Shalom turns 6

Our lil gal finally turns 6. A huge furball with lots of love and certainly a very cheeky babe.

A friend commented that Shalom is lucky to have been adopted by us. I seek to differ. In fact we are so blessed to have her in our lives. Coming home to a furry ball of joy and jumps and licks. After a tiring and long day at work, its so good to be greeted by her and her choice of toy. Yes...her choice of toy. Somedays, it is her octopus, another day the pink slipper, some other days she will choose the dinosaur. It all changes and hehe, she has amassed over 40 toys on her own. I have not included the ones not given to her yet and those from her birthday presents.

It was a fun day in the park with food for the furslaves and furmasters (furkids) alike. Something new that I learnt for the kids, jelly cake! Will be making it for a picnic with the furkids very soon. But I think I will make it with more meat and some mince so that I can achieve a harder consistency. Some of the kids didn't know how to eat the soft ones.

Birthday cake was superb lamb and pumpkin with lots of love and attentin by a wonderful friend Min. Min makes lovely cakes for humans and furkids. Check her out at http://mamamin.wordpress.com/

The 50 party packs finished. We gave to her pals who could not make it too. And think we had close to 40 furkids for the 3 hour picnic. Some kids went into the pond. Shalom being such a water baby, I had a tough time keeping an eye on her. She was making her way to the pond inch by inch and slowly...only to hear her momma scream "Shalommmmmmmm" and the lil one runs back to me. LOL.

It was good to note that one of her friends, a black poodle boy Mika who was so scared of water prior to our Cherating trip, now loves water so much. his slaves for the days Alex and Jacklyn had to hang on ti him for fear that he would get himself all wet by jumping into the pond. They came unprepared with towels.

Human...do you know that a Malaysian fave "Nasi lemak" goes well with Siu Yok (BBQ pork). Amazing combination and definitely potently potent as far as the cholesterol is concerned with coconut milk and pork fat (lard). But thanx to Alex, we discovered that joyous sinful food:P.

Caffeine

Yes...good or is it bad caffeine?

I have a love hate relationship with caffeine. It perks me up when I need that extra kick in the system. Somedays, the body and brains just don't want to work. LOL.

However it becomes a hate when I have such lousy caffeine intolerence. I used to be able to have my at cup of tea - yes Malaysians love our good ol teh tarik by 6pm. These days, the last caffeine form coffee or tea has to be the latest 11am - yes before lunch time. Failing which, I am still very awake even at 4am. Yes, even after more than 12 hours after my caffeine intake, I am wide awake.

So what to do? How do I stay awake after lunch? Green tea, chocolate, even coke is just a bad idea. The caffeine in it will still keep me very wide awake?

I know that when we are sleepy, we should sleep or rest. But not during working hours... So what do I do?

On an interesting note on caffeine. Do you know that caffeine increases the level of circulating fatty acids. This has been shown to increase the oxidation of these fuels, hence enhancing fat oxidation. Caffeine has been used for years by runners and endurance people to enhance fatty acid metabolism.

Interestingly I also read that green tea, unless it is decaffeinated, also contains caffeine. Normal green tea itself may contain more caffeine than coffee, but the length of infusion with hot water, and the number of time you use the green tea leaves can greatly reduce your caffeine intake.