0 Turning Japanese

Woo hoo! Admist the business, I still managed to get in a lip-smacking meal. Tamari dumplings (steamed) from Real Food Grocer, plump with no less than 10 ingredients including carrots, mushrooms, bean curd, French beans and chestnuts. The crunchiness of the filling contrasted nicely against the silky smooth skin (for once, no thick, clumpy dumpling skins!), and each mouthful was a joy of savouriness. I'm so glad they opened an outlet at Novena. 4 dumplings downed, I continued with a California salmon roll from Cold Storage, and another tobiko gunkan sushi (the rice was compressed till almost cake form), home-double-boiled herbal black chicken soup, one giant Driscoli strawbby and half a Fuyu persimmon. Gosh, I feel like a piggy after typing all these, but my tumms is filled and happy!

My japalang nut butter (mainly peanut, almonds, flax, sesame) is getting better by the day, as it releases its oils. It has a really strong flaxy flavour that paired well with the sesame-pumpkin-flax powder (double flax power!). I had this with Earnest's Mayan blend this morning, and a plum on the side.

Lunch was whipped up in a jiffy. Wheat noodles, teriyaki mackerel, lettuce and rocket, cherry tomatoes, and mashed avocado, tossed all together in a little of the leftover pasta water, topped with broad bean paste and some random seaweed shreds from a long time ago. So umami. A whole Washington Red apple on the side

I most probably bombed my sodium intake today with the Japanese theme. To more low sodium meals the next few days.

First of four presentations tomorrow - systematic reviews for Drugs & Clinical Trials module. And I havent even prepared my script. Which I shall do so NOW

0 Full blown

Every step I took today was a chore. At each twist of a sarcomere, each stretch of a muscle, C-fibers were relentless in sending out impulses to the CNS. Nevertheless, protocols and procedures meant that I still had to return to lab. Obviously I wasn't very productive today, with movements seemingly carried out in rewind mode. I was down with full-blown flu sympmtoms, from high fever, to chills, aching bones, dry cough and heavy chest. It's still raging.

Today's breakfast was a new creation: raw oats+chia (Rude's Health The Oatmeal)and raw buckwheat groats soaked separately overnight (oats soaked in skimmed goat's milk and buckwheat in water) in 50-50 ratio. In the morning, I rinsed the buckwheat well to get rid of the slime (lab experience tells me that you'd need a good 5-6 rinses to clean it completely). The oats were still gritty so I microwaved the mix after addition of cinnamon, vanilla extract and protein powder. Then I combined the oats and buckwheat groats, added chopped Ambrosia apple and topped with a medley of nuts, raisins and tahini. I think the 50-50 oat/buckwheat ratio strikes the perfect balance between bitterness and earthiness (buckwheat) and creaminess (oats). Lurrve Ambrosias! Tomorrow I'll probably be having oats again - best cure for viral flu

0 All the good eats in a [klutz] day

Breakfast - banana cinnamon oat-muffin-bagel porridge topped with Justin's chocolate almond butter, a chunk of Theo & Philo green mango and sea salt dark chocolate and cocoa mole hot chocolate sauce made with Delamere's skimmed goat's milk, and a scattering of pomegranate seeds. Lunch - Italian salad leaves, roasted vine-ripened cherry tomatoes and uber-ripe mushy avocado slices, purple potatoes & carrots roasted in avocado oil, seasoned with black pepper, cumin, paprika and dill, two whites-one-yolk creamy scrambled eggs, crumbled goats cheese, and half an Ambrosia apple afterwards. Dinner - lup cheong, shitake shroom and scallion soy sauce fried rice, sea bass, slow cooker chicken wolfberry herbal soup with si shen powder, papaya slices.

On the other hand, something was wrong with me today. 1. Spilled gooey egg whites all over the kitchen counter when I cracked the egg (NOT fun cleaning up). 2. Splashed egg mixture onto stove top when stirring the eggs in the non-stick pan. 3. Prepared my secondary antibody mixture wrongly three times before I got it correct. 4. This included fixing the dissected brains in the secondary antibody mix instead of fixing buffer! 5. Almost incubated the in situ brain samples with a secondary antibody mix with mouse Cy3 (red is Tyramide Cy3!) 6. spilled rice all over the floor when scooping rice for dinner.

I believe He was trying to impart a message about having quiet quality time today. The topic in Our Daily Bread today was "Time Out," a reminder to take time out and pray in the midst of hard work. Incidentally Luke 10 (I'm still through Luke 10) also talks about Jesus' teaching on Prayer.

So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

0 Managing difficult essays

From 3562 to 2111 (-1451). My essay is now a lot more trim and healthy, but still a [not so] long way more to go. Minus 611 more to 1500!

I'm so loving Back to Nature Apple and Blueberry granola! So appley in smell and taste!

Also, so egg-cited for Cam's and the Angkor culture!

And today was a free day in that I did not need to spend 1.5 h travelling to and from school!

0 Tale of two

Delirious, I tell you. I strategically placed half of a Justin's Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Cup on a bed on steaming hot Sweet Tentation pear steel cutters, then poured the remaining layer of oats over it. You get the idea - choc + heat = melted puddle of choc. But it's not just any chocolate puddle, it's a chocolate puddle encasing an inner puddle of salt-kissed peanut butter, sitting like a golden orb in the center of a bowl of oatmeal. Finally reaching that layer is tantamount to striking gold! That sent shivers down my spine, toes curling in delight. Oh my! Even saying the word peanut butter cup is so cute!

...and the Campagne bread from Maison Kayser. It harks back to the (sample) bread I had at Whole Foods back in London - springy, holey innards in a chewy crust. I can imagine it going so well with EVOO and balsamic vinegar. Or soup. To let the bread and its texture shine, I had this simple with shmeared avocado, poached egg whites topped with blacked pepper and paprika. Bread at its epitome.

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If there is one thing I learnt in CS&IT today in my half-awake state, it is the concept of decomposition, and more importantly, it's usefulness and applications in daily life.

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I got two free mandarian oranges and a free fuji apple today! :)