Had Enough

Before the entry proper, here's today's breakfast:



Bread and butter pudding with ham.



Soaked the bread slices overnight in the egg/milk mixture this time round, for better consistency. Sadly, the recipe I used didn't really lend itself well for a a ham version (despite more eggs/less sugar). Still decent though.

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Sleepless night again. And those voices are back with a vengeance. Actually they're sorta humorous sometimes, so it's no sign of impending doom, ain't it?

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I don't even know why I'm just sometimes sleepless. Demons in the head? Caffeine in the blood? I just can't find a trend. Maybe if I look back into the day...

Cue: Memento-styled vignettes.

==

It's true. I drank a slightly larger load of caffeine in the evening, trying out the freshly-opened pack of coffee.

==

And earlier in the day? Oh, I was at the supermarket, grocerying with my parents. We work in a 3-man team:

Mom - the decision maker and chief shopper
Dad - the scout, who goes around the supermarket looking at interesting stuff, often at the DIY and health food section
Me - the cart driver from hell, whose Daytona/Gran Turismo/Mario Kart skills are finally being put to real-life use


I officially conclude that Bishan NTUC is a way better place to shop than NTUC Xtra in Ang Mo Kio.

1. They have a way better yoghurt selection
2. They have a way better cheese selection
3. The staff at the deli are friendlier
4. The aisles are wider and less crowded
5. They have a better selection of, well, almost every food product - even speciality Japanese/Australian/American stuff

Well then, isn't it a little hard to believe, that a smaller NTUC has a greater variety of food products than a muich bigger one? If you look into it, you'd notice that NTUC Xtra loses much of its floor space to clothing, toys, electricals, etc, leaving only a modest amount to supermarket-y kinda stuff. And even in the supermarket-y area, they stock large quantities of the same product - giving the false impression that they have a great variety of stuff.

In addition, they're sorta new, so they don't really know what sells and what doesn't. Which ends up with much of the floor space being clogged up by products that don't sell. It's also not surprising that Ang Mo Kio's population is older and therefore more traditional, less willing to try out new and unusual food products.

I've been jostling with the crowds in AMK for nothing!

==

Taught my mom a few advanced shopping cart techniques - 3-point-turns in narrow aisles, dealing with the overhang (the axis of turning is way behind the front of the cart) in tight corners, oversteer (you slide the rear of the cart in the opposite direction to make a tight turn).

No photos, because I only have 2 hands, both of which were occupied most of the time.

Remind me why I shouldn't drive a car on the roads of Singapore.

==

Before that, my family went to visit a relative at the hospital. He's doing fine in terms of health, but well, issues and stuff...

It's sorta sad. And awkward. Thank goodness I brought along my DS and played Picross on it to death in a bid to distract myself.

It's a retarded game, but oh well, when you gotta play a game while still being able respond to random snatches of conversation, Picross is it.

==



Uploaded some new stuff onto my DS before leaving for the hospital. Picross, Cake Mania (Can you believe it? Mom is addicted to the PC version and is goading me on to play it. It's absurd.), Taiko Drumming (it suxxors compared to all other credible rhythm games, don't even bother) New York Times Crossword and Boogle.

Cake Mania's just weird. You bake cakes, add toppings, decorations and stuff according to the customers' demands and serve them in time. Numbingly addictive.



It gets tricky at times though and you'll have to optimise your workflow (yay, corporate catchphrases) in order to get through the levels. Such as, baking the next cake while you're adding the topping to the previous, and doing things out-of-sequence to minimise walking time.

Updated the R4DS firmware (I'm a compulsive BIOS/firmware/etc updater.) and put in the new version of DSOrganize which does web browsing a little better (yay, bookmark and homepage capabilities!) but still can't log into Wireless@SG.

==

Lazy morning. Made HUGE pancakes. As in, frying-pan sized. This time with 50% wholemeal flour for a healthy version, which tasted strangely like All Bran pancakes. Parents didn't like it.



But, it's healthy! It's worth it!

Mental note to grab a box of instant pancake mix in order to remind myself how the commercial stuff tastes, so that I can either 1. pimp up my own recipe to emulate the fluffiness or 2. take pride in the fact that my very own pancakes pwn the instant stuff upside down.