Sometimes...

.. you lose some ($$$) in order to gain some (sanity).

**Fingers crossed anyway**

Friday, friday...

Joy, originally uploaded by tearoom.

Don't you just love fridays? More so if you are a working class... :)

I just had a session with the diebetologist (didn't even know such an occupation exists!) this am and looking at my Glucose Monitoring diary, she gave me the all clear and assured that I DO NOT need insulin injection - phew! What a relief. The high readings that I get once in awhile was due to dietary reasons (once I had dessert after dinner and the reading rocketted to 9.0).

And I'm just so totally absorbed in doing my digital scrapping! I've been warned by Mom2Ashley that it is addictive... :) It definitely is. Somehow though, I take about a day or more to complete a scrap. (Going at a snail pace)

Have a good weekend! It's a long weekend here, hopefully can persuade the hubs to bring me to the park. He hesistates due to the high pollen count these days. But I tell him it's good for the baby too! Hopefully that will sway his decision. :P

Waddling at 35 Weeks

Swarovski-Horse
Originally uploaded by Tsu Lin.

Last Mon an old friend Sanny came to London for a visit. Actually, she's just stopping by London on her way back to Holland from a long weekend visit to her husband's cousin's place over in Bath.

We decided to meet up in the city since it's only a bus ride away from my appointment in the morning. We decided to meet up near Oxford St and i thought of making our way to try out the new jap restaurant that took over my favourite jap place (their lease expired so now there is a new owner). This new place doesn't seem to be opened most of the time (Hubs & I wanted to try it out during one of the weekends and they were closed)... And i thought of just walking to the other jap place nearby - Sakura.

Sakura is such a crap place! First of all, they told us that they don't serve Sashimi & Sushi anymore (maybe cos we were there at 3pm). Fine, then when the manager came to sit us, we requested to sit at the back of the restaurant as there were people smoking near us at the tables infront. He had the cheek to say this to us "Sorry, that section is closed. I know of your condition (ie pregnant), but if you don't like it, you can walk out & go to another place." I would have walked out if I wasn't quite hungry. Anyway, Japanese are known to be top notch in their service! That man has obviously been in Britain for too long (although his English is passable). Anyway, the last straw was when the waitress came to take our orders and said that it was their policy to take orders of main dish for every patron on the table. Sanny & hubby was still full from their lunch just an hour ago. We took our coats and walked out of there. Snob restaurants do not deserve anyone's patronage...

We settled into a cafe instead and chatted away for 2 hours... then bade our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I did some window shopping along Oxford St, walking into Gap and looking at the 2 toys I'm most likely to get for the baby later - a monkey & a dog soft toy - both of which makes a sound when you squeeze them! Too cute!

Edit : I don't believe in getting too many soft toys for babies, but I do believe in "educational" toys, toys that will excite a baby's 5 senses.

Exactly 31 days..

..till the little baby emerges. Meaning only 1 more month before I can see, touch, smell, hear and cuddle her!

Exhilarating yet scary at the same time.

Experimenting with brushes

Baby's first pair of shoes :)

The last week, I was busy downloading and reading on tutorials about how to (effectively) use brushes in Photoshop after enviously looking at so many blogs with beautifully done up pictures. There are just so many things you can do with brushes, and various techniques of using them.

Here are some useful sites that I found for Photoshop tutorials or for PS brushes:
Brushes Tutorials on "Tutorialized"
Brushes tutorials on Photoshopbrushes.com
Free brushes and tutorials at Tutorialblog

From Oxford to Oxford St...

Last Thur was Eil's last day staying at our place, and since the hubs has some "team bonding" activity going on during dinner and will be home late, I thought I'd go gallavanting around town with Eil - do some spot of shopping/window shopping and maybe go to a park!

First, she needs to get rid of her luggage (moving form my place over to another friend's place in Notting Hill/Bayswater area), so we made our way there. Our experience commuting in the Underground as a one pregnant lady and one petite lady lugging around a huge luggage didn't even bat any lashes. NO ONE gave up their seats for me, NO ONE volunteered to help Eil carried her luggage when we were standing at a bottom of a flight of steps. LONDONERS!

Anyway, after depositing the luggage safely at her friend's place, we headed for some roast duck around the corner. The "famous" roast duck - I told her i want to try out the new place (apparently the chef moved from one shop to the other shop a few doors down the road). We had a hearty meal - half a duck and a plate of veges. Eil decided that she couldn't finish the duck so I happily devoured the whole dish. Of course, my tummy by then felt like it will burst due to the amount of food I was consuming :)

After a very satisfying meal, we headed for Harrods. Every new tourist MUST visit this place, no? We did window shopping here mostly. We headed to the LV counter to check out their collection as Eil will be going to Paris for a few days with her hubby and LV is cheaper there. Oooh, such eye candies!

We then went around taking photos (illegally) around Harrods. Not noticing that there was a sign at their Egyptian Stairs that forbids photography. Well, too bad, we noticed it AFTER we took the photos.

Window display at Harrods
After spending a good amount of time in Harrods, we left empty handed.
Since the day wasn't sunny, we decided to do just indoor shopping and skip the park sight-seeing activity. Eil wanted to go to the new Primark in Oxford St again. So i obliged her and went along (I needed some tunic tops as well).

Gaah! It was madness in Primark - for clothes this cheap, it's no wonder. People everywhere, clothes strewn everywhere and the Primark sales assistants scrambling to put back every clothes that is strewn after each customer's browsing through them. The queue for the cashier till was l-o-n-g, so is the one for their changing room. Eil was excited again, and filled her basket up quickly! I browsed and chose some items and happy with them, I told her I have to go home (my legs at this point were almost giving up!). We hugged and said our goodbyes, with me wishing her a happy tour of Europe (with her hubby).

After a day of walking, the swelling on my feet
Went back and had dinner.. and rested after a rather interesting, fun-filled but tiring day out!

3rd Trimester

All the classic signs of being in the third trimester I've experienced/ am experiencing.
(click on it for a larger view) (Credits : All papers & embelishments are from ShabbyPrincess)

1. Mild oedema on both my legs. Sometimes it goes away after I had exercised (walking), sometimes it doesn't. The midwife reassured this is normal.

2. Baby has a funny way of marking her territory - if I attempt to sleep on my right, she'll give me a good kick! And if I still do not budge, she'll kick somemore until I turn to sleep on my left.

3. Backache is intensified by the weight of the growing baby. (I already have bad back before being pregnant, now it gets worse)

4. Groin pain - yes! One of the "joys" of pregnancy - I've been having this since week 24. The pain is usually felt more when I get out of bed or when I get up from sitting down.

5. Waddling - walking like a penguin is a classic sign of a pregnant woman, of course my waddle is more obvious due to my backache. -_-"

6. Gestational diabetes (GD - diabetes induced by pregnancy) : The most horror of all. NHS (National Health Service) requires those with GD to monitor our blood glucose level (within 4.0 - 7.0). To do this, I was given a glucose monitoring test kit - consisting of the GM Meter, test strips, lancelets lancets (ie NEEDLES!) and the lancelet lancet launcher (ie the thing tht pricks your finger). So far, I am on diet control. I've also been referred to the dietitian for this purpose (to tell me what I should include in my diet, and what to omit). SURPRISINGLY, chocolates (plain milky ones) and ice cream (all provided they do not have bits in it - caramel/chunks of sweet-coated stuff) are not bad for a diebetec! I've also switched to eating Basmati rice.

But pregnancy does have its "perks". People sometimes do give up their seats in the bus for me; At a retailer's check out counter, I get prompt service (at their counter for people with disability or pregnant ladies). :)