What is your Everest?

Hubs doesn't climb mountains. He runs. After completing his first ever half marathon in August, he decided he wouldn't attempt the full marathon. He still continued to run almost daily. But a man like hubs craves challenges. Soon his backside started to itch.

One day he announced he had signed up for the Singapore Aquathlon. Exactly. What?! It's not just a run. It's a swim followed by a run. But it's no ordinary swim. It's a swim in the open sea where there are waves, dead stuff and other crap.

Luckily for the inexperienced, there is an option for an open water swim trial. The first trial was at the swimming pool. That is not a problem because hubs can swim in a pool. He passed the first trial. The second trial was at the East Coast sea. That one is a lot scarier because hubs isn't experienced swimming in the sea.

One Saturday last month I went with him to East Coast for the trial.

The swimmers have to swim from one buoy to another for 14 times. The waves were quite choppy.

Meanwhile I hanged out with sandcastles and played with sand.

A few people gave up after a while. I've never swum in the sea. I can barely swim in the swimming pool. I only know the breast stroke and have to swim close to the side of the pool. I wondered if hubs will give up.

He didn't. But he drank a lot of sea water. He looked very sick when he came out of the water. I knew he was alright when he headed straight for the tea kiosk for a cup of teh tarik (hot milk tea) to wash away the taste of sea water.

Hubs thought he had better practise swimming one more time in the sea. On a Wednesday, we went to Sentosa. 

 He bought a tri suit so he won't look so white. Plus it helped with flotation.

But first he had to tackle a very difficult task - put on the cap. It took 15 minutes.

We thought it was wise to be as close to the life guard as possible. I was quite nervous because there were no life guards on patrol in the sea. I looked at the very young life guard on duty and I wasn't sure if he could save hubs being on the shore and no jet ski in sight.

Hubs wanted to swim all the way to the buoy line. The total distance he needed to swim for the Aquathlon was 750m. The waves were a lot less choppy compared to the East Coast.

I sat on the sand and kept my eyes on his yellow cap. The first to and fro I could barely breathe. But hubs seemed to manage alright. Then he swam two more to and fro. On his third trip out, I suddenly could no longer see his yellow cap in the water. I scanned the horizon and nothing. I don't want to sound so dramatic but my whole body froze and I went cold. I felt panic rising but I wanted to remain calm. At the same time, inside I was screaming: is this it? is he dead? I walked quickly to a man (not the life guard) who was conducting a test for a few life guards. We had earlier spoken to each other and I had told him hubs was training for an event. I told him my husband had disappeared in the sea and I asked if he could see him in the sea. We scanned the horizon together and after a while, the man saw hub's yellow cap. It turned out hubs had gone a bit off course and was at another part of buoy. I thanked the man and he was very nice about it and very reassuring. I'm so glad I didn't scream or cry. Would have been so embarrassing.

I was so glad to see hubs out of the water and told him about his "near-drowning". The he said to me: one more time. So he went back into the sea and I held my breath for another 10 minutes or so.

Last Saturday was the day of the Singapore Aquathlon. Here he's getting inked.

Hubs thought he looked so badass with the inked numbers that he wouldn't remove the ink completely afterwards. Yes, there's still remnants on both his arms.

Hubs' category is the 40 and over. Most of the participants were really good swimmers, way better than hubs. Just look at their shoulders and arms.

Ready, swim.

Look at them go.

For hubs' swim route - you swim straight out to the buoy and then swim horizontally until the next buoy and you swim straight back. If you do the standard distance, you have to do the swim route twice. Hubs said swimming horizontally against the waves was the hardest.

Hubs wasn't last out of the water. I was just glad he didn't drown. Anyway, there were many lifeguards on patrol in the sea so I wasn't worried.

If you give up or get into trouble, the guards on the jet ski will drag you back to shore.

After the swim, hubs ran for 5km. (for standard distance it is 10km) I walked away from the finish line for a while and completely missed him so he was pissed. Oops.

I hope this is the last Aquathlon. I'm getting old and my heart is weak.

Read hubs' blog post on his conquest here if you want.

Weigh In Friday - Do you have a gallbladder?

Hi guys,

Another week has gone by so quickly. I'm still obsessing over food and spending a large amount of time at the supermarkets. My condition has improved slightly as in I am able to tolerate a larger variety of food. This means I am able to go out to eat more often which I am so happy about. I am so sick of eating the food I cook. I am so not a good cook.

I believe the probiotics helped my digestive system a lot and I am taking the potent dose for another 2 weeks. You never know, soon I may be able to eat Korean fried chicken!

I had an ultrasound done on my abdomen a short while ago and I finally got the results. It seems I have gallstones, about 0.2cm in diameter each. As I do not get any pain from these gallstones, the doctor is unsure if they cause my bloating and headaches. Anyway, I have to see a specialist if I want any further investigation. I am probably going to see a subsidised public doctor as the treatment for gallstones is quite costly. Treatment involves removing the gallbladder. Can one live without a gallbladder? Apparently yes. I don't wish to part with my gallbladder and I don't want an unnecessary operation which may lead to other problems. All that can wait. It will take me a few months to get an appointment. Meanwhile, I'm going to keep going with having a healthy diet. Oh, I have to avoid fatty food. Damn!

Something wonderful happened this week. I discovered I love quinoa. I have tried quinoa milk before and it tasted really awful. I was at this supermarket and came across some packed precooked food.

The quinoa salad looked so tempting to me. It wasn't very expensive, just over $5.

I tried it when I reached home and I found it so good. If I added some tuna or chicken, it became my lunch!

With quinoa on my mind, one day when we were out, I saw that Marche had quinoa on the menu and immediately went in to try it. This was a freshly cooked version and was delicious. I even sneaked some home in a ziplock bag and had the leftovers for dinner!

At Marche, we also ordered pork belly with sauerkraut. Do you know why I ordered this even though we're not fans of pork belly? I wanted to try sauerkraut. I've never had it before and was curious about it. Well...., it was kind of tasteless. I may look around for bottled ones and eat them at home with my meals. Usually I have kimchi.

I now have a new way of eating sandwiches. I use Romaine lettuce as the bread! I was watching this Korean reality show (The Return of Superman) and I noticed Koreans use leaves to wrap meat and eat it in one mouthful. Hubs pointed out to me at Carl's Jr you can get burgers wrapped in lettuce. He tried it once and said it was a very messy way to eat.

Breakfast! I have added another cereal for variety. Buckwheat puffs used to be my snack food.

I have the buckwheat puffs with my oatmilk and the combination is good. You have to eat fast or the puffs get soggy.

I had been thinking of re-introducing soba back into my diet. Now when it comes to eating food known to previously cause me problems, I want to eat a very tasty version to make it worth the pain if it comes. I remember I used to love the soba at One Raffles Place and one day hubs and I went ALL THE WAY to Raffles Place just to eat Lava at Wheat.

This is lava. It is freaking good. I think the portion was a bit too much for me. Also there is double carbo - always a no-no. At the end of the meal, I was so full. I knew I was in trouble. We walked around so the wind in my stomach could get expelled. If you saw a lady walking with her arms raised around Raffles Place, it was me. Actually, it wasn't so bad. I got rid of the wind quite fast and I'm happy to report I had no headaches. This means I can eat soba. Well, next time, I'll eat much less.

I had problems with 3 food items this week. First tofu. I'm not a fan of tofu. Usually I wouldn't eat them. I think it's because when I was young, one of my neighbours made tofu in his home. It was quite a massive operation and he had workers and lorries. I smelt tofu every single day. I hated the smell. Anyway, sometimes for lunch I have a bowl of sliced fish soup at the food court. It comes with tofu. I wanted to know if tofu had any effect on me as I had tried another soy product and it was alright. So I ate two pieces. Bad decision. I had a very severe headache.  I know it's the tofu because I have had sliced fish soup many times before. The second food is broccoli. I used to eat broccoli now and then because it's a healthy vegetable. This week I ate broccoli with some safe food and I got hit by a big fat headache. The third food is watermelon. I get only a tiny headache so I may still eat watermelon now and then.

The funny thing about me is on the day I had the big fat headache from broccoli, I still went ahead to try a new food. I had made plans with my girl to try out Mr Bean's soy ice cream in the evening. By then, I had already beaten the headache out of me but it was a huge strain. I was thinking eating an ice cream will really help me out.

This is what I look like after coming out of a food sensitivity attack. Very haggard and dead in the eyes. See how I'm inhaling the soy ice cream?

I enjoyed the soy ice cream very much. It's not the same as regular ice cream as you can taste the soy. But since I can't take dairy, this is better than nothing. Happily, my stomach loves soy ice cream. No problem at all. My daughter hated the ice cream. She will never eat it again. She felt quite ill afterwards.

I haven't forgotten about weighing myself. Having pigged out this week, I was quite nervous to see my weight.

This morning I weighed myself and was surprised by my weight - 57.8kg.

Last Friday, I weighed 58kg. This means I have lost 200 grams this week and a grand total of 5kg 200g since 21st July 2015.

4th Sep 2015 - 57.8kg
28th Aug 2015 - 58kg
21st Aug 2015 - 58.8kg
14th Aug 2015 - 58.9kg
7th Aug 2015 - 59.9kg
21st July 2015 - 63kg

I haven't been very good with my exercise this week. Since my last run at Sentosa on Sunday, I haven't run at all because I have hurt my heel. As I have another run end September, I think it's best to rest my feet until I'm healed. I did continue to walk. My Pilates was a fail. I got so bored with it I didn't do it regularly. I think I need new moves.

Next week I want to try out rice to see if my stomach can tolerate it. If yes, I would be able to eat at any restaurant. Right now I'm restricted to restaurants which serve potatoes instead of rice. I so look forward to that day.

Bead Embroidery Motifs

As you know, I love beads and apart from beadweaving, I do some bead embroidery from time to time. When I first started sewing with beads, I think in 2007, I did it without any clear technique. In Singlish, we call this way of doing things "anyhow whack". Back then I tried to look for a beginner's guide to bead embroidery and I couldn't find any in the bookstores or the library. Nowadays there are a few to choose from and Bead Embroidery Motifs (2014) by Genevieve Crabe is one such book.

If this book were available in 2007, I would have been very happy and possibly never got so involved in bag-making.

Unfortunately it's 2015 and I already know how to bead. So this book is too late for me.

Here are a few sample motifs from the book.

These 2 are easy peasy.

This one requires more time and patience. It's a skill builder.

There are 100 motifs in total if you have the patience to sew them all. The look and feel of the motifs are somewhat artsy and not kawaii. Might not be everyone's cup of tea.

There are a few motifs which include cabochons! Cabochons excite me. In case you're wondering, the cabochon is glued down. The beads do not secure the cabochon.

The instructions for the bead stitching is done via diagrams. Some people don't like that huh! If you're someone who cannot visualise instructions based on diagrams, you're better off watching youtube videos which are free. But honestly, there aren't that many ways to sew beads to a foundation. This book pretty much covers the basics. The portion on cabochons may be a little hard to understand. The author even suggests watching online videos although she doesn't include any links. There are books dedicated to cabochons so I am not really surprised the author doesn't go in-depth. Anyway, if you are a beginner in bead embroidery, stay away from cabochons until you have the basics down.