instant mee for breakfast

london 7.13am 18.1C cloudy saturday 2017

 

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the chicken flavoured instant mee, it comes with a oil paste, which gives it its flavour. as usual, u can custom make it by adding stuff. in this case i put in some cox lettuces, cut up small so it can cook quicker. though veggies dont really need much cooking, as it can be eaten raw. and of course you can add meat too, or sea food. it is very versatile and that i think is why it is so popular.

added. 8.46am i read of a chap in his blog saying he has found a two night rental in a sheltered housing flat, when he start commuting from france. i have heard of these sheltered flats, meant for over 55s. i was thinking that is one place where they will want care workers … i think care as a career will always be available for anyone, and will constantly be a source of work. health and care are sure to be in need of workers in future.

and i was reminded of a chap i met in a gay website who works in this field. he works parttime, which sounds ideal. he even suggested that i do it. not for me, because i dont need the money, nor am i patient enough to deal with old people haha. but i figured it might suit others who need money and have not much skills to offer. you dont really need conventional skills except maybe a kind heart. 

but also i was thinking if old people living alone want food to eat, instant mee sounds like it is right up their street, something so easy to prepare they should be able to do it themselves easily. then i had another think, and realise that actually cooking, as in stir frying, and stewing is really very easy to do. i think even if i were a doddering old fool, i should be able to make these meals without too much help. unless of course my mind goes, but i think dementia is rather selective… in that u can forget to do some things but can remember to do others. maybe the biggest danger is that u can start things but dont finish them. thus u leave things on, and forget to shut it down.

(that is why i think the timer on my induction stove is so useful. i set it to stew and put the timer on for 15mins and then i go off and forget about it, and it will automatically switch itself off. i was thinking it will come in useful for someone who has mild dementia. i dont have dementia, at least as far as i know. haha. but it is good practise for when or if i do. )

 what u might need is someone around the place just to mop up after you , or switch things off after you. just generally to keep an eye out for you. that might mean just have a partner around, or failing that have a lodger who is kind enough to just watch a bit over you.

anyway, today is the start of pride celebrations, it goes on for 2wks culminating in the big pride parade on sat 8th july. and i read in a newsletter i get sent to me via email this morning that there is a free showing of a disney film, the jungle book. its a new remake. you need to apply for tickets online, so i did and got one. it is tomorrow at 10.30am in picturehouse central. i have not heard of this chain of cinemas, so it has served its purpose in that they have advertised their presence to me. i live here and still have not heard of them, just goes to show that they need to advertise. 

biscuits

london 12.31pm 23.2C sunny friday 2017

its very nice to have biscuits with tea or coffee.

 

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added. 6.03pm 23C cloudy but quite bright. i just got a phone call from np my electric company provider. asking for the electric meter reading. i am afraid i told him no and put the phone down on him. haha. i am so wary of giving out any information over the phone that i just refuse any request.

this guy had a difficult accent, so i have to concentrate to understand him. so i did not quite hear him when he was talking. it was only after i put the phone down on him, that i realised he might be legit, and is from the company to get my meter reading. it is due for one. usually i like to give them the reading at the end of 3months. it is not quite that now, as i intend to give them the reading on 1july. that way the bill is easier to compare as it is for the same number of days. but i can understand the company doing this as a favour to their customers, to get the reading so that they dont give an estimated bill. i suppose when they install smart meters to everyone, this wont be necessary anymore. there cannot be many people nowadays who know how to read the electric meter. it takes some skill to read it correctly. the other alternative is to send in a human being to read the meter. that must be costly i suppose. and maybe not easy to find people who can read the meter. certainly in the past i have known a number of them who reads it wrong.

instant noodle for 10p each

london 6.05pm 23.8C cloudy (high of 25.8C) thursday

hmm, i see wordpress is changing the appearance of the editing bar that used to run across the page in two lines before but now they have made it into one line and it is a very long one, runs out of my screen in fact so that you have to use the scroller to move it along.

its cooler today, and very pleasant in fact. i prefer it like this. i did not have any hay fever, though one of the chinese guys is suffering from it now. strange when this cooler weather should bring the pollen down. he said he had hay fever once, and then it went away for a long time, but now he is starting to get it again. 

went to a meet up of ex lyc members, a club for chinese-caucasians that have long closed down but the old members still meet up to talk of old times. though now the topic tends to be old age concerns like death, strokes, disease instead of love life. still, it was nice to chitchat. and to meet the other chinese guys who i have not known when i was at the club in its heyday.

afterwards three of us chinese guys went to chinatown to buy stuff. one bought me to ‘see woo’, as he wanted to show me their fresh meat section. it is new, because i have not seen it before. full of fresh stuff even live crab, live lobster… anyway i did not buy anything. he bought fresh chicken livers… then we went on to ‘new loon moon’, me to find if they have any reduced instant noodles. which they have at 10p each for 70mg packs. and these have different flavours too. i bought 15. (and have eaten one as soon as i got back, red curry one and it is very nice indeed.) there was lots of it, so u will still be able to get this bargain if u go now. as usual, the reason why they are selling it cheap is because they expire next month.

 

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quite a lot of variety. though sometimes one must not get too carried away with all these labels because they might all taste the same. haha. but the first one i tried, the red curry , is very nice.

added. 8.59pm 23C dry . went to the tesco to buy reduced foods. it is pot luck really, sometimes i get nothing but today there were loads of mince beef reduced. 750mg to 75p, (from £5)at 5%fat too. though next to it was 15%fat 750mg from £3.50,for 88p, and i bought that too even though it is not as good a bargain. there was also   500mg angus beef 15%fat minced at 60p. i bought that too. ah well, it just goes to show the power of association. when two things are side by side, and you are not paying attention. still, i got lots of minced beef now in my freezer. i also got lamb liver for 29p. after seeing my friend buy chicken liver, i too was starting to crave liver. i thought i will only be able to find bread reduced today, so all that meat is a bonus. i got wholemeal bread800mg for 5p, and two loaves of 400mg each for 4p each. i went at about 8pm. so much of these things are pot luck. if no one went earlier to buy these things, and so clean the shelves before u get there;  or the shop dont reduce the price until very late, so all the bargains are snapped up before you get there , you can sometimes come back empty handed.  but today was rather a feast of bargains.

it is similar to the time when i found so many chillis on sale. i have since eaten some of them, and they are really very hot. i cannot imagine the british liking these chillis, they are so hot, maybe that explains why so many were unsold, necessitating them to drastically reduce so many of them when their sell by date arrives. those chillis are from kenya and indeed i am pleased to see some countries  still retain the species that produce hot chillis. local chillis are very mild, actually, too mild. like the garlic, so mild that it is useless really…

longest day

london 12.40pm summersolstice 27.1C sunny wednesday 21.6.17

Jun. 21, 2017	Rise	Set
Actual Time	4:43 AM BST	9:21 PM BST

Length of Day

16h 38m Tomorrow will be 0m6s shorter.

it is forecast to hit 34C today but i shall believe it when i see it.

anyway i am sitting here now in my living room, the sun streaming inthrough the window. there is a breeze thank goodness. very pleasant and made better because of the ice cold drink of tap water that i have next to me. i was out earlier, to the sainsburys as i suddenly fancied some nuts… and they have one 550mg for £2.50 (35p/100mg) and those nuts are big too. i was thinking nuts are not sweet, so it might help me eat less sugery stuff so that i dont get too much caries. i am quite conscious of it now that i recently have a dental checkup. nuts are also very filling. i find i cannot eat that many of them as i get full. 

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my dental appointment

london 12.05pm 27.3C sunny tuesday 2017

rather a painless visit to the dentist. both financially and painwise. she recemented the crown, gave me a checkup and a scaling, and it came to £20.60 which is the stage 1 of the scale of fees charged by the nhs. that is rather less than i expected thinking she will charge me for stage 1 and 2 work.nowadays they dont polish the teeth anymore after scaling. and she did not suggest taking bitewing xrays… it might bung up the cost to stage 2, so perhaps just as well she did not take xrays.

since i wont want any fillings even if the xrays shows caries, the xrays wont serve any purpose anyway. in fact, i know there is a potential caries in my upper right first molar… but being an ex dentist, i can assess whether fillings can wait. sometimes caries take a long time to progress… esp if i dont have a sweet tooth, so i can afford to wait and watch it. 

so now i shall have to make sure i put no pressure on that crown. can be a bit difficult, but it means i must resist the temptation to bite anything with my upper front teeth. so will have to chop food small now, instead of tearing it off with the teeth. ah well, if it let me use that crown for another 4yrs i shall be quite satisfied. i think one day it will need to be remade. i asked how much a private crown would cost, she said about £600, and this is with a crown and bridge specialist. i daresay it will be more. 

i had an interesting conversation with the dentist. she said she likes doing root treatments, and in fact is doing a diploma in it. strange isn’t it because it is because of the root treatment , for molars and premolars and their difficulty as i got older that made me give up dentistry. she did not like doing post crowns, saying it was so difficult to get a good impression of the root, so maybe that explains why the previous dentist did not do a laboratory made post. yet, if she do lots of root treatments a lot of teeth will need post crowns afterwards, or in the future. dead teeth are brittle and will fracture over time, or discolour , both good reasons to have a post crown made.

maybe the dental graduates nowadays dont have much experience in getting good impressions of the root… it is a bit of skill to do it. or post crowns made by the laboratory are so expensive now that it is not cost effective to do it on the nhs. that might be the real reason. even in my day as a nhs dentist, it was not very profitable to do it, but i did it anyway, as i was trained to do it and it is the best way… that crown will last a lifetime and wont fall off unless it was hit with a strong force.

 its another pleasant day today, not as hot as before which makes it better. yesterday i was looking at the weather in subang,malaysia ; near my family home, and it was exactly like what we get in london that day, only exception was the humidity… 47% here compared to 80% in malaysia. that might explain why it is so uncomfortable in malaysia but not in london even though the high of about 31C is the same. and i noticed it was just as humid in the night in malaysia. it doesnot abate even at night. in fact it seems to get higher, ie more humid at night and early morning.

isn’t it funny, i just made myself a hot cup of coffee after my meal of hot noodle soup… in this heat, and i still want these hot foods. and me sweating away… haha. though i have noticed that sweating can cool me down. so there is method in the madness. haha. 

added. 4.10pm 28.5C i just got back from shopping in tesco. it is the one near kennington where i have to take two buses to get there, but both times the two buses came so close to each other, i did not have to wait.

even returning, the bus arrived just as i reached the bus stop, so brilliant timing.

anyway i went there to buy coffee and milkpowder. it is sure quick to finish off that 100mg bottle of coffee. it is 79p, gone so much up from 50p which it was for so long. i have got into the habit of having coffee… fortunately, this basic brand is still cheaper than the branded coffee. a lot cheaper actually … compare to those costing £4. if other people finish off a 100mg bottle in 3 weeks like me, just think how much more they will spend if they buy those branded coffees.  though if u compare it to a paid cup of coffee from the coffee shops which  cost £2.70 a cup, i guess it is very cheap. it is all relative isn’t it?

of course u might argue what about the taste. surely a weak instant coffee must taste terrible. perhaps u will be right, but then i find ordinary coffee as sold in the coffee shops not much better really. blame it on my bad taste buds which cannot seem to differentiate good coffee from bad.

in fact, i dont know what bad coffee taste of, as it all taste the same to me just different bitterness…and i dont even add suger. i bet if u add suger it will taste even more the same…  as i paid up and left i saw a woman carrying in her shopping basket a pack of frozen cornetto icecream and remembered that tesco is selling them for £1 for 4. but i was allready leaving the store so did not feel like going back… i guess better not buy any, as i should not be eating any sugery stuff.

and coming back i found that just making ice by putting water in the ice box is so easy and putting it in tap water makes the water so cool and quite delicious actually without adding sugery syrup. in the past i used to think i have to add suger syrup to the drink. it is a habit right? been doing it since i was a kid, so that it never occurred to me that u can drink tap water with ice in it, and it would be quite nice to drink.

it is so cheap to do, to make ice i mean, that sometimes i wonder why simon buys ice costing £1. and then putting them inside the freezer so that it occupies so much space. 

another hot day

london 12.41pm 30.3C sunny monday 2017

cant really help talking about the weather really. it hit a high of 30.6 at 11.47am. and the day is not over yet.

i have just got back from my free breakfast at primeburger in the st pancreas concourse. i got there at about 10am just before a huge bunch of young people clutching the photostat copy of their voucher. haha. and i read in the website that if u order a breakfast you can get a coffee for £1. so i got a cappuchino to go with my bacon bun.

last time i was there , there was a crowd of people sitting by the benches outside the cafe… and this time i was early enough to see them gather. so it was all my fellow voucher eaters. haha. many took it away. i stayed to eat in, and quite pleasant it is, with free wifi, from the st pancreas people, u dont have to give any details if u just use their 10min wifi. u can always log in again if u wish to continue after 10mins.

as usual, it is pricey for what u get. £3.45 for a single component bun. and their coffee comes in a paper cup, and not really very frothy… i would not consider it worth the money at the normal price of £2.70. i think only travellers must be wanting to eat breakfast there. though if i were travelling i would bring my own breakfast or food and coffee in a thermos. haha. from what i see, everyone of the other stalls in that area put their coffee in paper cups too. so u might not really get any better coffee in that area. 

but of course i mustn’t carp seeing it is free after all. and really, if u can afford it, go ahead and give them some business. i have good wishes for them just because they have this free promotion which they dont have to do , it is generous of them really. the rent in that place must be very high. i can only wish them all good things and huge success with the business. as it is they provided me with some fun free food.

i noticed also u can enter their summer festival contest using the number in the receipt. the main prize is a free ticket to the music festival in chelmsford… not of interest to me, but u might get the other prizes of free burgers etc. which i much prefer. but it is all a lucky draw, so u might not get anything at all, which is what happened to me when i entered my receipt number this morning.

i came back by bus which i would not recommend if u are wanting to get to anywhere in a hurry. better take the tube. that area round kings cross is very congested. there was almost stationary traffic going west. those two train stations , st pancreas and kings cross brings in a lot of people and taxis. and then there is the cross london traffic which uses that east west road , it is no wonder it is so congested.

and i was able to get a dentist appointment. i went to the clinic in person, rather than call them for an appointment… as i was passing by… and was given one the next day at 11.15am. that was quick, and i did not even say it was an emergency. just that i want a checkup. it seems i have not been there since nov 2013…(and i only know that because when i got back i wanted to put their telephone number in my address book and noticed the last date i had there was when i had the crown done.)

hope when it is recemented it lasts me another 4yrs. haha. though it is not likely. in fact looking at it i am surprised it lasted that long.

 added 1.16pm. i got a text message from the hospital reminding me of the 29june appointment. they are rather good at sending these reminder text nowadays… it is a long way from the appointment but still it might make people keep it in mind. i certainly will attend as i want to give them back the crutches and the surgical boot. and hope they will reuse it rather than throw it away. 

added/ 9.51pm 27.4C dry 

 

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first time this year that my nhs thermometer is showing the highest temperature. 27C in the flat. in fact, i dont recall it ever hitting this high before.

might it be a record high temperature today?

london 28.7C (it was 31.5C at about 4pm) 8.21pm now sunday 2017

it must be a record high today. i expect the newspapers will be talking of it tomorrow. and maybe monday hitting a further high.

i was out at about 12pm. and also at about 3pm. went to the library in paddington, and later to the pimlico library to print out the voucher for a free breakfast bun for monday given by primeburger in their monday giveaway, ( i had expected another free hamburger, but i guess that is too much to expect them giving out one every monday. i think the next monday might be free chips… still there are a lot of mondays in june and july during the whole period of this promotion…so there might be another one with a free hamburger. )

and experienced this heat. most of the time i was in the bus or the library so i cannot say i was out all the time, far less sunbathing in the sun. must be mad to sunbathe in this heat. but the little community garden near my flat have people picnicking on the grass, and two men were sunbatheing. with long shorts on too, which is silly, if u are going to sunbathe, should wear as little as possible… or u will have a ghastly white middle bit bisecting two burnt legs and upper torso. haha.

but i was not out in the open all the time, so maybe that might explain why i was not very uncomfortable with it.

on the way back from the paddington library, at hydepark corner, i saw they have closed the road to piccadilly, and looking down it i saw the huge towering structure of the juggernaut that the hara krishna people always use when they have this procession to trafalgar square for their annual festival. usually it is held the sunday after the naked bike ride on saturday… so it should have been on 11june. i thought i had missed it, but they are on today… but i decided to skip going there because i dont fancy it with all this heat… they give out real nice herb infused tea and a free meal and lots of bottled water i remember, but this heat is not going to be comfortable. (oh, i just realised that i must have just missed them when they were stopping all traffic at the hyde park corner junction. so that was lucky not to be stuck in the bus waiting for the tail of the procession to clear.)

i suppose when people ask me years later what did i do during the record heat on 18th june 2017 i shall have to say lamely… that i was indoors in my flat with the curtains drawn to keep out the sun and that at about 6pm i slept through it all. haha. interestingly my hay fever was not bad. strange that.

the libraries were blessedly cool i remember, so was the waitrose opposite the library when i went in there looking to see if they have any bargains. they have a lot of reduced priced loaves of bread, but not enough reduced for me. haha.

i guess i am from malaysia and high temperatures are something we dont like really. so this high is not something that excites me. i have experienced worst in malaysia, and it is a commonplace there.

ah well, just another day to endure it and then we get back to normal temperatures.