Don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel and watch my other videos.  See if you can find the one where I burp!  LOL!

Time for a name change methinks!!!

Ling Tung sounds so much better than Ling Choong, but maybe I just need to bite the bullet and do it.

Anyway, will be revamping the good old blog shortly and it will also have a name change!  I am thinking of renaming it from Ling Tung’s Extracts of Me to Ling’s L.I.F.E. (Lifestyle, Inspiration, Food, Entertainment) – what do you think?  Or do you have any other suggestions?

5 Things I Do

1.  Most of my free time is spent on my beauty blog.  Although, I am unpaid, I call it “work” because hopefully one day, it may lead to more opportunities.  I am basically a guinea pig and test a lot of products on a daily basis so I can write open and honest reviews there.  If it’s a good day for photos, I take plenty of photos which then require resizing, editing and watermarking.  And then, it’s about writing it and making it sound interesting.  I also dream about new ideas for the blog because I get bored writing reviews so I like to think outside the box and come up with a different angle.

2.  When I’m not writing, I’m reading.  I love reading and devouring words.  Most of the time, I read online articles from blogs (beauty, fashion, celebrity gossip, food, parenting, bridal, design, dental…) to current affairs.  I read nearly everything except sports and politics.

3.  Contrary to popular belief, I am not a Facebook addict, but I love Twitter – but I know I won’t die if I don’t go on it.

4.  2-3 times a week, I will go to the Gym to exercise.  Exercise releases endorphins and it makes me happy!

5.  I drink copious amounts of tea.  I like English tea, green tea, jasmine tea… I love tea!

5 Things I Don’t Do

1.  Somehow I don’t eat regularly.  I cannot be bothered making breakfast or lunch so I will eat junk food…and sometimes, if I’m emerged in “work” (i.e. blogging), I will actually forget to eat until the Husband calls me and tells me to eat!

2.  I’m allergic to housework.  Okay fine, I’m a princess and I don’t do housework voluntarily.  In fact, the other day, Hubby came home and found me washing dishes.  He was immediately suspicious and asked me, “What do you want…??”  And I said, “Nothing!”  But that’s because I had already bought what I wanted!!  And it was Hello Kitty goodies!  HAHAHA!!!

3.  I don’t answer the phone.  The house phone will ring a few times during the day but I rarely answer it and when I do, I scream down the phone like a madwomen.  They are annoying telemarketers!  This also applies to my mobile phone.  I don’t like talking to people on the phone so even when my guy friend from Sydney rang me the other day, I looked at it and ignored it.  I am SO weird!

4.  I don’t watch TV.  I don’t!  I fall asleep if I do.  Like I said, I am a person who reads and not watches!

5.  Even if I don’t have to work, I rarely sleep till after 9am and I don’t take naps during the day.  I am an insomniac so I sleep maybe 5-6 hours a day max.  And it is mostly broken sleep.  I go to bed around 3am and it takes me a while to wind down before I sleep.

Anyway, I am a boring gal.  What do you get up to in your free time?

A few weeks ago, we went to see the Obstetrician – a doctor who deals with women’s reproductive system..most likely a Gynaecologist at the same time as well.  (And can someone tell me why there are so many male Obs/Gyn???!!!  Do the words Father Green in French come to mind…?  Okay, sorry…I’m so rude haha!)  Didn’t blog about the visit so I do apologise but he was one of the most professional doctors I have seen for a long long time!  Spoke well, answered questions, VERY helpful and maintained good eye contact.  Couldn’t stop praising him afterwards because he restored some of my faith in the Aussie healthcare system.

And then yesterday, we went to see the geneticist at the IVF clinic.  It started off really badly because we got taken into the office and the Nurse started talking about the prices.  I was like, “Wait a minute!  Why are we talking about prices?”  She said, “No, we’re not going to get you to sign anything and make you pay…blah blah blah…”  And guess what?  It was a case of mistaken identity.  Wrong couple.  But the prices were enough to put me off.

By the time we did sit down to chat to the Geneticist, I let the Husband do more talking than he done at the visit with the Obstetrician.  Instead, I analysed the Geneticist.  Looks like a lab geek with glasses and geeky hairdo – tick!  Dresses like a lab geek – tick!  Talks like a lab geek – tick!  Mannerisms of a lab geek – tick!

Yes, as you can see, I was not paying attention.  I lost interest when I learnt about the high costs.  There is no way, with Hubby’s apprentice wages plus my 1-day a week job, that we will be able to afford IVF.  We can barely pay our day-to-day living costs, without my parents’ support.

I know!  Damn me for being 31 and still living off my parents!!  Damn him for living off his wife and her parents!!  LOLOLOL!!!

So there you go – with no means of being able to afford all the expenses involved in IVF, would you gamble?

So if we gambled, we would either have :-

a)  1 in 4 chance of baby having the problem which means death becomes it…
b)  3 in 4 chance of healthy baby – yay!

But if it is a), then there are more problems to face and that is – To Abort Or Not To Abort? – bearing in mind our Christian beliefs…

And I shall leave it there…

Till next time…

The Tung Sisters from me to the youngest

Yesterday, Sis 2 messaged me out of the blue to tell me she had been involved in a major car accident where she had clipped the kerb while it was raining heavily at 1am and the car had flipped upside down.  She was then taken to A&E where she was X-rayed and bandaged up as her legs were cut with glass.

Sis 2 then also apologised for killing my car, Koyoti.  Koyoti was my beloved yellow VW Polo which I bought back in my university days.  And how I managed to buy this car was from compensation money I received as a result of being a car crash victim which you can read all about here.

First and foremost, I was thankful that she was still alive and relatively unharmed.  It’s really difficult when my family are on the other side of the world and I can’t be there when events like this happen.  Thank God for keeping her safe!  She was told that she was lucky to be alive!  And no, she hadn’t been drinking alcohol…but she had been out late at night!!

I think she was scared to tell me that she had wrecked my car.  And yes, I will admit that I had a moment of “OMG!  Why are you out so late?  If only you hadn’t, then you could have avoided all this mess!” but I didn’t convey this message.  Instead, I was just grateful that she was live and kicking.  Fine, my car is wrecked but as long as no-one was hurt.

My parents are very Asian and anal so I can imagine them nagging Sis 2 non-stop.  ”I TOLD you not to go out late!”  ”I told you to drive carefully!”  blah, blah, blah!!!

It’s times like this where I wish I was closer to home…  It’s coming up to nearly a year since I was back in the UK and I am still trying to settle into life in Melbourne.

Anyway, will stop rambling and head to bed.  I urge everyone to drive carefully!

Get well soon, Sis 2!

EDIT : OMG!  Just realised how freaky our car crash dates are!  Mine was 04/10/98 and Sis 2 was on 06/10/11!!!  13 years on…!!!

Aha!  I caught your attention there, didn’t I?  Well, it’s not technically true about me cheating on my husband…but there is semi-truth to this story which I am about to share with you all.  There were two incidents which happened yesterday and today.  Allow me to share :-

1.  She touched my breasts!!!

A while ago, I won a competition with the prize being a pampering session at a Thai spa place.  So yesterday, I toddled along to my pampering session which started off really well with a nice foot soak followed by a mini massage which relaxed me.  I was then led to my own room where I was told by the Massage Lady to strip off, put on a pair of paper knickers and lie face down on the massage bed.  If you know me, then you will know that I am too polite and shy to say no, so I went along with this.

So for the next 10 minutes, I was lying face down getting a body scrub.  I did feel rather violated when she lifted up the back of the paper knickers into my butt crack to scrub my butt.  I just buried my face into the pillow and pretended I was somewhere else.  However, I was not prepared for this next part.

“Turn over please.”  

In my head, this was not a request but a demand.  I swallowed hard and turned over….oh wait, she covered me with a cloth for my top half and proceeded to scrub my legs.  I relaxed a little…

…until she finished with my legs and then lifted off the cloth.  Oh yes, she did.

I closed my eyes in horror as her hands made her way to my chest, rubbing in the body scrub and massaging body parts which only my Husband should be touching and nobody else!!!!!

Of course, being the Oscar-winning actress that I am, my expressions did not give anything away.  My fists were unclenched and I acted as if this was the most normal thing in the world.  Of course, females massage my boobs all the time.  Pfft!  Inside, I was dying and if you examined me closely, you would have noticed that my jaw muscles were tense as my teeth were clenched shut.

It felt like she was massaging my chest forever.  I wondered what my nipples were doing…I wondered what we would have for dinner…I wondered how I could explain this to the Husband…I wondered what his reaction would be…I knew he would laugh…and he did when I told him later what had happened.

Of course, I didn’t cheat on my Husband as I felt no sexual feelings WHATSOEVER but you know…I felt like I had cheated on him.  Just because.  Too intimate for my liking.  Ugh.

2.  I had coffee with my ex-boyfriend!!!

Say what???  No, I’m just exaggerating here.  Hear me out.  So I went for this job interview today.  Instead of the usual dentist job interview where I go to the dental surgery and get quizzed by the principal dentist, I was approached by a recruitment agent and told to meet at a cafe where we could have an informal chat to see if I would be suitable for his client (i.e. the principal dentist).  Before anyone gets too excited, this is just a short-term job (aka locum) for 5 weeks.

Our appointment was at 4pm, but he was late.  30 minutes late in fact.  I was punctual as usual.  I entered the cafe where there were no other customers.  I sat down and ordered an iced coffee.  Meanwhile, I didn’t want to look like a loser so I brought out my phone and started to read some emails and whatnot.  10 minutes later, I got bored and started to let my imagination wander.

I thought to myself…I wonder what the staff at the cafe think of me.  I wonder if they are thinking of me.  Maybe they think I’m on a blind date.  Maybe they think I’ve been stood up by a blind date.  Oh my gosh!  Who goes on blind dates these days?  Oh wait, I know she does.  Talking of dating, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything dating on my blog.  I wonder if I can think of a good post to write on blind dates on my blog.  I wonder if anyone reads my blog these days.  Maybe it’s time to update it tonight.  Yeah, good plan.  Oh wait, aren’t I supposed to be doing some housework while Hubby studies for his exams…?  Why is this guy taking so long?  Oh…is it this Chinese guy who’s just walked in?  Give him eye contact.  Okay, look away…it’s not him.  Oh my gosh!  Do you think that Chinese guy thought I gave him “the eye”??!!!  Flash your wedding ring.  Yes, flash it in his eyes.  30 minutes…what is going on?  Oh wait…it must be him!

In walks the Recruitment Guy.  I contemplated standing up but then I didn’t.  He looked at me and I looked at him.

“Hi, I’m Ling” and shake his hand.  Firm handshake.  I am a professional, dontcha know?!

He sits down and orders an OJ.  The waitress says, “What?”  He says, “Orange juice” and she says, “We don’t have orange juice.”  A cafe that doesn’t serve orange juice??  Bizarre!

Anyway, he starts talking and I am trying to look and act professional here.  I maintain eye contact and nod along to what he is saying, but at the back of my mind, I just know that there’s something about him.  Something.

I am usually very good at multi-tasking but it gets a bit difficult when we’re talking business here.  It’s not until he takes a sip of his green tea when it hits me!!!

And it hits me HARD!

O.  M.  G!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s HIM!!!!

Recruitment Guy has the same teeth and jaw structure as a guy I once dated.

Stop staring!!!!!!

Don’t smile!  Oh my gosh.  The smile is the same.  The front teeth are the same.

Don’t look…don’t look…DON’T LOOK!!!

But it’s too late.  And suddenly, instead of a job interview, I feel like I’ve rewinded time and I am on a date with an ex-boyfriend.

Of course, I know it’s not him.  But you know, sometimes some things trigger buried memories which should stay buried.  Ugh!

The annoying thing is that I will have to see Recruitment Guy again for the interview at the dental surgery.  I must not look at his teeth ever again.  *shudders*

Of course, I tell the Husband this as soon as he gets home.  And of course, he laughs and moves onto the next subject.

And there you go, ladies and gentlemen.  I’ve had an interesting two days where I somehow cheated on my Husband, involuntarily!!!

So let me know if you’ve got any “cheating” stories to share.  After all sharing is caring.

Confused..??  Read all about it in my #GASPFAIL #GASP post on my other blog!  Today, it broke all of my stats records as traffic to that blog went into the 1000+ range!  WOOHOO!!!  Check it out here!!!

So we had our Genetic Counselling session today…and to be brutally honest, it was a waste of time.  She told us stuff that I already knew – thanks to Google and my medically trained brain.  In fact, she was stumped by the questions I asked her.  So stumped that we shall now see not 1, not 2, but 3 more specialists to answer my neverending questions – the “Alpha Thalassamia Guru”, the “Obstetrician” and the “IVF Specialists”.  I asked about adoption in Australia and…she said…”Google it!”  NO JOKE!!!

I don’t know how many times I have to say this because some people don’t seem to understand how serious this is…  It’s got to the point where I just ignore what some people say because they just don’t understand.

YES, I KNOW there is 75% chance that we will have a healthy baby.  BUT WHAT IF?

The EARLIEST they can diagnose the problem is 14 weeks.  FOURTEEN WEEKS!!!  That’s a long LONG time.  So what would I do?  Would I deny it if people asked if I was pregnant?  (HECK, people already suspect I am pregnant when it’s just FAT!)

Definitive testing through chorionic villus sampling which has 1% chance of miscarriage.

Amniocentesis has 1 in 200 chance of miscarriage.

And then, imagine…just imagine…I find out at FOURTEEN WEEKS that there is a problem.  What next?

Basically, alpha thalassaemia major babies are “INCOMPATIBLE WITH LIFE”!  - These were the Genetic Counsellor’s exact words.

I wanted to know when such babies would die.  She said shortly before or just after birth.  But what are the stats?  Tell me more!  She didn’t know.  Refer to “Alpha Thalassaemia Guru” (her words, not mine).

When I asked what would happen if I refused termination if this were to happen, she looked at me…rather shocked…  She said that after working in the field for over 10 years, she had never seen a couple continue with such pregnancies.

Why is that?  There are complications for the mother.  What complications?  She didn’t know.  I wanted to know the exact statistics of death.  She didn’t know.  Refer to “Obstetrician”.

She wasn’t entirely sure about IVF.  Refer to “IVF Specialist”.

Don’t know why I am upset considering I knew this months ago.

How would you feel if you got pregnant and had to wait 14 weeks to find out if it was an alpha thalassamia major baby who is “incompatible with life”?  Would you be happy arranging a termination appointment…or would you be happy to wait till it died naturally – and if so, risk dying along with it??

YES!  There you go!  SO DON’T TELL ME THAT THERE IS A 75% CHANCE OF EVERYTHING BEING OKAY!!  BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW EITHER!  And if the 25% were to happen…what then?  Yes, you can carry on living your life…whereas I…well…WE would have to go through with whatever we decide!

Gosh, I’m such a drama queen sometimes!  I need to lighten up!  Apologies, but life is pretty stressful at the moment.  Some light-hearted food posts shall be making its way here sometime this week – *pinky promise*

1.  We got our blood test results back and it is confirmed that the alpha thalassaemia trait that we both have is the severe one.

2.  We have our first Genetic Counselling session tomorrow morning and I have somewhat mixed feelings about it.

3.  I am sick and tired of people asking me if I am pregnant when I have just put on weight.

4.  A complete stranger asked if I had just given birth!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Rude, much??  After much consideration, I realise I am EXTREMELY annoyed because I’m at a point in my life where it’s not me who thinks I am fat, but others think I am fat!!!

5.  I have officially joined the gym…but it doesn’t mean that I go every day!  I have some funny stories about the gym…which I will share another day.

6.  My birthday celebrations appear to be never-ending!  On Friday, Mr and Mrs B took us out for a lovely dinner.  Thank you!

7.  Job-hunting remains unsuccessful as I don’t hear back from another interview.

8.  Still seeing a physio for my persistent back pain which has now moved onto my neck.

9.  This week, I have been loving the sunshine in Melbourne and the Mr bought me daffodils which are my FAVOURITE flowers in the world!

10.  I know there are more than 10 sentences in this post.  I can count!  And I am 99% certain that I will update tomorrow because of the Genetic Counselling.  I have a feeling I will get upset as I am getting upset thinking about it!  SIGH!  I hate my female hormones!

Fancy Oriental Lunch Review

Sunday Lunch time is always busy in Box Hill eateries and Fancy Oriental was no exception.  The waitress who pointed us to an empty table must have forgotten about us because after a few minutes of sitting there looking like lost sheep, we had to ask a passing waiter for menus.  The laminated Lunch menus are written in Chinese with poorly translated English – but what put me off was that a number of items had been crossed out with black marker pen.  I also noticed that the free serving of Chinese tea was not offered to us – damn them!  I love free stuff and I love Chinese tea!

It was a warm-ish day and I spied Hong Kong Cold Milk Tea on offer so I ordered that whereas The Husband ordered a Hong Kong Cold Milk Tea & Coffee.  The drinks were okay – but I won’t be ordering them the next time I go in for lunch.  I want my free Chinese tea!!!!

If you don’t know me, then let me tell you that I am incapable of making decisions when it comes to ordering food.  I feel weirdly selfish if I insist on ordering a specific dish which only I, myself, can eat.  For example, my Husband, cannot eat prawns as he is allergic to them and even though, I love prawns, I never order a prawn dish because it means I cannot share it with him.  He, on the other hand, will happily eat a cheeseburger in front of me – and I’d rather go anorexic for a day than eat a cheeseburger – YUKKIES to the max!

Anyway, I let him do the ordering and he successfully picked two dishes that I secretly wanted to choose!  YAY!

Eggplant in XO Sauce Noodles was dumped in front of us minutes after ordering.  Presentation is clearly lacking but we were hungry so we dug in.  Meatlovers may not like this non-meat dish, but I loved it.  The eggplant (or aubergine as I would prefer to call it) was soft and gooey and sweet – and very fattening from being deep fried.  The thick noodles were cooked perfectly and had this lovely shrimp XO sauce running through it.  (He had to stop eating after a while because well…the shrimp got to his throat…poor boy and his allergies!)  Would I order Eggplant in XO Sauce Noodles again?  Oh yes!!!  Do I care about the calories?  La-la-la-I-can’t-hear-you!!

And the second dish was Deep Fried Fish with Sweetcorn on Rice - which looked like cat vomit (not that I’ve ever seen cat vomit!)  At first, he looked at me and I looked at him.  I think it must have just hit him that there was no MEAT!  LOL.  The thick eggy creamy sweetcorn sauce hit the right spot.  It reminded me of my childhood in my Dad’s takeaway where I ate chicken and sweetcorn soup every single time I was there!  There were six chunks of fish which had been deep fried with a light coating of flour – nothing impressive as the fish wasn’t straight out of the sea.  Rice lovers will love this dish because this bowl is filled with epic servings of rice!  We couldn’t stomach all of it!

Total bill for lunch was around $25.

Fancy Oriental Dinner Review

It was Saturday night and we umm-ed and ahh-ed a long time before we decided that it was MY turn to decide where to eat.  And so I chose Fancy Oriental.

I got my Chinese tea…I got my Chinese tea…but I don’t think it was free because it was served in a teapot with tea cups (whereas during lunch hours at our previous visit, tea was served by staff with plastic cups…)  Ah well, never mind…

I thought we could choose $10 meals like we did on our first visit, but it turns out that the menu which we looked at last time was a Lunch Menu.  Main dishes were on average around $20 and the cheapskate me was none too pleased.  The Husband, on the other hand, was hungry and keen to order, so he ordered Salted & Century Egg with Spinach and Fried Beef Ribs, Eggplant in Honey Black Pepper.

A couple of minutes after taking our order, the waiter plonked two bowls of soup on the table.  What was I thinking?  I was thinking FREE soup!  NICE!!!  This Chinese soup is the pork and orange carrot and the green carrot (hence the green oil swimming on top of the soup)- if you don’t know what this means, then either your Mum is not Chinese or if she is Chinese, then she has failed you as a Mother!!!  No, I am kidding.  My Mum makes this all the time and it stinks out the house because of the “green carrot” shizz, but it is still tasty.  The Fancy Oriental version was pretty average and I couldn’t taste any MSG so that was good.

If you’re Popeye, then Salted & Century Egg with Spinach is perfect for you.  This dish is packed full of greens!!!  Both of us love eggs – chicken eggs, salted eggs, century eggs!!  The cubed pieces of egg had been mixed with pieces of ginger (I love ginger!), slices of carrots and odd sprigs of beansprouts and all this paired with spinach was a perfect combo.  It was a popular choice as I spied it on another table in the restaurant.

The Fried Beef Ribs, Eggplant in Honey Black Pepper (Sauce) arrived in a metallic version of a claypot (does that mean it’s a metalpot??) and I think it would have been more impressive if it had been delivered with sizzle.  Sizzling dishes always appeal to me.  Anyway, this dish is jam-packed with fried aubergine (which was a tad oily) and the odd pieces of thinly sliced beef ribs.  The sauce was delicious.  The black pepper cut through the sweetness of the honey making it very appetising with steamed rice.

We managed to finish both dishes, even though it was a struggle.  I asked him if he would come back to Fancy Oriental to eat again.  He said, “Yes, but not for dinner.”  Just as he was about to head off to pay, the waiter plonked down two bowls of Chinese dessert.  The Husband promptly said, “Dessert??!!  I’m coming back for dinner again!”

The Chinese dessert was the hot sweet soup (“tong sui”) which had red bean, sago, black glutinous rice and barley bathed in a coconut milk type.  Do NOT ask me for the English translation – there is none I know of.  I’m not a huge fan of desserts but I liked this one – not too sweet and not too creamy.  I finished it even though I was already stuffed to the max.

Total bill for dinner was around $37.

Fancy Oriental In A Nutshell

• Service :  So-so.  “Dear Staff, just because we look Chinese, we don’t speak Mandarin Chinese!”
• Menu Choices :  Nice range but please sort out the dodgy English
• Food :  Tickled our fancy!
• Toilets :  Didn’t have the urge to pee so haven’t checked out the Ladies yet
• Value For Money :  Worth it –  but a moment on the lips and a lifetime on the hips!
• Recommend : Yes, of course!

Fancy Oriental
606 Station Street, Box Hill