Produce that I don’t have to buy anymore

Maintaining the edible garden to always be in good shape is challenging lately because of the return-to-work albeit alternate weeks. It survives so far nevertheless and I am proud to say that I no longer need to buy the following from the market. I have sufficient fresh supply of them.

• Ginger
• Tumeric (and its leaves)
• ‘Ulam raja’
• Curry leaves
• ‘Daun kesum’
• Aubergine
• Green vegetables like spinach & pak choy
• Kaffir lime leaves
• ‘Limau nipis’
• ‘Daun pandan’
• ‘Cili padi’
• ‘Daun sup’

Quite a number for such a small garden. Proud.

Some tips on using clear aligners

As previously posted, I am now embarking on an Invisalign journey.  I’ll be putting the second pair tomorrow.  The first one were fine.  I did not experience any pain.

In preparation for the new pair, I’ve got some ideas, which I think can be helpful in making this journey more bearable.

1. I will not be changing both the upper and lower trays at the same time.  I am going to change one first, maybe the upper one, and leave a gap in between.  I’ll change the lower one when the pain resulting from changing the upper one, if any, has subsided.  But I won’t let the gap to be too long.  Maybe 24 hours at most.
2. To avoid discomfort from eating after changing to the new pairs, I am going to fast on the day I change them.  So, I plan it in such a way that the change takes place early morning, after sahur, on Monday.  Since I change my aligners on weekly basis, I get to fast every week too.  Nice.

My Invisalign journey

I am embarking on another journey 🙂.  A journey to straighten my teeth, especially the upper ones.  I think my two main front incisors at the top are too big and a bit protruding. Because of the size, even small overbyte can be obvious.  They're not too bad actually.  It's just that I think it'll boost my confidence even more if I can have them properly aligned, especially now that we are making more and more online appearance where our faces and mouths are closer to the cameras than ever before.

Captured at a speech I gave
during an online conference

Upon discussion with the dentist, the two incisors are actually of normal size.  But the other two incisors at the sides of them are smaller than average, which make the former two look bigger than they are.  So, it’s these latter two that need to be made bigger.

So, for my case, the Invisalign treatment is divided into two parts.  The first one is mainly to space out the upper teeth to make way for the super small teeth to be enlarged, cosmetically.  The second part is the real journey to straighten them.  So half way through, there will be a rescan for me where another set of trays will be printed, at no additional cost.

My byte before the treatment

After the first scan, I received 25 sets of trays altogether that I am not going to wear all.  I will only be wearing half of them, for about 3 months or so.  Once enough spacing is obtained, the super small teeth will be enlarged and after that, there will be a rescan and I will be receiving a another set of trays to complete the treatment.

The dentist also said that for my case, I can change the trays every week.  Good news.  Looks like I can move my teeth faster and hopefully the journey can be shortened too.

Month 1 - 6/12/2021

With this other journey, I will no longer be too preoccupied with the journey to spotless.  Hope both will end well.

Journey to spotless

Despite COVID-19, I am excitedly reporting about another journey!  A different kind of journey though.  A journey to a spotless face.  Flawless face might be too much to ask at this age.  So I will be fine with having a spotless one.

Ever since not having to go to the office, I have not been religiously applying the skincare regime, thinking that I am safe because I am not being out under the sun while working from home, forgetting that hormonal changes due to aging also play a part.

They're not that bad actually and can be easily covered with a thin layer of foundation.  But if zoomed in, they're quite horrendous.  There are two spots that I am mainly targetting, one of which is shown below.  I will reveal my skincare treatment regime at the end of this post, if it works.

Day 1 - The beginning
6/11/2021

Day 6 - Hardly any change
11/11/2021

Day 11
16/11/2021

It’s difficult to ensure the same focus and exposure.  I try my best to ensure fair reporting nevertheless 😁.  After all, this is amateur work.  I think it's fading.  Not to be overly optimistic though, let’s wait for another 5 days.

Day 16 - After 2 weeks
21/11/2021

The next reporting would be in about another 2 weeks i.e. result after about a month.

Day 30 - It’s still there
5/12/2021

I am actually not quite sure now if it is fading or what.  The thing is, even if it is fading, the skin around it is also probably getting fairer, which, in a way, makes the spot more visible than before.  Nevertheless, I don't expect the positive effect, if any, is going to be very noticeable that fast, especially when the spot has been with me for years.  So I'll come back with update after another 2 weeks, or maybe a month.

New addition to the garden: French bean

Gardening has become part and parcel of my daily routine.  Because of the limited space, same have started to intertwine themselves.

Flowering

Tiny French bean appearing.
The dry flower is still attached to the end of it.

I hope that post COVID-19 way of working will still allow me to continue doing what I’ve been doing for the past one and a half year or so.

Experimenting with upside down planting

This is an option when space is limited where we can not only look at the ground for the needed planting space, but also the space above the ground.  Using used bottles that are cut into half (or quarter depending on how much soil do you want to put), we insert seedlings into them such that the leaves pass through the opening of the bottles like below.  We then create the holes such that the bottles can be hanged.

Day 1: 17 July 2021

Used bottles are abundant at our house and we have this one kaffir lime that has grown so big with lots of branches and twigs such that it offers lots of room for hanging the makeshift pots.  So I have no reason not to give this a try.  Note that this technique is only suitable for plants that creep or climb.

Stages of a long bean

This is what, among others, keeping me occupied during this work from home period.  First thing every early morning before starting my office routine, I wake up looking forward to see the progress of each plant that I grow.

Long beans grow at dedicated stem, different from where the big leaves are.  The stem shoots from between the main stem and the stem of the leaves.

Flowering

Like most other vegetables, it will first flower.  Once bloomed, the flower will fall and you will see the tiny little bean like below.  

Blooming

Drooping before falling

Tiny long bean appearing

Mandarin orange anyone?

After the successful attempt with lemon, well, at least so far, my edible garden adventure continues with another species in the series, mandarin orange.  A pack of them bought recently tasted so naturally sweet unlike others before.  So I decided to try to grow some.  

I collected some 12 seeds from one orange.  I dried them under the sun for a while, the same technique used for the lemon seeds last time.  I peeled three of them and left the rest as they are.  Just to see if this makes any difference.  Experiment.  As usual.  Scientist at heart.  I then covered them with moistened kitchen towel folded according to my creativity and put them in a not-so-tight container for about two weeks to hopefully germinate.

The 12 seeds

The reused container

Putting it on the blog also helps me to keep track of the important dates.  So next update would be by the end of the month, some two weeks from now.

'Ulam Raja' at our edible garden

After a year of dealing the with the COVID-19, it looks like we're all going to return to the office beginning next week.  So ...  No 'new normal' I guess.  Everything will be back to where it was before COVID-19 struck.

While still having some spare time early in the morning due to the work form home, I am experimenting with Ulam Raja, less famously known as Cosmos Caudatus to be a new edition at our edible garden.  Trying to grow them from the stems, after a friend successfully did it.  Yes, the English garden that we once had has now turned into edible garden, which I think will be more beneficial economically 😊

Below is the progress of this experiment.

Day 1.  Not so promising, except perhaps one stem

60 days later on 2nd June 2021

We officially have Ulam Raja at our garden and they have offsprings!

90 days later on 2nd July 2021

So full of Ulam Raja that we can barely see the ground.