Counting steps

May 13, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I count steps now. Before, I just used to walk. I like walking. More than running or cycling. One foot in front of the other, without too much thought. Now, I’m a little more deliberate. I try to hit or surpass 10,100 steps. A target set by my Samsung mobile health app. Why 10, 100? I have […]

Premium chocolate

May 6, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I can quite easily tell apart good chocolate from the mediocre and less nice ones. But I have real trouble differentiating good chocolate that I usually buy from supermarkets and sometimes speciality shops from the luxury, super-duper premium brands. As ‘they’ say, the proof is in the pudding. I’ve had some eye-wateringly priced ‘pudding’ from […]

Bad chocolate

April 29, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I’m not a chocolate snob or connoisseur. My chocolates don’t have to come from the finest hand-picked cocoa beans from somewhere along the equator. They don’t have to be single origin, bean-to-bar or artisanal. Hmm… I only just learnt these terms. I’m more of a chocolate monster. I chomp at all things chocolate. I’m happy […]

Being older

April 15, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

My mum will be 91 this year. Every so often, she tells me she wants to go to her Tata or grandfather’s house. It’s a story she has created in her head. Part imagination and part memories. My mum’s Tata story has grown manifold since she first started talking about it when she became unwell […]

Not speaking up

April 8, 2024.Reading time 7 minutes.

I wrote about speaking up a couple of weeks ago. I still think I should when necessary. And, should have, in those two instances, when I didn’t. That said, there are situations when it’s better not to rush to speak up or say what’s really on my mind. The audience/people whom I speak to/with is a […]

Birthday month

April 1, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

March was my birthday month. Yes, every day was a celebration except for 1st March. That was sister number 2’s birthday. I let her have that day.😊 My idea of celebration almost always involves desserts of some form or other. Chocolates, cakes, ice-cream, and chocolate-coated biscuits. The thing is I eat them all-year round. There […]

Speaking up

March 25, 2024.Reading time 7 minutes.

I wanted a little more pressure applied to the soles of my feet. I deliberated. I contemplated. I then asked my masseuse to up the pressure from medium to a little hard. I was hesitant, yes. But only because I didn’t know where the sweet spot was. The fine balance between medium and a little […]

More sunny discoveries

March 18, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

My search for a sun shirt shone more light on sun protection than I had expected. There’s so much useful information about sunscreens, solar Ultra-Violet Index (UVI), and sun-related diseases that I wished I had bothered to read or researched much earlier instead of assuming I knew enough. I was smug. Why? I use sunscreen. […]

Sunny discovery

March 11, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I finally managed to buy a long sleeve Ultraviolet/UV hoodie. Not quite a sun shirt, which was what I was looking for as my outer layer sun protection. Strangely, most shops that sell sports and outdoor products don’t seem to stock them in sunny Malaysia. Anyways, my online search for sun shirts was a learning […]

Dogs and cats

March 4, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

Niece number 3’s stories about her pet-children, Coco the dog and Zupa the cat, made me smile and go awww. My husband also smiled when I related the antics of these two animal species that are not usually friends or friendly. I especially liked the photo of Zupa waiting for Coco to return to the dog-and-cat […]