Pain pain pain

Firstly, I suppose I owe the spouse an apology for dissing him and his pain management skills. So, ok lorr, sorry ah.

But I honestly think men are useless at managing pain. This is gross generalization but most men I know are wusses when it comes to dealing with pain, and this applies to pain of all kinds.

Men seem to think that physical pain is a platform for them to practice their expertise at wailing or moaning. Compared to how women manage pain, men are total babies.

But then again, since I am not the sympathetic, manja type of person, I am also the kind of person who will not see the point in all that moaning and groaning. That’s because I see that my life would be curtailed considerably if I gave in to the physical pains I have to endure. Since they’re already there and I’m trying to fix them, I don’t see the point of making more of it than it is. But then again, even from a very young age, I’ve been exposed to various states of physical pain so it’s become second nature to me to have aches and pains. My threshold for pain must be one of the highest of the people I know. (I challenge anyone to go neck and neck with me on one of those electromagnetic massage machines where they attach either the pads or clamps onto acupuncture needles and they run electricity through them to stimulate the nerves/muscles. I’d beat anyone hands down.)

But then again, I’ve been to so many doctors and chiropractors and have heard of so many fancy sounding aliments that most conditions you throw at me won’t faze me. It’s just another fancy name for a physical condition.

I’m more concerned about getting rid of it and living with it if I have to.

So yeah, I’m a total bitch when it comes to feeling sympathy or empathy for other people’s physical pain. If I can suck it up, I don’t see why other people can’t. After all, it’s only physical.

So bite me.

Tag Central

So this is what people get up to when there's nothing to do at work. Well, at least I don't have to think of what to write. Just fill in the blanks, hahaha!

Notice to sis: my line at home is shot (again!) so I'm doing this from the office, and it's after 6.30pm. And thanks for standing in for me, but Aishah said you didn't have to stay till 10pm. Did you?

Anyways...

Current time :

• 18:28 (T41); 18:35 (watch).

What i am wearing :

• Dark brown MNG pants that's busted a button loop; mocha, sienna, ochre vertical striped Zara top with a mandarin collar; silver earrings; my Frank Sinatra Oris watch; Mambo slides; Wacoal seamless panties & Guy Laroche cream bordered with appliqued doodled blooms bra bought from Chiengmai (can't find them here).

Something out of the ordinary on my desk :

• A bag of persimmons my mom left for me before she went home and some German board game in steel I received from a supplier some time back which looks like Chinese checkers but I have no idea what it is and still don't know how to play.

Current fave song :

• It's so annoying but it's by that runner-up of the Australian Idol fella. Can't even remember the name of the song! I can't help it, it just grew on me! I have not been listening to my CDs much coz got no CD player in car. Oh, the two songs from Switchfoot that's been playing on the radio: Stars and that new one, what's it called? Duh, can't remember.

Last thing consumed :

• Mee rebus & milo kau kosong at 16:00. I didn't have lunch.

Last phone call received :

• Err...I think it was about 17:30 from a dealer who thought I was playing him out by agreeing to give him the product but told his boss since his PO didn't come in, the unit was sold to someone else. Actually, am having a bit of a problem here: if I can get my stock in and cleared before March 6, then I can meet the other party's deadline of March 9, then I can give him this unit instead. Sigh...I think I can settle this.

Current annoyance(s) :

• Hubby who was convinced he had a slipped disc and had to be driven over to Bath Circles where I normally get myself treated for any physical pains. Men are so extremely annoying when they get even the teeniest bit of pain. They whine and complain and act as if the whole world is going to end and need you to do everything for them. Heck! I get aches and pains all the time and I don't whine and complain so much as get myself treated for the problem. I had a raging fever two days ago and managed to drive myself to the doctor's yesterday (I thought it was getting better but it got worse in the evening) and spent a whole day at home by myself and am at work today despite my MC and I'm still not complaining about it as much as he is about hi "slipped disc" (btw, it was a stiff neck). Sheesh! When will they ever grow up?! It's a pain, yeah so go treat it. It's just a pain, it's not like the whole world fell on your head or you're going to die. Bird flu my foot! Men don't understand pain; they've got the lowest threshold for pain, if any.
• A supplier who has sort of turned the tables on supplying to me and given me a bullshit story. So now I'm just going to find someone else to supply me. Morons!
• Being sick. Cramps my work schedule.

Plans for the day/evening :

• Grab pizza at Vivo on the way home. Buy myself a couple more books from Popular since I'm in the area (they have the 3 for 2 promo and I picked up a Jodi Piccoult and it's quite good; will try her other titles as well).
• Hopefully not get too annoyed with whiny hubby.

Tag list:

Alamak, I think everyone on my list has been tagged. There's no one else except for, *ack* hubby if he reads this. And anyone else who bothers, I suppose.

Sick as a Dog

Sucks.

Am sick.

Go figure.

House Bug

You never know what husbands get up to when you leave them alone. Hubby spent the entire day at home yesterday on the pretext of an imagined bird flu bug. He watched the remaining episodes of CSI Season 5 on DVD in the morning and I didn’t see him till I got off work at 8pm.

I was in for a surprise when I got home. He stunned me with his skills at housecleaning. He organized the study exceptionally well: got rid of all the junk, put my books in order, cleaned up, moved his PC back into the study and topped it all off with a carpet in the middle of the room. All we need now are comfy bean bags placed around the room. Unfortunately, I do not have a before and after picture to show just how good a job that he did. Imagine, if you will a room full of boxes haphazardly arranged piled together with plastic bags of junk strewn all over the place; you’ll get an idea of what a mess that room was. In addition to doing up the study, he also hung up a copper-tooled art piece my dad had got for us (which had been lying in the storeroom) and his favourite Yusoff Gajah painting. Although I think he had me in mind when he hung them up: everything is at about my eye-level, which is to say, rather low since I’m short. To top it all off, he was busy finishing up on mopping the floor when I stepped in from the door

Amazing! Astounding really, what husbands can accomplish in the house once they put their minds to it.

He’d accomplished in one day what I have not accomplished in any of the weekends I’ve stayed at home. I blame it on procrastination and laziness on my part.

Maybe I should leave hubby alone at home on a weekday more often. Hmm…

I really should give him an award for this.

Ditzy Blitz

I am descending into the ditzy depths of blonde hell.

Either that or I really am mentally exhausted to the brink of a meltdown.

It was a long day yesterday. Kicked off with principal meeting in which my stress levels ascended to astronomical levels as principal and directors agreed to up my 2006 sales plan by 20%. In Euro!! Ack! Meeting was followed by lunch, which was followed by some frantic revisioning of numbers. Which in turn left me no time to review and revise my presentation (which is also a review for the directors) for meeting with principal #2 on Friday. I was number crunching until 7:30pm, appointed pick-up time for dinner.

Dinner was slow. Service was slow, and I was feeling the strains of a full day of fervent mental calisthenics. I had packed up my laptop and my file of notes for further plans to work at home after dinner.

We got done at 10pm. On my way home on the NKVE, I stopped by the Shell station for a fill-up. When the pump stopped, I pressed my finger on the trigger to keep it running slowly to even out the numbers (I don't like it when my bill shows numbers like 94.03 or 123.87, I like the full, round numbers of 110.00 or 95.50). The numbers kept scrolling by, from RM1 to RM2 and so on. There I was wondering to myself, "hmmm...I don't remember being able to fill so much after the pump has stopped."

And then I heard it.

A trickling sound. Oh shit!! Petrol was leaking out of my gas tank, making a puddle on the floor. I'd turned into one of those blondes and overfilled my gas tank. Luckily, since I was holding the trigger, the petrol was filling in and leaking out slowly enough that it was 'gracefully' leaking out and not splashing all over the place. So I didn't get any splatter on my pants, I just made a puddle on the floor and probably coated my tires and the side of the car with a layer of petrol. Thank gawd there wasn't anyone around near me to witness my moment of blondeness. I was mortified but cleaned up the mess in as unobtrusive a manner as possible.

On the way from the station to my house, I realised that I had left my file of notes in the office and that my plans to work on those numbers at home had gone to dust.

It was then that it dawned on me that growing old not only allows you time to build up your store of wisdom but along the way you compile an archive of inane acts such as these to relate to future grandkids so they can laugh and snicker at you.

Dessert, Love?

Hubby suprised me with a Valentine's Day card last night. (I have a business dinner tonight, therefore had told him beforehand that I would not be able to make it for V-Day.)

He couldn't find a card he liked and was too busy at work yesterday, so one of his co-workers offered to find a card for him. So there they were on the phone, his colleague reading out the cards for him in one of the stores at KLCC while he was up in Tower 1 working, this discourse going back and forth till he was satisfied with whatever was in the card.

Well, at least he confessed that someone helped him to buy the card. He made another confession after that.

He had wanted to make me dessert for V-Day (since we wouldn't be able to meet for dinner). He gave up after riffling through my Nigela Lawson's How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking.

"The recipes all looked so complicated!!" was his lament.

And Chin Lai said women are hopeless!

Overactive subconsious

My sis thinks she’s got an overactive subconscious? She should step into mine. I forgot to tell her but the other night (it was some time ago but I promised I would tell her or blog about it but I forgot), I dreamed we almost died. We being my sis and I.

The specifics elude me but it had something to do with her and me being in the car. I was driving and I kept gunning the accelerator but the car would just inch along. It got to the point where I was gunning it so hard, we smelled smoke pervading the interior of the car. The next thing we knew there WAS smoke all around us, and we had the good sense to jump out of the car. Or rather, I shouted, “Blurdy hell! Get out of the car!”

And not a moment too soon because as we jumped out, the car exploded. Just like in the movies where the jumping out is caught in slo-mo.

Hahah! How’s that for an overactive subconscious?

Compromises

Salsa on Sunday afternoons is so much better than on Tuesday nights, if only because I’m too stoned and tired after work on Tuesdays to absorb much. It’s true, I think. My brains are too fried from work to concentrate on the moves, let alone remember them after class is over. My mind is clearer and functions at least 50% better on Sunday afternoons when I’ve had enough sleep and not had to stress over reports and sales and what-not as I do on a weekday.

And so I have made a new resolution: to attend classes on Sundays as regularly as I can. I say that because as much as I want to attend every week, Sundays are usually reserved for family time. If we are not spending time together, it’s time with either in-laws or my parents. Although, come to think of it, if it’s anything that would keep me from going to class on a Sunday, it would probably because we’re down in Melaka visiting the in-laws. Well, it’s a shoe-in there; family ties are important.

Life is a series of compromises.

The Devil Wears Prada...And So Do I!!

She said the tea party starts at four
I only made it there past six
I'd never have guessed when I left today
I'd be schlepping my way into designer slides
Kitten heels, dainty bows
Slightly worn but demure still
Secondhand but she keeps her shoes well
Blue heels, slingback and a silver wrap
Tiny bow to match and a peek at my toes
The first, a Prada she told
Lucky, lucky! My lucky me!
We are of same size, same shape of feet
Out comes the rich metallic red with golden bow
A slight scratch on kitten heel's fine
(I'm no shoe saint, I scuff mine)
Miu Miu slides off my thick tongue
With two pairs and another third
I find myself suddenly designer shod
Ecstatic, well why not?
I'm only RM100 short.

Babymaking

Babymaking is apparently a science.

I was asking a good friend about tips on babymaking and such stuff the other day. This is a woman who used to be (maybe still is) a hypochondriac when we were studying and is ever willing to dispense information about health and freely explain to us what she has learned from the doctors or the gynae.

When I asked her offhand for some tips, I didn’t expect a detailed list of what should be done.

I reproduce here, in almost its entirety, her list to me. So for those who are thinking of creating little copies of yourselves, you may want to take a look and follow through. The methods outlined should work; she ended up with her desired 1 girl, 1 boy family unit.


**************
Ovulating

1. Know when you ovulate. Do you menstruate regularly? If you do, that’s a plus coz as you chart your monthly arrival dates, you see a pattern and from there, you can roughly figure out the days you ovulate.


2. Count 14 days backwards from the expected date of menstruation. That’s your ovulation time. Do the mucus test a day or 2 before, you’ll notice that you are getting more discharge than usual. It gets really egg-whitey on the day of ovulation. Some people can feel dull ache just about their hip bone (this will alternate every month coz the ovaries take turns to release eggs).


3. If you can’t detect your mucus (coz you don’t drink enough water… so hydration is important, helps with the swimming, you become one huge pool), you’ll have to get the ovulation kit and start testing 3 days before the ovulation date (in case you ovulate early). A pack normally comes with 5 sticks. So you test yourself daily (urine test) until you see the line.


4. If you don’t menstruate regularly, it’s harder to tell when you’ll ovulate. So you may want to do the mucus test everyday. But first, go see a doctor to find out why you are not regular. You may need some medication to regulate it or there could be other prob like cysts, endometriosis etc. Don’t worry, coz most of the time, it’s just stress causing the havoc.

Doing it

1. Once you are having those stretchy mucus, or when the line shows, it’s time for some action. BTW, the test stick shows that ovulation will occur anytime within 2 days. So you will have to do it for 3 nites in a row for max effect.


2. Drink a bottle of water before you do it. Gotta get that fountain flowing. That said, do whatever you can to be really turned on.


3. Don’t do it 5 days before. Gotta keep his stock full!


4. It’s the year of the dog rite? Get the hint? It’s the shortest route to the egg.


5. After, don’t get up and wash immediately. Wait 15 minutes flat down and relax. Prop your legs up if you can.


6. Don’t douse!

Other myths which are in a way scientific

1. Avoid acidic food coz it will make you acidic and that just kills off the sperm, especially the males.


2. The guy drinks a can of coke or cuppa coffee just before doing it.

That’s about it. If you are ovulating normally, you should get preggers within 6 months. If after 6 -12 months of doing all the above and still nothing, better go for a check!

And that’s just the making bit. My friends take supplements like folic acid, iron pills (for girl and guy) coz it helps with baby’s growth. Better to get advice from doctor for this though.

**************


Thanks Eve, you really are a well of information, you know. Really, I appreciate it. No really, I mean it. But it doesn’t beat one of your answers to my question on what are the perks of having kids: “you can dress them up to match your furniture!”.

That is a classic.


For those who would like more tips, you can email me and I will forward your enquires and questions to Dr. Eve.



I went to a convent in New York and was fired finally for my insistence that the Immaculate Conception was spontaneous combustion.
- Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967)

Power Root

I had two doses of coffee this morning, my own home-ground, home-brewed coffee in a tumbler and another 4-in-1 Power Root Pearl Coffee at the office. It is now 7.30pm and  can still smell the caffeine in my pee.

Must be the power root.


We plan, we toil, we suffer in the hope of what? A camel-load of idol's eyes? The title deeds of Radio City? The empire of Asia? A trip to the moon? No, no, no, no. Simply to wake just in time to smell coffee and bacon and eggs.

• J. B. Priestley (1894 - 1984) English author, dramatist

Godbros

Having my god- and god-godbrothers around remind me why I wanted brothers so much.

1. Can talk about boozing, although these days it’s more like me being amazed that they can booze so much and still be sober enough the next day to think about their next boozing session.


2. Can poke fun at and tease them to my heart’s content and it’s likely they won’t respond in typical anal fashion like sis.


3. They’ve got substantially meatier and muscular arms so it’s nicer to kinda slap them or thump them on the arms (even though I’m nicer now and don’t do it as often as I do to certain guy friends). I never or hardly do that to girl friends or sis because well, they’re female. Go figure.


4. They’re handy to have around to lift and carry things.


5. I can make fun of their or rather, god-godbrother’s fascination for sticking papers in the shredder at the office.


6. Can silently laugh at their strange Hokkien accents.


7. I’m usually more blunt with men, so the god- and god-godbrothers fall in this category.


8. Can take them around town to try out new places to eat, order lots of food without feeling too guilty. And if there’s too much food, they can sapu the remainders.


9. Listen with amusement and amazement their stories of travel and of life Down Under.

It’s their last day in town. They’re spending their last night in a city hotel so that they can get sinfully inebriated at the various watering holes and not have to worry about driving home. Of course, they’re also adding to their stash of home DVD collection. Already they’re talking about making the rounds from one bar to the next staying up till it’s closing time and actually entertaining the remote possibility of waking up in the morning for their free hotel buffet breakfast.

Boys.

Sigh…I miss them already.

Sloth

After a week’s worth of sleeping in and getting full 8-10 hour night’s sleep, getting back into the swing of work is so exhausting. It’s only Wednesday but I can feel the toll of my 6 hour night’s sleep on my mind and body.

I’m exhausted. My eyelids feel like lead. It has to get easier sometime, right? I really hope so because if I go on like this, I am liable to have a physical breakdown.

Maybe it’s the food I’m eating? Too much carbo and not enough of everything else? Even my morning coffee fails to kick start my day. I am refraining from increasing my dosage of 1.5 tablespoons of coffee grounds to 2 for my morning mug.

It’s turning out to be a tough week…

Atarashii

New this year!

1. Sis & beau (but then again, I predicted this – to myself & hubby, of course - way before there was even the hint of a spark).


2. The existence of a god-godbrother (wow! Two for the price of one!! An affable and cute one at that).


3. A friend’s elevation to married status (Welcome!!! You are one of us now; bonded for life!!)


4. Obsession for expensive toys (like I said, Oris & Nikon. Could have been worse, could have been Tiffany or Chanel or Cartier. Or worse, a car!!).


5. Dynamic sales team (or at least I’m molding them to be).


6. Bluetooth headset (courtesy of Merv and his expensive trip to HK).


7. Resolution to save more (actually old but revamped).


8. Penchant for DVDs (preferably the RM7 variety).


9. More travels for work (South, North, East Malaysia and maybe Germany again).


10. Hair & colour


11. The patter of little feet for a couple of friends (not for me this year, maybe next, we’ll see).


12. Resolution to meet up with college ex-room mate and email buddy once a month and pig out together.


13. Dance more? Exercise more?

Family Ties

I have a god-god brother. Well, that’s according to godbrother Jo-Ming. Apparently, his cousin Sean is also his godbrother, so technically speaking, Jo-Shawn’s our god-godbrother. What a family tree!

In any case, having godbrothers (this includes the god-godbrother) is cool; at the very least I have the brothers which I have always yearned for but never had. More people to bully other than sis! Hahah!! And since said godbrothers live in Sydney, I can always look them up for a place to crash if I ever head to that part of the world.

Now, those are family ties I don’t mind having.

Material Girl

I have a few material items I’m coveting this year:

1. The Nikon DSLR D70s


2. The Oris WiliamsF1 Day Date Watch (stainless steel bracelet)

So much for saving money and keeping my bonus for traveling plans. I’ve had my eye on the Oris since the outing last year when I was looking up watches for hubby. During that shopping trip, I got the hubby a Tag but ended up with the Oris Frank Sinatra Date for myself. Totally needless since I have a Tag and a Timex. But the Sinatra was so funky I couldn’t resist.

Sigh…the problem with earning more money is, I end up spending more.

Looks like I’ll have to get my team cracking ASAP…

Woof, woof!

I’m complaining about work, yet I have time to write. No wonder my eyes are popping out! Duh!

Another dinner tonight, another lou sang to go.

Onward Dog!!

My eyes are going to pop out of my sockets. This is what happens when you have a long holiday and the rest of the world is working except for you. Worse when the rest of the world in my case refers to Europe or any other country that doesn’t celebrate Chinese New Year.

Add to that I’ve been doing my usual procrastinating, so now my table’s piled up with loads of work to be finished.

Sigh, I should have known and planned better.

I feel like that ant that played all summer instead of collecting and foraging for the winter. It died in the end, I think. From cold and starvation. Was it an ant or was it some other animal or insect? Oh well…

So here I am reviewing targets and plans, picking through product pricing through an ultra fine-toothed comb. Replace a product or complement it or do the same as we’ve always been doing? Raise the price (costs have gone up) and face repercussions? I know what the repercussions are, being in this price-sensitive industry: my dealers will run. But then again, we in the industry know that dealers are never loyal to a brand. Sigh…but I still have my commitments to my principals. So here I am caught in a needless tug-of-war: on the one hand, we’ve built the brand up from nothing to a respectable name but because the new management (there was a buyout in the Western world) prices have increased. If they increased gradually and less often, it would be understandable, but nooooo! These blurdy Americans have to hike everything up exponentially. So now I’m faced with another price hike. I could replace the brand, but it would mean building from ground up again a new brand.

It’s a decision I don’t want to make and ultimately will push my directors to make. After all, they are the founders of this company and the sentimental ones. I just want to make sure I do my job and do it as best I can.

And I haven’t even started with the other principal who was also bought over by another company. More brands, more products, more change in direction. Change I can take, if only they didn’t all come at the same time. I’d be able to divide my time and resources so much better.

Sigh…

Tour de Force

Is the Tour de Langkawi on today? Must be because they blocked up the LDP from 1Utama headed to Kepong (I heard the cyclists are headed to Rawang or thereabouts) and I had to take a roundabout way to get to work.

All around me people are popping babies. A friend just popped one the last day of the Year of the Rooster. And I just found out another friend’s wife is preggers. Phew!! Seems like everyone has been pretty productive except for moir. Maybe I should sit the hubby down for a discussion.

I have been giving it some thought. It would not be so bad to have a Doggy baby. But then again, I am still sitting on it and ruminating. I shall ruminate some more.

I shall be 32 soon and well, I don’t feel very much older. Although my body would say otherwise. Now I know why writers say that your body is “ravaged” by and with time. Injuries and wounds take longer to heal, you get tired easier and faster, the attention span just fizzles (can you imagine what that feels like if you already have a short attention span like me?), you feel the effect of late nights the next day as if a ton of bricks were released over your head, you can still eat but you must be prepared for the bulges and pounds that will add up and will take forever to shed; things like these greet you at the threshold to growing older.

Now tell me again why I’m crabby?