Cursed with ALDH deficiency

Firstly HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY CLARE!

Sitting at home on a Saturday night feeling sorry for myself and getting teary over Two Weeks Notice (sad sad case).

Tonight was all set to be a huge night… going out to celebrate the young and totally glamourous Clare’s 30th birthday.  Was all dressed up and looking hot (well, about as hot as Gayle can look). Instead I was stupid, had half a glass of champagne, ended up feeling dodgey and went home early leaving everyone else to party on.  Such a wuss. So disappointing.

 

I can’t drink.  Evidence item 1 – our trip to York a couple of years ago. According to foodreactions.org:

“The commonest abnormal reaction to alcohol is seen in persons from an oriental background, who get flushing, increased heart rate, and symptoms of reduced blood pressure. This is sometimes referred to as 'oriental flushing syndrome'. Approximately 50% of Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans are deficient in ALDH, and this has been reported to be protective against the development of alcoholism.”

Where Aldehyde Dehydrogenase (ALDH) is an enzyme that is needed to metabolise the alcohol into acetic acid (vinegar).

 

Turns out I must get hit by this a little more than the average Oriental.  When drinking I go ridiculously pink, my heart races abnormally, sometimes I feel like I’m going to faint, and on some occasions I have.  As a result I think I have developed some paranoia about fainting which makes me panic at any sign of fainting which makes it even more likely!

 

Feeling very left out of all the fun, and I have no one to blame but myself.  You think I would grow up and be more responsible after 33 years.  I guess you could say it is giving into peer pressure… sometimes it is just not fun to be the only sober person surrounded by drunk people.

 

Upside is I got home early, definitely feeling somewhat less nauseous, and have been entertained by some faraway friends on Skype.

 

I also have to admit to having had a gorgeous day with Clare and her beautiful friends on a day trip to Hepburn Springs.  Relaxing in mineral baths/spas followed up by Devonshire tea… what a perfect day.  Didn’t get any photos of the girls (my antiquated camera has been dropped one too many times), but I did get a  photo of the place.  Thanks for including me in the fun girls.  And Clare, hope you had a really special day and night.  Can’t wait to make it up to you with some partying in Melbourne some time soon. xoxo

 

So Hot Right Now…

Well, my promise to blog every day didn’t last  very long, did it.  But more than once in one week is a good start at least :)

Summer is finally here!  After getting up week after week at 6am in pitch black, doing exercise in the dark in a cold sweat with freezing cold hands and whinging continually about it, I’m now complaining about how hot it is.

Perhaps if I think cold thoughts….

Here are some photos from my sister’s Hen’s night at Chill On Ice Bar in Melbourne.

I remember we couldn’t wait to get out of the bar, it was too cold, counting down the seconds till the end of our allocated 30 minutes! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The start of a new regime

So glad summer is here.  Definitely makes getting up at 6am in the morning for exercise easier.  Gets me all excited to get back to doing stuff like waking up (only marginally more likely to happen), going out for a drink, catching up with friends, going for a bike ride… and maybe even updating the blog.

Going to attempt something unheard of here… will try to update each day, even if it is with just a random photo.  Afterall I have about 18 months worth of photos that I still haven’t blogged.

Here’s one now, a rememberance of Autumn now long past.

Little Rant

It's almost 2am in the morning, and I'm up procrastinating and trying to write a report for work. That's f%$&'d up. What am I doing??

It's times like these when any random thought is interesting. Pigging out on Cadbury Black Forest chocoloate...mmm... those chewy cherry bits are so yummy. Starting to feel a bit ill though.

Thinking that I should get over my aversion to jumping on the bandwagon, and start posting photos on Facebook. But then does that almost make this blog redundant? Barely write in it nowadays, no one might notice if I stopped writing it anyway. It's the need to blog well that prevents me from writing more often. Should just get over it and get into the habit of writing frequently.... even if half the time it is rubbish.

Work sucks a bit at the moment. Too much to do in too little time. Think I just need to take some holidays. Over the last 9 months, have taken 1 day of leave and 2 halves of an RDO... probably starting to take its toll now. Should use up some leave.

Bit over having long hair too. But it takes so long to grow, seems a shame to cut it all off. Just had it trimmed... so that should last me another 2-3 months. Then maybe I'll cut it for summer.

Looking forward to the snow. It has been too long since me and my sweet board have been on the powder. The thought of hitting the slopes always makes me both excited and scared. I know the risk of injury is not exactly small... sometimes I wonder why we enjoy it so much. $96 for a one day lift pass... ridiculous! Perhaps it's the beautiful scenery. Maybe it's the exercise. Don't like the speed so much.... wuss.

Hmmm... better get working... have to be up in 4 hours.....

One of the things I miss most about the UK...

The large concentration of Take That fans.

I miss hearing Take That songs regularly on commercial radio, and DJ's actually being excited about playing Take That songs.

Sometimes I feel very lonely here in Australia in my love for Take That. I have been listening to their latest album 'The Circus' and really enjoying it. Perhaps it is a little more 'easy listening' than modern pop, a little closer to what Gary Barlow was writing when he was solo and had no sucess with (just goes to show how well marketing works and the subtleties of it all). Still, I think it's a pretty decent album.

In the UK it was the fastest selling album this decade and second fastest ever, selling 1 million copies in 19 days. It went 6 times platinum in the UK and apparently was the 27th best selling album in the world in 2008.

And yet, I have heard next to nothing about it in Australia.

I'm in Love!

2.5 years ago....

No, that wasn't the last time I blogged, although I must admit that it is not too far off...

An extremely thoughtful group of friends gave me an wonderful birthday present of contributing towards a new bicycle and accessories. After quite a number of months... no, years of procrastinating and waiting for the right moment, my trusty old Shogun Trailbreaker 3 finally started to show signs of wanting to retire.

Thus, behold my new Giant CRX3 (2008 model):

I cannot begin to say Thankyou enough to my generous friends.

She is just beautiful.

After a couple of months of bike shopping, wanting a mountain bike, then being convinced by a salesman to get a hybrid, and being adamant that I definitely did not want a road bike because I needed to be able to ride off roads sometimes, I ended up getting a flat bar roadbike. The guys at Lygon Cycles helped me out with a great deal and set me up with all the necessary accessories.

She rides like a dream. Although I must admit that I never realised that Melbourne had so many badly repaired roads before. Every bump in the road has me worried about my newest love.

But I have made the 20km ride out to the east, complete with two heavy panniers, and so far, no problems at all. Just have to get used to going so fast!

*sigh* - I really couldn't be happier with my new purchase. To you special persons, Thanks again for the Birthday Present! It's perfect.

It's been ages since I've been to the movies, but here are a couple from way back....

Bolt 3D: 3.5/5

Cast: John Travolta (voice)

In a nutshell: The hamster is a pisser. A lot of fun.

Brief Synopsis: Movie star dog who thinks he really has super powers goes on a road trip.

Saw this one in 3D and it was amazing! Gone are the cardboard glasses with the red and blue celophane that you only use for 5 minutes of the movie. These were proper plastic glasses that we used for the WHOLE movie! Even the trailers for up and coming 3D movies, and they were also all in 3D. Anyway, to the movie - great characters and an interesting story line. A bit like ice age for me in that one of the side characters (ie. Scrat in Ice Age and the hamster here) steals the show. Worth a watch, especially in 3D if you have the opportunity.

Bride Wars: 2.5/5

Cast: Kate Hudson (How to lose a guy in 10 days), Anne Hathaway (Rachel Gets Married, The devil wears Prada)

In a Nutshell: Silly and corny, but sorta fun

Brief Synopsis: Best friends have dreamt of the perfect wedding for years, but when their weddings are accidentally booked on the same date, and furious war of sabotage ensues.

Before you set a foot inside the cinema you know what you are going to get with this movie, and so it does not fail to deliver, nor does it exceed expectations in any way. A bit of girly silliness, mostly predictable, nothing particularly special.