Free

We had today to ourselves 👏 No Chinese class, no dancing, no comps. It’s always nice to have these days, it feels so freeeee 😂

N went to go pick up our F1 tickets from the post office. The Singapore Grand Prix is next month, and we bought these tickets months ago. We were supposed to go with our friends, but after we’d all bought our tickets, our friends’ life plans changed, and soon after buying the tickets, they moved back to Oz, and had to sell their F1 tickets. We’re still going to go, of course, but obviously it won’t be the same without them there 😔

I read more of that Diabetes Code book, and got up to the section with all the sobering statistics about the disease. It started freaking me out! I don’t want to eat anything now! 😆 I’d like to think we eat relatively healthily already, but we can definitely do better. And the stats are making me want to try even harder on this front.

We went and had lunch in Little India, and then walked around there for a little while, before heading home and just relaxing for the rest of the evening. We went to the gym for a little while, but we didn’t really do much – I didn’t even do my dance basics on the treadmill. But at least we went and did something, even if it wasn’t as much as what we would normally do.

And then I just watched a few episodes of Downton Abbey. I’m up to the sixth and final season, and it feels like the British aristocracy era is on its way out this season. I’m getting a bit sad that I too am getting to the end. I’ve grown quite attached to all the characters. Maybe I’ll return to watching some Chinese dramas, they’ve been good to help me improve my listening skills. Let’s see 😊

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A new book added

I started reading The Diabetes Code by Dr Jason Fung, adding to the bajillion other books that I’m already reading. There seems to be a paradigm shift that’s happening around how to prevent and manage type 2 diabetes, and I am really interested in it. Also now that I’m older, I’m more concerned about developing it too, so the more I can learn about how to prevent it, the better. The two main points that I’ve gotten so far: 1) eat less sugar; and 2) burn the remaining sugar, through exercise but more through fasting. Interesting stuff. I’ve been trying to eat less carbs as a result, particularly the more refined carbs like white rice and white bread. But it’s so damn hard! I don’t think I can eliminate carbs in its entirety, nor do I think I should, as the body still needs it to function, I just have to be more selective with my choice of carbs. The author was on this podcast, if you’re interested.

But apart from this new book, everything else about my day was pretty stock standard: trading seminar, trading, gym, and house stuff, rounded out with an episode of Masterchef Australia. Prince Charles and Camilla were on the episode that I watched tonight! 😲 They’re not going to be able to top that in future seasons! 😂

A Sunday all to myself

I decided to finally go get my eyes checked today. I dread going to the optometrist every time (much like the doctor, the dentist, the hairdresser…), but it’s one of those things that I know I just have to do. Luckily she didn’t find anything too worrying. She gave me the usual spiel about not wearing my contacts for too long blah blah. But I’ve been hearing that pretty much ever since I started wearing contacts, so that didn’t concern me too much. But when she didn’t find anything too worrying when she did a general eye health check, then that made me feel a little better. But I think I want to go see an ophthalmologist anyway, I think that I should really get a more thorough eye check, especially since my eyesight is so bad to begin with, which puts me into the higher risk category of getting eye related issues the older I get. So I asked for a referral, and now I’m hoping to book for an appointment sometime this coming week. Fingers crossed the results of the more thorough eye exam is just as comforting as the one today🤞

I then went to buy some cat litter, as we have completely run out. But the store had run out of the 10kg bags, so I had no choice but to buy the next size – at 20kg! So I had to lug this bag home – almost 1km away! I did consider taking a cab back, but I persevered 💪💪 I would ordinarily just get the litter delivered, but we’d completely run out, so this time I couldn’t wait even one day to get it delivered, let alone the minimum two day wait for their usual delivery. This is another one of my underbuyer situations where I waited until something completely ran out before I bought some more 😔

I’m now caught up with Masterchef Australia, so I decided to resume my watching of Downton Abbey. I just finished season four, and now only have two more seasons to go. What am I going to do once I finish the series?! I always feel so “empty” when that happens 😂

And I also started reading Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami. I haven’t read a book in a while that’s gotten me hooked right from the beginning, so this one is looking quite promising already. I read one of his earlier books The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which has to be right up there as one of the weirdest books I have ever read 😂 But I like his style, so I thought I’d give this book a go. So far I’m really enjoying it. This one is apparently a collection of short stories, so I’m wondering if each short story is going to be el weirdo acid trips in similar vein to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle too 😂 The first short story that I’m on right now is pretty normal, but I’ll let you know if it turns on me at the end 😊

And movie #3 that I came up with for that FB challenge: Namiya. I watched this on the same flight that I watched Color Me True (movie #2), and I really enjoyed it too. I watched the Chinese version, which was based on the Japanese film The Miracles of the Namiya General Store. I wouldn’t mind watching that film too. It would fall into the science fiction sub-genre that I like, and Color Me True would also probably be classified the same.

Now time to look for movie #4… Argh, it’s getting harder and harder!

From classic to more modern books

I finished The Metamorphosis yesterday, the short novel by Franz Kafka, one of those classics that I’ve never gotten around to reading. I didn’t get it 😂 So even if I studied it in English during school, I definitely wouldn’t have gotten it back then! 😂 It was very short and very easy to read, but still, that didn’t make up for my lack of understanding as to why it had received such literary praise. Maybe I did need to have read it in English class, so I would’ve had a teacher to explain it to me! 😂

So I’ve gone from classic to a more modern book: I’ve now started I See You by Clare Mackintosh. People have been giving it good reviews, so I thought I’d jump on this bandwagon too 😊 My last two fiction books (The Metamorphosis and Brideshead Revisited) have been older books, so it’s good to come back to the modern day 😊

I have over 130 books on my wish list 😲 And so far this year I’ve read 13. Sighhh… I wish I could read faster! But I must say that I have definitely utilised my library membership this year, and it’s only July 👏 Another one of my goals in good progress 👍 I just have to keep working on my reading speed!

Bread and butter

I got up feeling very tired this morning. Maybe it was because I woke up a few times from Kitty’s scratching multiple times in the early morning; or perhaps it was just because I was extremely tired from the past few days, and I just haven’t quite recovered yet. I’ll say both 😔

It was a terribly uneventful day, to be honest. I went to go get some groceries to restock the fridge, since it was pretty empty after having been away for a long weekend – well actually, it was probably closer to a week. I went and had brunch (because there was nothing in the fridge! 😂); I did some stuff around the house; I messaged a friend in the afternoon who needs some moral support at the moment; I went to the gym, going through the usual struggle that I always seem to have to endure each and every day in order to get myself there; and then read one of my numerous books that I am juggling at the moment: Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh.

And the daily grind hits me with a jolt 😂 It’s not a bad thing, that’s just how life is. And this is the bread and butter of my life 😊

An “enforced” public holiday

Today was going to be errands day. It was a public holiday in both the UK and US, so I knew that trading wasn’t happening today, with the two major financial hubs basically out of action. So rather than watching paint dry, which is what would happen if I sat in front of the markets today, I decided that I’d run errands and basically just do stuff that I wouldn’t normally get the chance to do during the week.

One of the things that I wanted to do was to go buy some health and beauty stuff from Watsons. But as soon as I get there, I realise that I had left my discount voucher at home. I had changed to a smaller handbag, and so I’d left my wallet at home – thereby also leaving the voucher at home. Argh! 😩 So now I have to redo this trip another day 😔

I also started reading my new book: Atonement by Ian McEwan. He writes really well, very descriptive. I’ve read two chapters so far, and virtually nothing has happened, but I feel like I know so much about the people and their surrounds already. I’ve heard good things about this book, so I’m looking forward to a good read 📖 I hope the reviews haven’t talked up this book too much for me, and I end up disappointed!

And in the evening, I went to the gym. And that was pretty much all there was to my day. I actually wanted to do some trading stuff: some backtesting, reading some more of my current trading book, reading a few of my favourite trading blogs etc etc but none of that happened 😔 Oh well. I guess you can’t be productive every day!

A walk, a book and a paso

I was feeling a bit down today, don’t really know why. I wanted to run a few errands, but never got around to doing them, unfortunately, so they’ll have to wait until next week. In hindsight, I probably should’ve gone out and done them, if just to go for a walk and get some fresh air, it might have helped me feel a bit better. Oh well, I’ll remember that for next time 😊

I finished my next book, Friend Request by Laura Marshall. It’s a mystery novel, a Gone Girl type of book (not that I’ve read or seen that yet, but I know it’s in this same genre). I enjoy reading these types of books, even though they freak me out 😂 They keep me on my toes, and I want to keep reading to find out what happens. I’m thinking that perhaps my next book should be of a different genre… Not sure which one yet… I might have to browse my mega long to-read list… 😊

We went and practised tonight, which actually wasn’t too bad. And they played Paso Doble, which got me inspired to revisit that dance. We have a routine and all, we just never practise it, simply because there are so many other dances to do! And because we never dance Paso at comps (much like Viennese Waltz on the Ballroom side, they always leave it out of our events), the other dances then always take precedence. So maybe we can start working on it again after our next comp. At least just to remember the choreography again! 😆

The working week is now over, thankfully. I’m sure the weekend will bring joy and laughter with it 😄