =)

Time for bed real soon. My throat is still sore and whilst typing this my left nostril is blocked and to just breathe through the right nostril is really painful. Does anybody else get that? And yeah, I have now gotten myself more hot water after my honey lemon finished. When will I be back to full health? =S

Click on the Next Sale picture to see more pictures added on to my Christmas pictures on Facebook :)

(6098)

It's Christmas!!! =D

Merry Christmas to all my readers out there! Whether local, national or international I hope you all had a joyous time in this blessed occasion and remembered our Lord Jesus Christ =) And Jesus, Happy Birthday to You =)

So this morning I woke up at 10:30am. Quite late compared to usual as I slept pretty late last night as I stayed up setting my computer back up to the way it was: installing programs and also getting used to Firefox as well. So far so good. And I have 66GB free out of my 100GB hard drive. Yeah, 100GB is not much nowadays, but is enough for me to carry out my necessary duties. If I need anymore space I will always have my Western Digital 1Terabyte hard drive. Not very convenient as it is powered by mains, but at least it has all my movies, Chinese dramas, pictures and music. And I have millions and millions of space left to backup anything else I want :)

Although there was no snowfall today, the snow from previous days was still around and this was the whitest Christmas I have seen in many years. Haha! I opened my presents at midday today. Was an exciting time for me. Hahaha! Wanna see what happened? Here's the recording I made of this "special moment". The main focus was not just on opening presents, as that would be quite sad, but in fact it was it gave me a chance to make recordings using both my usual Canon IXUS 860 camera and my new Logitech C250 webcam which I bought two weeks ago. I had always wondered what it would be like to do video editing from two different angles, and this morning I was in a position to try it out. So there was my chance to be director and editor for myself! Lol! Here goes...



Editing of the video took just over an hour. It's not easy, but is certainly fun. Though I can see flaws in it, I think I've learnt lots from doing this short ten mins clip. Role on camera three!! Haha! Soon time came for me to prepare dinner. The turkey went into the oven first and whilst that cooked I went on the PS3 and downloaded some more game demos to try out and also made a call to Hong Kong as well. Then Cat came home and opened her presents. She was also quite chuffed with the presents she received this year as well. Both from her Secret Santa and also from other friends. Dinner was served just before 6pm and by then I was sooo hungry!! =D

We thoroughly enjoyed dinner and after that we sat down to watch a movie from Youtube. It was an old Cantonese movie called "聖誕快樂" (literally translated to 'Merry Christmas'). Haha! The film was a 1984 comedy had a B-listed cast but provided lots of laughs. Haha!

Both mum and Cat are preparing for bed now as they both have to work at 8am tomorrow. Whereas I, I plan to be at the Next Sale for 7am sharp tomorrow, which means my alarm will be set for 6:15am so I will have time for breakfast and prepare myself to go out and get a good parking space close by Buchanan Galleries before I join the early birds in the queue. Ok, I better go now and make up a shopping list for tomorrow. Already have in mind roughly what to get. Might have to do a few shoulder tackles to fight the competition away. Lol!

I leave you with some pictures that I've taken over Christmas thus far. Will update as the next few days come along. God bless!



(6056)

One day till Christmas!!

It's Christmas Eve today! Just twenty mins to go till we arrive at Christmas morning. All children should be in bed. Some might leave out milk and cookies for Santa's arrival when he drops presents. Me... it is 11:45pm and I am still awake. I am waiting to catch a glimpse of Santa. Hahaha! Lol! That would have been me when I was seven or something. Haha! In actual fact, I don't think I've believed in Santa very much in my life. Maybe because my parents were Chinese and never really talked about Santa stuff. It's quite a 'gwailo' thing. Haha!! Therefore I have never believe in Santa and I have never believed in the tooth fairy as well. When a tooth came off: throw it in the bin! Don't keep it under the pillow! It'll rot! Hahaha!!

Anyway, this year's Christmas Eve was very very cold! The bed for some strange reason felt extraordinarily comfortable! And I accredited the extra 20 mins of lying in bed to being tired from the gym. But when I stepped out my room, my goodness, I could feel the chill in the air!! Must have been my body's system wanting to avoid the coldness. Once I got outside the streets were partially covered with overnight snow but everything was frozen!! I took a few pictures of how icy everything was. It wasn't until I checked my trip computer whilst defrosting the windscreen that I discovered the air temperature was -6C!! My goodness! That is the lowest temperature I remember experiencing in Glasgow!! Ever!! =O Driving was not too tough as the snow had melted from the busy roads. But once I got to park on the tighter streets, extra care had to be taken especially when stopping on a slight downhill and then watching my clutch when reversing back. There were only two of us in from our team today. Myself and Eileen. The shift seemed to drag on as everyone was looking to finish for Christmas. Finally 1pm arrived and I was freeee!! Popped into BP garage in hope of getting a carwash, but guess what? The carwash had been frozen in!! Lol!! Ah well, I drove my dirty car home. =P

Had lunch at home, watched some tv and went online. Played this game on Kongregate. Game was controlling traffic lights at busy junctions and letting cars go through without causing any accidents. That took up like over an hour of my time! Haha! Had hoped to do some reading as well. It wasn't long before Cat came home from work and prepared dinner. By then it was soo cold in the house that I turned the heater on full and I had to wear my longjohns too! Haha! The double layer of protection came in useful when I went to pick mum up from work at 7pm. Mum's not feeling well you see. She has developed a bad cough and blocked nose, but still struggles to work. I think I get the tough fighter genes from her. =) Anyway, got mum home, then she had dinner. Mum brought home with her gifts from her colleague who gave her authentic Spanish nougats from his hometown, and also a Christmas card from another manager. The card had two five-pound M&S vouchers in it to our surprise. Praise God for the various gifts and surprises she has received from colleagues and customers alike this Christmas and throughout the year =)

For the rest of the evening I decided to watch "Still Game" Christmas specials with mum. Whilst watching that I reformatted my laptop. It is something I do on a yearly basis, where I backup all my useful files and then refresh the whole system which frees up all the "lost" gigabytes of spaces and helps make the system run incredibly faster, resembling how it were when I first bought it. Hehe! Since I use my laptop for admin and accounts for my driving instruction business, it is vitally important I don't let my computer get bogged down with junk that I don't need. Subsequently, whilst reformatting I have now installed and began to use Firefox as my web browser. Have heard so many positive gains of using this over Internet Explorer. So I will take time to get used to this new browser as well as retrieving my previous settings. :)

So there you have it! That is how I spent my Christmas Eve! At work then at home. No other plans for tomorrow except maybe watch more tv with mum, having a simple lunch, then prep dinner for the evening time. Won't stay up that late as I will have a very early wake for another annual event - the Next Sale!! =D

p.s. Thanks for the hamster's message asking for today's blogpost. A nice surprise to find somebody literally following my blogs :)

p.p.s. My health... about 80% full health now. Can even sing! Haha!

(6026)

Two days till Christmas!!

Today was dubbed at the busiest shopping day of the year as was the last full day that shoppers could use to go out there and get all their presents for Christmas. Tomorrow will be Christmas Eve and many places will close early. Transport services will curtail early evening as well, even the 24-hour services like Tesco will prepare for closure on Christmas Day. Christmas is indeed a very big holiday. The whole world celebrates it. No - I take that back. The whole world acknowledges it. Christmas Day is when families traditionally gather round together. When sons and daughters who live abroad return to their parents. When distant relatives whom you have not seen for years get invited over for dinner and you pull crackers together, cut turkey, tell jokes, drink wine, update each other with what's happening, drink more wine. Haha! Is Christmas just about family gatherings and presents? Nah! Honestly, the name Christmas says it all: "CHRIST-mas". Jesus Christ is what it should mainly about. As Christians, we remind ourselves and others of the real reason we treat this occasion with such importance - that it is to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ who came down to Earth as a human baby, who then grew up to be a Holy man and spent His life telling as many people as He could about God's love for man and how to follow God with your heart, your soul and your mind. In the end, He himself became the ultimate sacrifice made to God and that provided man a channel to reach to God without making animal sacrifices or burning stuff at the alter. Jesus' resurrection from the dead provides us the Easter celebration - which is the greatest story a true believing Christian could use to testify how great and awesome and powerful Jesus is :) For those who have yet to know Jesus, Christmas is just a holiday. In America instead of calling is Christmas they commonly wish each other "Happy holidays". How sad. They don't even want to call it Christmas!

Oh another thing. Christmas... is also commonly abbreviated as "xmas", on text messages, on Christmas cards, on slogans, whatever. But why use "xmas" and not Christmas? Maybe it's just shorthand some might say. Save some space on text messages. As a Christian, I would choose to use the full word Christmas instead of "xmas" following the masses. I think the name of Christ is very powerful. The name of Christ can heal. The name of Christ should not be hidden.

Tiredness is kicking in now at 11:46pm. More tired than usual because I was at Body Pump class today after my own workout. Made the class extra tough. In any case, I was very thankful today that the weather was not as bad as yesterday. In fact, I did not see any snowfall today and the snow left on the ground has started to melt and clear away, which is great. It might, or might not be a white Christmas. But one thing is for sure, as a driver, I don't view heavy snowfall as "beautiful" as those who do not drive. The amount of trouble is causes drivers and the deterioration in driving conditions are hazardous. But in any case, snow is from God and I am thankful I have witnessed snow in this country as many countries around the world can only dream of seeing or touching the snowflakes. =)

(6010)

Three days till Christmas!!

Meant to be in bed now, but I got sucked into checking my Facebook and responding to the comments and photo tags in the past half hour. Lol! Must pull myself away as I jot down what I have done today...which is hee-haw! Haha!

I had work between 08:45am and 12:30pm. The shift felt longer than usual. Maybe was because I was hungry by 10:45am and didn't bring anything to eat, nor did I want to spend £1.30 on a simple sandwich from the vending machine. Nah... not worth it. So I just kept drinking my Redbush plain tea, and actually I had a chicken soup from the vending machine. Just something else to tide me over. That was free. Hot drinks from that machine are always free :) Anyway, home time came and I drove home, carefully through the ice, snow and slush, and popped into the local Subway to get a Sub of the Day: Meatball Marina on Italian Herb and Cheese. Had it toasted with peppered cheese and some salad. Felt so nice to eat something warm as soon as I got in the house rather than the usual of having to prep lunch and heat up water etc once I got in. The sandwich lasted three minutes at most and after that I made myself another wee sandwich and two slices of fruit loaf for dessert, a mug of tea with honey in place of sugar. I sat down at the computer and lo and behold Ming was on Skype! We had our first pc-pc webchat!! It was soo cool! I was just thinking to myself yesterday how I might have wasted money buying a Logitech C250 webcam only to put it in the drawer as nobody is online for a webchat. But today I was so happy to use my webcam. Ming told me the picture and audio quality was very good too. Great! Good investment then :)

I had hoped to have got some reading done, perhaps Roadcraft: The Essential Police Driver's Handbook, but ended up webchatting for over an hour then stayed online for a bit after Ming left. The weather turned really cold and dark as the heavy snowfall gathered, but I wanted to go to the gym for Core Stability and Abs classes as well as my own workout. I left the house just before 5pm but traffic was choc-a-bloc in all directions due to adverse weather. Instead of going to the gym I took another turn and went over to Buchanan Bus Station to pick up my mum and sister who finished work, but might have been otherwise stranded along with the hundreds of commuters trying to get home through public transport. The journey towards the bus station felt like agess, but at least I was warm and I was more concerned for the two girls who were waiting for me, so I had to keep them updated with my whereabouts throughout. Going back home wasn't too bad and we managed to find a parking space right outside the house, so at least tomorrow when I use the car I won't have to ice skate very far to reach it. Haha!

Once I got home I decided to just stay in. No point in making the trek back out to the gym now, especially since I would have missed the class by the time I fight through all the traffic. So I had dinner at home - Sliced beef in Mandarin sauce with white rice. Yes, due "adverse conditions" so mum could rest once she got in from work and from the icy weather, we had Chinese takeaway! Hahaha! So my last Chinese takeaway of 2009 happened tonight! Memorable? Lol! I dunno... I really wanted to go to the gym tonight, but hey I think being the "hero" and "rescuing" my family was more important. Definitely. :)

I shall go tomorrow then! Yes, come rain or shine, hail or sleet, I will travel out to Greens Gym at Finnieston just before 5pm, actually maybe even earlier depending on weather conditions, might arrive at 6pm. I will do my own workout then go to Abs class at 7:45pm then Body Pump at 8:15pm. Booyakasha! Then, no gym till the 28th at the earliest!

The gym opens on Sunday 27th, but I will be going to watch "Sherlock Holmes" after church that Sunday. Aiming for 6pm showing that day :D

Goodnight y'all!

(5991)

Four days till Christmas!!

Not long back from the 24-Hour Tesco at St Rollox. The place was surprisingly quiet for only being four days before Christmas. The last time I went for Christmas dinner shopping the place was jam-packed and we found ourselves among the sea of people searching turkey, duck or roast beef dinners; anything we could get our hands on so we could eat on Christmas Day. However, this year the stock was aplenty. I went in with an empty trolley, left with a 'Family Turkey Breast and Thigh Joint', a packet of Schwartz luxury bread sauce and two packets of Quakers Oats So Simple porridge oats. The last two items are not dinner related as they are my normal breakfasts. Lol! So, Christmas dinner is sorted for another year. So far we know Cat will be at work on Christmas day but will finish around 4pm. Lunch will be just me and mum having something simple for lunch, then in the afternoon I'll start prepping dinner for three of us. Not sure if Cat would be able to stomach all the eating as she is expecting a luxurious Christmas breakfast and Christmas late lunch in her workplace. Haha!

Anyway, as mentioned in my previous post I worked 8:45am-10:30am this morning. The two hours just flew by very quickly. I packed up and headed home with a list of "to-do" items which included: taking stuff to the Salvation Army, a call to check on delivery status of my exercise mat (that early Christmas present I mentioned on Facebook which is STILL not here yet!), a call to check on delivery status of the new kitchen extractor fan and of course, to hoover the house and of course to have lunch. Lunch was a simple sandwich and a tea. Salvation Army was a quick ten minute round trip. The house is much cleaner after a good hoover. My exercise mat is confirmed to arrive on Wednesday! (fingers crossed!!) and DHL delivered the extractor fan around 2:20pm! Great! Time to get working!

I stayed in the rest of the afternoon putting the extractor fan together: read and re-read the instructions and tried putting parts together etc. This extractor fan unit did not come with an electrical cable to plug in for power, so I thought I'd remove the old one cable and re-wire it into the new unit. Sounded simple enough right? It wasn't until I removed the old unit and checked out the power connection that I realised the old cable only had two wires through it: live and neutral (blue and brown respectively). However, the new unit required a connection of the earthwire (yellow and green). After making enquiries with friends and technical experts I decided to go buy new cable from B&Q. So I went down to get 3-core flex 5m and came home to wire up the unit and wired up my own plug as well. That was my first time wiring a plug from scratch, not only that, at the same time I wired up an extractor fan!! Praise God for giving me eyes to read, good hand-eye co-ordination and of course, Google! Haha! =D After almost four hours, which included a trip down to B&Q during rush hour, I managed to install the fan onto the window, throw away the old one, tidied up AND started to cook rice for dinner. Once mum came home from work she was well impressed with it all. I am the man of the house and we cannot expect the women to do all these sorts of labour work. I found and contacted the Expelair company, queried then ordered the fan then fitted it. I thank God for helping me through it though it all. Even the fitting was not easy, cos the window was so high up and it's one which folds towards you and I had stand on my kitchen unit to fit it and make sure the back part did not come loose and fly away! Lol! Anyway, it's all over now and we can finally get some ventilation in the kitchen without opening the window and letting in the icy cold air! Haha! =D

I was hoping to go to Body Pump today at 6:30pm, but by the time I finished with the fan there was no way I could have made it, so just decided to stay home for dinner and then go to the gym in the next couple of days. So I think tomorrow I will go to Core Stability at 6:30pm then Abs at 7:15pm. Yeah, I'll probably do some workout for an hour or so before the classes then focus on the core. What about Wednesday? I should finish 12:30pm and then come home to receive my exercise mat from DPD =) Since the gym closes early the next day on Christmas Eve I'll go to the gym on Wednesday as well: Abs at 7:45pm then Body Pump at 8:15pm. That'll be my last visit until the 28th of something. Haha!

Oh yeah, my sore throat. Yes, still sore. Actually the pain comes and goes. However, my voice, I would say it is about 70% better. At least my workmates this morning could understand me, albeit giving me sympathy, telling me I should be in bed. I told then I had a even worse weekend and this is considered "better" now. My nose has started to block up now and again as well. Grrr!! Ok, I'm gonna finish off my honey lemon then get ready for bed. Goodnight!

(5966)

Five days till Christmas!!

What a day! Woke up in the morning feeling more energetic than yesterday morning, but when I went to speak it as hoarse again! Sigh!! Coughed a few times, had a protein shake, then my usual morning porridge oats to warm my throat up. Did ironing and shredding confidential paper. Showered and shaved before lunch then packed up my Secret Santa present before going to church. Didn't really talk to people much today because voice was so rough and sounded horrible. But few people jokingly told me it sounded "sexy", "deep" and "husky". Lol! Thanks!

First thing before I sat down in EM a Sunday School kid from middle class came up to me and gave me a Christmas card! That was very sweet of him. He is a well-behaved kid in class as well and he is already showing respect to his elders. Lol! He has potential! :) At the end of EM I was given my Christmas present from Secret Santa. A nice Santa bag with three presents inside and a Christmas card! =D I was envied by a few people. =) I now know who the person is as she wrote her name on the card. Hehe! Thank you KT!! I haven't opened the presents yet, but I will be so excited come Christmas Day! =D

Went to Henry's birthday dinner at Di Maggio's restaurant. The place was busy busy with mostly Christmas dinners. But we were celebrating the Twentieth birthday of our wee friend. Henry seemed delighted with all who attended the dinner, showing him love and support and he was definitely surprised when the TWO birthday cakes came out after we had our main course! =D It was good to see Henry enjoying himself so much and I hope everyone else at the dinner did too =)

Once I got home my throat got really "cold" and dry. My voice was husky-ing again and breathing really pained my nostrils for some reason. Like my sinus area. I had to quickly make honey lemon and starting sipping away at it. Phew!! Helped a lot! Time is now 11:39pm and I am finishing off this post with a refill of hot water into my massive Starbucks mug. Will look through today's pictures and decide which ones to put on Facebook then get to bed. Work 8:45am - 10:30am tomorrow... yes, finishing two hours early as the office gives Christmas half-day off, and bring part time that gives me 2hrs! Not bad eh! I'll just go in, hopefully voice will be much better, sit and work for two hours and then offskis back home! Lol!

Goodnight everyone and God bless!

(5944)

Six days till Christmas!!

Had a bad night of sleep last night. Felt very hot and flustered at various times through the night. Throat was dry, nose was blocked. It was horrible. Each time I turned I felt my tired muscles ache from the Body Attack class, which was fine cos those muscle aches are "good" aches and is my body responding to the "attack" it was under. However, each time I turned I was aware that my inhaling through my throat gave a funny noise, like there was phlegm there, and swallowing got harder as well. Sigh...

Got up before my alarm went off and after my morning pee it was confirmed that I was sick!! Couldn't even say good morning to my mum without having to clear my throat a few times. And even then the effort to say Good Morning came out feeble and rough. Argh!! Really dislike it when that happens! I've not fallen this sick for a few years now. Back then the GP would diagnose me as having "a virus" and that it would clear after a few days and that antibiotics would not help much. I think it used to be roughly every winter I used it get this virus, but the past three to four years I've been fine, praise God. =) This year, well, not this year then.

I had to make a call to Boon just after 9am to tell him the bad news, that I was unwell, could not sing but could play the guitar still. Boon told me to rest and that they'd sort something out. That was a tough call I made. I felt so bad for letting Boon down. Cos last night I was still hoping I'd be well enough today to attending worship practice and serve God. But sitting out this time would be the better thing to do as viral infections are infectious and I wouldn't want to pass it on to anybody else.

So... a day of being stuck at home. I got so bored I thought I'd keep a note of how I would spend a whole Saturday at home. Haha!

0840hrs - had one bowl of porridge oats with banana. This warmed my throat a bit for the phone call at...

0902hrs - called Boon to let him know the bad news.

0928hrs - logged on computer to do some admin for driving instruction, drank hot water, again to help warm my throat up.

1150hrs - after spending some time rolled up bed checking out Facebook and texting I decided it was time for lunch. Had tea with honey in place of sugar, spicy falafel wrap, veggie sushi and two fruit slices. Felt better after food. Felt warmer too. :)

1400hrs - Made big mug of honey lemon (mum came back from ASDA with two big lemons for me!!) and I was so bored of daytime Saturday tv that I decided to watch "Twilight" from Megavideo website. Throughout the film I had a few top ups of hot water into my huge Starbucks mug. I did dumbbell curls whilst watching the movie. Haha!

1740hrs - got really hungry and had dinner once Cat got home from work. Whoo-hoo! Had two bowls of rice and also had a mango to finish it off.

1930hrs - watched "X-Men 3: The Last Stand" on blu-ray. Wanted to watch this blu-ray version since May when I had some guys over to watch the first two instalments but we ran out of time for the third one. The film was good and once again I enjoyed it having watched it once at the cinema years ago.

Now it's almost 2200hrs. I have put on the "Laughing Gor" movie for mum to watch. I can see she is dozing off a little though. That can happen at times. Whenever I see her eyelids close I just give off a whistle and she stirs and watches a little more, before the eyelids droop again. This can go on for a wee while before either mum or I decide yes it's time to shut it off and go to bed. Lol! It's still early right now though and I have not thought of bed time yet. However, since I am sick I should try to get more sleep.

Tomorrow, I REALLY hope I can be well enough for church. Will need to settle the New Year Retreat stuff on it's closing date, as well as bring Secret Santa present in to EM, collect my Secret Santa present and then later attend Henry's birthday dinner. Really hope I can go. Will need to sleep soon after my shower.

Goodnight folks!

(5928)

Seven days till Christmas!!

Wow!! Christmas is exactly a week away! It is 10:30pm right now. I wonder what I'll be doing this time next week? I wonder how I'll be feeling?

Right now I still feel ill. A tad bit worse than yesterday. Yesterday my throat was a little sore when swallowing. Today I feel my throat has clammed up even more making swallowing even harder. Strepsils have not helped much, unfortunately. My nose is blocking up a bit too. (Currently inhaling is mainly done through the right nostril! How annoying!!) Feeling a bit cold as well. Yep, I know the great outdoors is freezing right now, and is forecasted to be around -5C to -7C in certain parts of Central Scotland - great! =O

Well today after work I came home and had lunch. Took my time with it today as I did not have a driving lesson in the afternoon. In fact, I made my own fried rice! Have not done that for a long while! Whilst having lunch I watched a video that was recommended to me, on Youtube. I shall share the link with you all. Watch it if you have a spare six minutes. Believe me, it'll be worth it. Without spoiling it for those who have not watched it: what I saw really touched me, especially towards the end. One word: Sacrifice! It made me recall how great a sacrifice He made for me, how he took all bad things upon Himself, so that I can be "born again". Yet so many times I fail to remember that and find myself "taking on" more bad stuff, more evil stuff. That only hurts Him and that brings sadness to me.



In the afternoon I went back to Greens gym. First visit since signing up on Tuesday. I got myself a black velcro wristband instead of the green one. As black represents anytime access, whereas the green was for off-peak only. I warmed up on the rowing machine, stretched off, tried the Power Plate, then did some weights before attending my very first Body Attack class. The class was not busy today, I think twelve people max including the instructor, and I was the freshman among them all. I felt everyone was so fast at the start, but I managed to keep up and gradually got coordinated with the steps ok. It was very very tiring and I only managed to follow around 80% of the whole thing. As the hour-mark approached I was sweating like a pig! Big pig!! Felt a relief it was over and was told I done quite well for this being my first time. =) After that I decided to go down to the jucuzzi, sauna and steam room and spent about half an hour in relaxation. I am very pleased with the overall facilities, the space and the cleanliness of Greens Gym and I am glad I signed up. I have four "One Week Trial" offers to give anybody who would like to try this gym out for a week - no obligation! Let me know alright? =)

Anyway, I had hoped sweating it out in Body Attack and in the sauna and steam room would help me get better soon. Maybe it will...maybe it won't. We'll find out in due course I guess. For now I have started coughing infrequently. =S Worship practice tomorrow at 10am!! Oh dear...

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Eight days till Christmas!!

Gonna be a short blogpost tonight. Got a bit of a sore throat developing today. Woke up feeling a little groggy, kind of blocked up, but not too bad. Just initial signs of falling ill. So the antidote for that is plenty of fluids and plenty of sleep. Ok, it's gonna be a short blogpost tonight.

So today, went to work after a day off yesterday. The shift went by quite quickly. I was looking forward to the clock reaching 12:30pm because I had plans to go watch"Avatar 3D" at 1pm. Had not been to a lunchtime movie for ages. Even the occasional Saturday cinema visits are in the afternoon after the gym etc. Still had to queue for about ten mins or so because it was "Avatar 3D" official opening day so was busier than usual. The film was quite good, albeit a bit long. 3D film... not very 3D again like what you might get at an IMAX 3D feature. But still enjoyable. However, I was surprised there was still a charge of £1.30 to watch the movie. I thought bringing my own 3D specs would have made it much cheaper, or better yet, free!! Anyway, I think that's the only 3D film I'll watch in Cineworld for a while now. Not very worth it, not 3D enough. Haha!

Felt blessed today as well. Blessed is he who is given Strepsils when he has a sore throat. Blessed is he who is given a Christmas card and present. =) Blessed is he who returns home from frosty cold weather to have a warm fillet steak dinner! =)

Logging off here. Will check out my Facebook pages and then get ready for bed. Night y'all!

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Nine days till Christmas!!

Those of you who follow my Facebook status might have read that I won a watch at the office Christmas night out last Friday. The Christmas night out took place last Friday at Hilton Grosvenor but I did not attend. I went to the gym instead after giving a driving lesson. We were all informed there would be a prize draw for all members of staff regardless of attendance, but I had not expected anything out of it at all.

Monday morning I was congratulated for winning a watch!! Haha! At first I was not sure what sort of watch it was. However, I did hear that there were other prizes like £300 worth of holiday vouchers, a Playstation 3, £40 Marks & Spencer vouchers etc and the lowest of the prizes were £10 vouchers. So my watch was listed around the top eight in value order. I was pretty surprised to see it was a Ben Sherman's watch when Fiona from the social committee dropped it off at my desk this morning. I am wearing it as I type this blog post. Just wanted to try it on. Haha! =P

This is totally God's blessing for me. Not luck, not chance, but God's grace. Grace is when we do nothing, yet God gives us something. Each and everyday we are surrounded by His grace and it is sufficient for us to live in. Just like we discussed over dinner tonight with two friends - we are indeed very fortunate to be where we are today. Each of us warmly clothed, sitting in a Chinese restaurant consuming Chinese food, drinking Chinese tea, having a laugh, sharing a good time. There are many people who are homeless, many who may die from the freezing cold weather. We might complain we are poor sometimes, but in fact, we actually live in abundance with what "little" we have. We should appreciate each and every thing we possess. We should learn to accredit it all to God above. Nothing we have here is ours, but is blessed by God. Even this watch! :)

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Ten days till Christmas!!

Wow!! Been a very busy few days for me leading up to Christmas this year. It's not that bad, really, but I just feel I run out of time to do stuff so quickly!

So what has been happening? Been so busy with working part-time at the HR job, finishing 12:30pm each weekday. Then I give driving tuition usually from 2pm. Tonight I had a driving lesson at 7pm-8pm!! This morning I changed my gym. I finally decided to make a move and leave Glasgow University Gym, Stevenson Building, for Greens Gym at Finnieston. Sure, the monthly fee is a lot higher than the Uni gym charged, but for the extra £11.15 a month I get access to free parking anytime I attend the gym. I get better opening hours that does not run according to term time. I get access to many more machines, weights and equipment which means I won't have to queue to wait for my turn. Cleaner lockers and showering facilities and also poolside jacuzzi spas!! Ooooh!! Have never been in one before! Might have a shot before trying the hot tub in the English Ministry New Year retreat! =D (P.s. did I mention, by me joining Greens now, I don't have to pay any monthly fees until 1st Feb! Almost two months free use of a gym!!)

Yesterday I went Christmas shopping after work. Went to get a present for the person I drew out of the Secret Santa hat. No - he is not my Secret Santa, as my Secret Santa is the person who picked my name. Dunno why, but there is always confusion when people ask, "Who is your secret santa?" and the answer usually given is the name of your "target person" whom you're buying for. Nah, get it right people! You're Secret Santa is the person buying you the present! You shouldn't know who it is, or else...where is the fun in that?! Lol! Anyway, I hope the person who I bought the present for likes the thing I bought :)

I also went to get birthday present and birthday card for next Sunday's birthday dinner at Di Maggio's for Henry Woo's birthday. He'll be 20 and he is pretty excited about having his first birthday dinner in about five years. Hope it'll be a gooood one for him! Di Maggio's will be mobbed with Christmas dinner patrons, but hopefully our birthday celebrations will crowd out the Christmas dinner people, especially when we sing Happy Birthday to Henry!! Haha!!

Yeah, so lots of birthday presents to get, dinners to attend. Kerry's 21st birthday dinner was on Sunday, twenty-four of us went to celebrate with her at Duck Bay Marina restaurant in Loch Lomond. The drive through the fog wasn't easy, but the celebration made it worthwhile. Kerry was happy and appreciated everyone's presence :)

So plans for tomorrow... Work till 12:30pm. Driving lesson 2pm-4pm. Out to town for a while. Dinner and catch up with friends at China Blue 7:30pm till roughly 10pm I think? Then home to snoooze, I hope!

Thursday... Work till 12:30pm. "Avatar 3D" right after work perhaps? The movie is about three hours long inclusive of trailers. After the movie I'll probably do some reading in Starbucks again. Or maybe just a library instead, which opens till 8pm on a Thursday. Will try to save my pennies now as all this going out, socialising and shopping is damaging my numbers. Lol!

Friday... Work till 12:30pm. Driving lesson 1:30pm-3:30pm. Gym at 4pm, hoping to attend Body Attack class at 5:30pm for an hour, then might jump into jacuzzi for a wind-down! :D

Saturday and Sunday will be busy too. I'm expecting worship practice on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday I'll be playing guitar for Boon in EM for the EM Christmas Carol service. The Sunday School kids will join us too, so it'll be extra busy and we hope it'll be very entertaining. After church - collect all remaining New Year retreat camp fees from people! Then there's Henry's birthday dinner at Di Maggio's, booked for 6pm!! Oooh!! What will I wear? =O

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Three weeks till Christmas!!

I find it hard to believe that there are only three weeks left till Christmas, well twenty days to be precise. Where has the time gone?? It's almost time to look back at the previous year and count upon all the blessings that God has given me. The up's and the down's, the good and the bad. I won't have time to review everything tonight as it is 7:40pm on a Saturday night and tonight I want to spend time sorting stuff out with my notepad and arranging the publications and magazines and re-organising my life basically.

So much has been happening since my last post on the 28th of November. In fact, that "Lanty David" actually contacted me through Google Talk whilst I was at work. It came through on my phone and "he" (I actually thought it was a she from the xxxxxxx left at the end of the emails) persisted in asking if I was interested in going ahead with the deal (re. "Beware the launderers!" post). I told him I didn't want a bankers draft, but would much rather a personal cheque or payment through Paypal. He said he didn't have those alternatives. I told him that there was a lot of money involved and that I did not feel comfortable with it considering all the news about money laundering. The result - he went silent. And never chatted back!! Lol!

So...back to square one. The car is still parked on the street not from my house. The new tax disc came though - £82.50 bought me vehicle duty until 31 May 2010. So basically I have taxed my vehicle for nothing but simply to put it on a UK road. It's unfortunate I do not have my own driveway or an off-road carpark, otherwise I would declare my vehicle SORN (Statutory Off Road Notification) for 12 months and save myself some money. My Autotrader advert runs out this Monday (7th December) and I don't think I'll renew it. Has caused me more problems than I anticipated - funny phone calls, weird emails etc. Just crazy and more hassle than it's worth. Autotrader advert was £35!! Paid that and it has bought me nothing! No progress whatsoever!

Ah well, at least the driving tuition business is going well. So far so good. Enjoying myself and it seems my pupils are having a good time too. Took on my fourth pupil this morning. Not a complete learner. He is experienced in manual and automatic transmissions. Initially had thought it would take a while to teach the clutch, but surprisingly he did quite well, especially in finding the biting point and we didn't stall once! :) After the lesson I went to Tesco, grabbed breakfast oats and some lunch. Then went to church meeting after that and came home around 6pm. It's time to unwind, since it's a Saturday night. But no. I have stuff to do. Must get on with it.

Tomorrow... gonna wash the car, take mum Chinese shopping, go to church, go to the gym, then chill ooot! Finally! =D

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