An overdue update

Hello everyone! I'm still alive! I hadn't wanted to go over a month without updating, but September just trampled all over me like a herd of wild baby elephants... and suddenly I find I've missed my deadline.

So in the last month, I have...

Made significant changes to my diet. Thanks to an unfortunate incident with a mascarpone cheese pasta and this article on "hidden reasons" for weight gain, I realized that I am lactose intolerant. It felt a bit like finding out you had been betrothed to a man you didn't love, as lactose is so pervasive in the things I normally eat! Aside from cheese (which I have as much as twice daily), it's also present in milk chocolate, potato chips (goodbye Lay's Salt & Vinegar!), baked goods, sliced bread, processed meats like cold cuts and sausages, breakfast cereals and milk.

After trial by elimination, I noticed a big difference in my water retention, digestion and in other, more minor symptoms that I'd been experiencing but never thought were related to diet, like asthma and small patches of eczema.

The most significant change was really to breakfast. From cheese sandwiches or cereals with milk, I switched to healthier options like peanut butter sandwiches and fruit with Greek-style yogurt (above). Later on, I discovered over-the-counter supplements like Dairy Care (the local equivalent of the American Lactaid), which help me eat what I like (like desserts!) in moderate doses. And thank goodness there's no lactose in dark chocolate! Meiji for the win!

Went wakeboarding for the first time... almost. K invited Marlon and I to go on a day trip to Batam, Indonesia, for wakeboarding at a cable ski park. We were with an entire gaggle of German men (over twenty of them!), parang Renner Ensemble lang. Haha.

I say almost because I decided to let Marlon represent us in the aqua sports department...

while I lazed, read, tanned and enjoyed the other delights of Batam, such as cheap massages and satay.

Invested in my career. It really makes you feel quite adult when you realize your most significant gadget purchases are no longer for recreation, but for professional use. And I say that with the least amount of shopper's remorse/post-rationalization as I can muster. It also makes you feel quite adult when you realize that you actually paid for these things with money that you earned yourself.

I look forward to learning to create my own personal video projects on my new Canon 550D (which came with a free electronic dry box, tripod and many other freebies!), and learning to edit them on my new Macbook Pro. I guess you could say my mind finally caught up to the reality that I'm no longer "just" a writer, but a producer too.

Celebrated my favorite Singaporean festival. Oh, Mid-Autumn Festival, how I love thee and the mooncakes thee bringeth! At one point, I think we had nine mooncakes at home. My favorite is still the classic lotus seed without yolk (to which mooncake auntie said: "No yolk?! But the moon is the yolk!"), but Lilian gave me this very pretty and very tasty pumpkin mooncake that is a serious contender.

Met up with friends from home. Tons of visitors this month! There was Mira, who came over to visit her Singaporean boy, and Pastor and Pastorella Tica, whom I didn't even get to meet up with anymore...

Sir Jojo, who came over to conduct workshops and prompt Paul into hosting a lovely intimate dinner at his casa...

And preggy Elaine with her hardcore biker hubby, who happened to come over on a weekend when Marlon and I planned a biking trip! Perfect!

Checked a long-standing item off our Singapore "must-do" list. With my (relatively) new-found cycling skills, Marlon and I finally made the day trip to Pulau Ubin, an island off the east coast that is the last undeveloped frontier of Singapore.  The main activity there is biking, so we couldn't have done this until I learned how to bike.

It took the greater part of the day, with some difficult uphill pushes. But it was all worth it—I love to discover new places. And many times, it felt like we weren't even in Singapore anymore.

We had great company in Elaine and Paul and their UP Arki friends. Together, we laughed and camwhored and pushed and biked and walked and finally...

Ate the tastiest, cheapest best chili crab in Singapore. It's on another island, yes, but even with the boat fare it's still cheaper than any on the mainland.

Looking back at these, now I feel better about September having stampeded past; like "Oh, so that's where it went!" And suddenly, now it's October... which brings with it new and exciting developments. Abangan!