2018 weekly - Week 4

23/01/2018

Tried a new restaurant tonight, Trinity. It's a restaurant whose menu is heavy on seafood and boy did they do it well! I had octopus as a starter and lemon sole for the main. Both were cooked to perfection. My octopus is tender, perfectly grilled, crisp on the outside and juicy on the inside. Just when I thought that may my dish of the night, my lemon sole surprised me. It's pan fried crisp with lots of flavor from the fish itself and also from the clams. The fish is meaty and firm. One of the nicest fish dishes I've tasted.

Two restaurants in two weeks (thanks for company's business dinner budget). Trinity definitely won in this case.

24/01/2018

It looks like my favorite fitness instructor is not continuing with the new gym. For whatever reason, S and her routines managed to keep me motivated and her routines actually have a positive impact on me. I am so sad not being able to see her again. But life goes on, doesn't it? I take part of S's training with me and move along to my next stage of exercise. I look forward to the new gym with new instructors and new routines.

2018 weekly - Week 3

14/01/2018

Two weeks into 2018 and I finished my 5000 meters at 41 minutes and 4 seconds. Not bad, eh! I am still aiming at 40 minutes for 5000 meters this year but hey, I am not ruling out revising the goal time should all stars are aligned.

17-19/01/2018

Four meetings in three days. I just hope to keep enough energy for a mini gym run this week.

2018 weekly - Week 2

Before I know it, the first half of 2018 will just vanish.

This week, I've been so busy with:

1) preparing for meetingS in a week

2) fulfilling my duty for the peer-review journals (I can't believe the quality of submissions these days. Any ill-conceived experiment (failed or not) seems to be an idea for submission? Not to mention the bad writing and me spending my evenings reading and responding)

3) restarting my French class (we had a good laugh revising l'alphabet francais)

4) up at 5am for a 7am meeting (my body really prefers vampires' hours)

5) sorting out my (small) savings. It's demoralizing to see my saving being bleeding away by inflation. Everyone who knows a little bit about investing says funds and stock market are the way. But I still feel uncomfortable putting much of my saving there. I hate dealing with money!!

2018 weekly - Week 1

01/01/2018

Today, I feel my body is mine again. After being sick for a week, the ability to breath, move, think freely and generously feels refreshingly new and welcome to me. With renewed energy and spirit levels, I am willing to go back to work and take on what comes my way.

My body reacted a bit by flaring up in one area today. By now I have learned to live with my sensitive skin. A layer of pure aloe vera so far does the trick. Talking about the stress! Ha.

04/01/2018

First day back to gym and not as painful as I thought. I have a lot to catch up but I like the feeling that when everything is back on track.

2017 New Year Eve dinner

Starter

Wild boar pate, sweet and sour red cabbage and coleslaw.

Main

Cotechino with lentils (Italians believe that lentils bring good luck for the coming year. Who am I to argue with Romans? On top of that, both are my favorite ingredients!)

Dessert

Chocolate mousse