Off to Phuket!

And as this week closes out, I'm looking forward to a nice holiday in Phuket next week (which means you can not only look forward to an abbreviated post today but nil blog posts for next week!).

The missus is about to return to work after a long maternity leave. After months of baby feeding and late nights (with more baby feeding!), we decided that a week with nothing but sun, sand and surf was the ideal tonic - with no baby in sight!

Naturally, we already have plans to revisit Sam's Steak & Grill although we aren't staying in the Holiday Inn. More importantly, we also intend to get a massage at least once a day although I will have to consider whether I will get another hot oil aromatherapy...

Marriott Cafe

Recently, the missus and I went to the Marriott Cafe with some of our friends which was nice as it was a rare opportunity for the missus to get out of the house. We went on the weekend and took advantage of the afternoon tea buffet.

As expected of a restaurant inside a 5-star hotel, the decor was luxurious and the service was quick, efficient and friendly (worth mentioning as you would be surprised by the number of buffet's I've been to where they don't manage to clear your old plate before you have grabbed another platter of food - hey, I eat quickly, ya know!). The food was good although I would have been happier with a bit more choice re hot food. Having said that, it was only a tea buffet and not a full lunch or dinner buffet so I guess I have no right to complain about that.

However, what really caught my eye (and made this experience blog-worthy) was the fact that they had scones with jam and clotted cream. This is amazing simply because it is the first time in Hong Kong that I have seen clotted cream. Loads of places sell scones and jam or even just scones with no jam (oh, the humanity!!). But till now, I have never seen clotted cream in HK.

For those of you not from Blighty, clotted cream is a deliciously decadent rich cream which is not only sweet but unbelievably fattening. There are various uses for clotted cream but by far the most important, is the use of clotted cream during good old English tea time.

You haven't lived until you have had some nice scones (preferably plain) ripped in half and spread with a generous dollop of clotted cream and strawberry jam. The plain taste of the scones together with the sweetness of clotted cream and the slight sour tang of strawberry jam is a heavenly combination to die for (and considering I had three of these, my cholesterol level and doctor will likely agree!).

I can't wait to go back and have three more!
:p

Dave Arneson

Dave Arneson, the last half of the creative team behind D&D, passed away on 7 April 2009. Although D&D was created by both Arneson and Gygax, Arneson was generally more low key and very often, Gygax was the guy in the spotlight.

I've already talked at length about my love for D&D (and RPGs in general) so I'll save you the boredom of another post about this. Regardless, I just wanted to share my small measure of thanks to this revolutionary geek who had such a huge impact on my life.

Gordon - 3 months and growing

Gordon is now three months old and to celebrate the occasion, its time to share some more pictures.


Gordon is now old enough to control his arms but not yet old enough to know that he shouldn't eat them!


Every time we stop him eating his hands, he tends to either give us a bemused look, as if to say "why not?" or, as in the above case, a quick smile to show that we caught him in the act.


As you can see, he has started to smile a lot. We managed to get quite a few pictures of him grinning at us.

Not quite sure whats happening here. He looks happy though and that's enough or me!

Sinomax Backrest cushion

As you know, I recently hurt my back. Although I am now back at work, my back still hurts as the muscle hasn't fully healed yet. Luckily for me, the missus bought me a backrest cushion from Sinomax (the one she got me is the TV-629 backrest cushion). The cushion is made out of sinomax branded memory foam.

Apparently, the benefits are that the foam will mold itself to conform to the users body temperature and weight. Now, I can understand how it molds itself to my weight - all that really means is that the foam changes shape to match my body shape. But what exactly does it mean by conforming to my temperature? How exactly does temperature fit with a more comfortable cushion?

Stumped with this question, I turned to the font of all human knowledge - google. Unfortunately, a search on google didn't turn up any useful information either. Do any of my reader(s) know what temperature has to do with a more comfortable cushion?

PS that honey cushion looks sweet!
:p

The Meister's back

Another week gone and another post missing. However, this time, I have a really good excuse.

I was in hospital.

Not just visiting but actually in hospital. Being the fat and clumsy git that I am, I somehow managed to sprain a muscle in my lower back and spent just over 24 hours enjoying hospital food. The good news is that the x-ray shows that there wasn't any damage to the bones. This is good because it means that I should be back to normal as soon as the muscle heals up. The bad news is that it may take a while for the muscle to heal. Unlike other muscles, it's impossible to completely let the lower back muscle relax (its not like I can stay in bed for the next several weeks) which will likely mean that it will take some time for the muscle to fully heal.

I'm pretty comfortable with this diagnosis from the doctor as I don't feel any pain in my lower back if I can lie down and let the muscles relax. For example, when I was lying down, I didn't feel any pain even when the doctor started pressing the area during his examination. It was only when I needed to move or even when I was sitting up that I felt the pressure and consequent pain.

I caused quite a scene in the office too. The sprain was so bad that I couldn't even stand up. As soon as I tried to stand, the pain would reaaaly flare up. I even used my arms to leverage myself up and, although that worked at first in that I was able to stand up, it ultimately wasn't helpful as my lower back literally couldn't support my own weight. As soon as I transferred some weight from my arms to my legs, the pain would flare up again. In the end, our secretary had to call an ambulance to take me to hospital.

As you can expect, I spent a portion of this morning (when I returned to the office after a couple of days sick leave) telling a stream of visitors to my office that I was okay.
:)

The sprain itself was surprisingly bad and I was in a lot of pain. Not only could I not stand up, but I couldn't even turn over when I was lying down. When the doctor gave me an injection of painkiller, they had to assist me in turning over so they could jab the needle up my arse bottom. To give you a measure of the sympathy I normally get at home, the missus' reaction to this was "tch, I didn't even need an injection when I was giving birth!". My only response to this, other than groaning in pain, was to whistle the tune "Just you wait, 'enry 'iggens, just you wait".

Anyway, the doctor realised the painkiller wasn't very effective when after 45 minutes, the pain was such that I still couldn't stand up. At that point, I got rolled up to the wards and received my (hopefully) once in a lifetime chance to enjoy hospital food.

Do you know what the saddest thing in all this is? To my eternal shame, I sprained my lower back muscle by .....



(wait for it!!) .....



... standing up.
:(