I love nuts

T'was a lazy Sunday and we've been given by a friend a bag full of nuts, macadamia nuts with hard as shell.



She did tell us how to prepare and roast them. So with nothing much to do today, we decided to give it a go. It was actually as simple as she said!!



Oops... Excuse my legs...

After roasting for about 15 minutes, the hardest part was to remove their hard shells. We bought a nut cracker but after a few attempts, it proved useless. NZD5.00 spent for nothing... So we had to use the ultimate hammer to crack open the shell. Bloody hell, didn't expect we had to use such a tool to eat a few nuts eh~

Anyhow the hammer worked perfectly.

One thing, I think we roasted the nuts a bit too long. Because apart from one (out of fifty nuts), most of them are a little burn, but still tasty.




Oh well, first time for everything. Was fun playing with so many nuts thou.

It's Here!!!

After two and a half weeks of long wait, the shoes are finally here!!



As shown in a small diagram a few blogs ago, ziz iz ze real thing



When I went in to pick up the shoes, the lady shop assistant told me: NICE COLOURS COMBINATION!! Wow!! You can just imagine how I felt!!

Oh! In case you haven't noticed yet, at the side of the shoes, there is a small print 'iBong'.



The reason why? Well when I was in the shop tried to think of something that I can come up with for the shoes to make it as unique as I am, an idea came to mind. Lately we have alot of 'i's around eg. iPod, iBike, iSing, iEat, iPood, iSleep etc... I used iBong for the shoes. First of all it is the initial of my first name with full last name combination, moreover, I am in-line with the 'i' fashion.



Not self boasting or anything but I really like the striking combination of bright red and yellow.



And my hubby said to me last night: 'Anyone will see you coming from afar with these colours'. Oh, like I so don't want to catch too much attention...





The only trouble is, now that I have these new shoes, I don't really want to run in it and wear it off... Coz it's so cool!!!

Oishii!!!

Went out with Kelvin and Monica last night for dinner, yup Japanese cuisine.



This little Japanese restaurant is located on the ground floor of Crown Plaza (hotel) and pretty much right by the main entrance.

I don't normally have Japanese food all that often, Sushi is probably the thing I'll eat during regular food court visit. Maybe due to lack of understanding of Jap food and most fried noodle look much more appetizing for me hence I didn't know what do order...



With the help and suggestions from my dear friends, I ordered Miso Ramen (Ramen in Miso soup, quite self-explanatory)



Mmm~ looks nice isn't it? It contain a piece of pork as shown and the meal mostly made out of noodle, vegies, carrots, onion and seaweed.



Although it looked a little oily in the photo but in fact it's not, at all. And it is quite a healthy meal to be honest. Eventhough I finished most of it, I didn't feel stuffed or anything like that.

For all NZD9.00 per bowl, it's well worth the moolah.

Very Oishii!! (Delicious)

Tailor made for me, by me

So this are specs of my shoes,



And this will be how it looks like,



Last but not least, as expected, this is the bill after the long 45 minutes of deliberation of what colours and type of shoes to buy...



Did anyone see the big dent in my pocket? I certainly did...

My Adidas

It's here. The much talked about Mi Adidas!!

From 3rd - 9th August, Mi Adidas is available at Shoe Clinic in Newmarket. Needless to say, I quickly booked myself in for this.



What is it? It is a kind of technology that enable us to measure the size of our feet accurately, the presssure distribution of our feet when running and last but not least, choose our own matching colours for the shoes. It apparently involves four steps:

1) mi Fit - The staff will measure the exactly length and width of my both feet.

2) mi Performance - They will find the pressure distribution and physical attributes of my feet.

3) mi Design - I get to design the shoes layout (colours etc) myself, YAY!

4) mi Delivery - Do I have to explain this...? Shoe will be delivered to Shoe Clinic within 30 days.

Found this Mi Adidas website that enable us to play around with different combinations of colours for a specific shoes we like. After some play arounds, I came out with these:







Appointment is on Saturday 8th August. So before we go in, we still have plenty of time trying out different colour combinations of the shoes. Oh how excited!!

Yes the cost. Mi Adidas will cost us NZD299.90. It is not cheap but most good running shoes cost about the same price here anyway (yes, good shoes are damn expensive in New Zealand). So to pay an extra few more bucks to have my own shoes design by myself and fit my feet nicely, I think it is a good price to pay. Moreover, alot of reviewers said that good running shoes last a long while, so in the long run I am saving money.

But I know on this Saturday, there will be a big OUCH for our wallet!!

Roll in? Roll out?

Many kilometers ago, I used to wear this pair of snickers which we paid NZD19.95 from The Warehouse for various outdoor activities including walking and very seldom, running.



Most of the time, no, everytime when I walked, I always suffered terrible pain around the outer lower part of my shin. They called it shin splint.



That happened way before I decided to try the Half Marathon end of this year. When I started taking up running seriously, I thought to myself this shin splint problem have to stop. Otherwise I will never be able to walk a kilometer, needless to say twenty-one.

Luckily one of our dear friends was a Marathone runner and after I told her my problem, first thing she said to me was: BACK OFF AND STOP RUNNING!! In shock (and in tears, just a little bit, and I mean only a weenie bit) I told her softly, in a shivering voice: But, but... I can't pull out now... She cracked up and said to me chances are I was using the wrong type of running shoe, then kindly lended me a pair of her 'running' shoe she used for fishing (??) Yep that's what I thought.



Ok~ If she said this pair of shoes are good, it must be kinda good, eventhough she wore it for fishing...

It is a pair of female shoes, wore on my feet, might look a bit feminine but hey, I've been gay for so many years, you think a pair of female shoes will make me feel bad?

Surprisingly, after many early mornings,



And after many steps and kilometers,



Shin splint kissed my arse goodbye.

To find out the real cause for this shin problem, we went to Athlete's Foot.



After I stepped on their Fitprint shoe fitting system and did a few tests,



We found out that my feet rolled out when walking/running. No, it doesn't mean that my feet are abnormal, it just mean my feet rolled out when walking/running...

There is a name for it, called underpronation. More information click here.

So, in another words, I'm all roll out.