C is for cookie, that's good enough for me

chomps Cookie Monster. Yes, Chinese New Year is but tomorrow (29 January) and for the past one month I have been slaving away in my kitchen practically every night baking cookies. Since I hold a full time job from 9-5 and work 5 1/2 days per week, week-days will see me baking from 8pm-12am right after dinner.

The three types of cookies that I bake are: London almond chocolate cookies, pineapple tarts and almond crisps. Why do I need a month to bake? I can't bake fast enough compared with the rate my kids consume them. lol I am not complaining though as I just love to bake.

To all my Chinese friends, "Gong Xi Fa Cai". May the Year of the Dog bring you Good Health, Good Luck and Prosperity.

To Von: Thanks for your concern. I'm having a break for 5 days for the Chinese New Year and thus will be able to give my ankle a rest.

Category: [cooking]

R.I.C.E.

is what my doctor prescribed for me. No, its not those grains loaded with carbo but to the uninitiated it means:

R : rest
I : ice (to be applied to the affected area to minimise the swelling)
C : compression (use an ankle guard to prevent the accumulation of edema)
E : elevation (elevate the ankle to help remove edema)

for my ankle sprain. Looks like its only a partial tear of the ligaments as I do not see any bruising except for a wee bit near my toes. What worried me were the two lumps that appeared immediately after my fall. Luckily they subsided with the ice compresses that I have been applying every 3-hourly.

I don't need this when Chinese New Year is only five days away. I am so furious with myself as I should have been more careful going down the last flight of stairs at my work place to clock out yesterday. Instead, I was looking through the bag of ornaments and wondering how best to dress up those wicker baskets of mandarins I have at home that I lost my footing. Didn't look dignified when I was sprawled at the bottom of the stairs. Picked myself up since no one was around and hobbled to my car for the drive home. Yeah, my threshold of pain is high so I managed to drive an hour home. Went to see a doctor on the insistence of DH and was given 2 days MC. The doctor told me that it will take longer to heal as I'm no more 17 (the cheek of him). Always one to defy orders, I had been in to the office for an hour today and shall be in again tomorrow for at least half the day.

Category: [ramblings]

ems January 2005 International Round Robin (Part III)

I was toggling between stitching our national flower, the Bunga Raya (or Hibiscus in English), and the orchid as Heather from Australia had chosen as her theme: "flowers native to your area". While both flowers are found in abundance here in Malaysia and that I grow orchids at home, I'd finally settled on the Hibiscus as its more representative of our country.

The design for this was extracted from "Hummingbird Delight" by Dimensions. I love how this square turned out as the flowers have been rendered so realistically due to the floss colours called for. It was a joy stitching this square due partly to it being a beautiful piece and partly to it being the last square of this year-long RR.

Short of posting this square off to Heather and waiting for mine to come back, this comes to the close of the above RR. I'm going to hang on to this square a couple of days longer as parting is such sweet sorrow!



Category: [cross-stitch]