Here's My Story

Magician: Apprentice , Magician: Master and Silverthorn are volume one, two and three of the Riftwar saga (I wrongly stated it was the Magician series), with volume four being the last of the saga (there are more series after that). The first two volumes can be read separately from the latter two volumes, judging from the story. I recently finished reading this book. Quite engaging but I do expect more climatic scenes in volume four. Thankfully there isn't a glaring puzzling thread in this story, unlike the one I spotted in Magician: Master (spoiler). Hope volume four is better!

"Use caution - One does not simply walk into Mordor". Hahaha

SBB: Ok, what's on our evil agenda? Master Ear: Our? Panda: I see no evil. Dog Dog: Oooh oooh is that a human I can manja with?

I would like to discuss, with those who have read this book, about its ending, which is baffling to me. So, spoiler ahead for those who haven't read it.

"My dear man," he said, returning to character, "I seek to purcahse a cloak, not establish an annuity for your grandchildren." - Arutha, trying to bargain with a garment seller over a red cloak.

I had headache from the pressure exerted by my pseudo-sinus recently. Usually, at the first sign of it, I'll take a decongestion but this time, I experimented and tried not to take it. It occurred almost immediately after I woke up. Light exercise helped to elevate it a little but temporarily. Sometime in late afternoon, I did sinus rinse. Helped a little but again temporarily. Finally, after dinner, I did take Fedac, supposedly drowsy. True to form, I was drowsy about 3 hours later. I played 'Plants vs. Zombies', read 'Magician: Master', showered, read the book again and then off to bed. The next day, I felt normal. No more headache. Phew.

William has kindly lent me four books of Raymond E. Feist's Magician series. Surprisingly, I finished reading Apprentice shortly after. Surprising because I was doing a host of other things each day but then again that usually happens when it's an interesting book. Interesting and enjoyable, it is. It's my first time reading a book by Feist. I'm looking forward to read the rest of th books (I so miss libraries in Singapore!). I've started reading Master and I laughed out loud...twice when reading this: The few magicians left within his faction are overtaxed, and it is rumored he will be unable to subdue any more of your world without a mircale. It would take a united High Council - which should happen when the Thun raiders become agriculturalists and poets, and not before - or a large number of Black Robes agreeing to do his bidding. The latter should occur about a year after the former, so you can see he is in a somewhat poor political situation. - Hoco...

Ever since I own a car, I've been tracking the cost of petrol as I'm curious to know how efficient its petrol consumption is. I learned this from my father: take note of the mileage of the car right before pumping petrol to full tank. Take note of it again the next time petrol is pumped in to full tank, as well as the cost of the petrol for that pump. Petrol cost rate = Petrol cost / (mileage at the start - mileage at the end). Here's the result thus far: At the beginning, it was quite high and then it dropped before going back up a little. The drop and the subsequent ameliorated increase was likely due to me starting to drive to-and-fro Seremban. Driving on the highway generally is more petrol efficient (i.e. lower petrol cost rate) than driving within town because of the lack of need to regularly use the brake pedals and also the higher chance of maintaining at a constant speed for longer period of time. Till now I still believe that the petrol cost rate of 8cent...

Recently, I felt that I was on the verge of full-blown illness. I'm not entirely clear why I felt that way. Maybe of the unusual number of sneezes? The weird dreams? The tiredness? So, I tried my hardest to prevent whatever it is from bearing fruit. I drank herbal tea, lightened my exercise a little bit, skipped yoga class, careful not to be exposed to cold atmosphere and slept a little more than usual. Took me about a week but it seem to have worked. Phew! Seldom this works and so I'm glad it did. On a side note, recently I bought a bag of 10 apples, costing about 89 cents each. Cheaper than normal but they were not gala apples, which I usually buy. They were rose apples (not to be confused with 'jambu air'). I vaguely recall that these apples were too sour for me but these ones tasted ok. Unfortunately, every single of them caused me gastric after eating :(

I came back from Seremban to find Ban had very late lunch. Why? Because (drum roll, please)....he slept late. (cheyyyyy, nothing new). Nevermind. That was expected. Then he told me he canceled Ironclaw session that night. Why? Because (deserved a drum roll here, please)...he was sick! What? He was a little sick before I left two days prior and then his sickness worsen. What did he do? Slept late! He didn't deny that he was naughty, which likely meant that he was playing games. It's not unusual that he plays late into the night, sleeps late and sometimes has late lunch, when I'm not around but I get worried when he also does that when he's sick. Any idea how to help him change this habit, at least for the situation when he's sick?

This time it costs a little more than last time i.e. RM3.80 but took more meat and vegetables. Still a great deal for regular customer hehe. Delicious too! *thumbs up*