Updates...

It's not that I've stopped blogging. In fact, I have constantly met my personal target of one to two entries a week. It's just that I have officially become one of those "obsessed parent-bloggers", except that my child is furry, has four legs and is certainly the cutest creature on Earth (and so I think). I've not given up on craft, I am still into vintage and cool things, I am basically still me. It's just that most of my interests are all centered around a certain little guy called Sam. I am ashamed to say but I think my furry little rascal has a way more interesting life than I do.

So, check out Sam's Little Forest to grab some snippets of my life.

enjoy~

Home Improvement Project - my ottoman..

After 4 painful weeks (A total of 12 hours), I finally completed another home improvement project! A quick background, I joined a furniture upholstery class and got to participate in the process of upholstering a ottoman frame.

The frame was built and provided for, so I got to learn how to fix it up from there.

 We began by creating the base for the top of the ottoman.

 The was the most painful physically and emotionally process - securing the coils.

 A new burlap layer to protect the coils.

 The application of foam - probably the most fun part. Spraying glue is definitely therapeutic!

 A layer of decron to protect the foam!

Followed by adding the fabric on top. Yes, I'm obsessed with burlap, thus explaining the choice of fabric. It isn't burlap, but a upholstery grade fabric that has the texture.

 Then, piping was added.

Another layer of decron to protect the ottoman's sides. After which, we stapled the remaining of the fabric all around the ottoman.

Lastly, I sewed the sides of the ottoman together!

And ta-dah~ a completed ottoman.

A very proud and really exhausted owner.

While I was really with the end product, the class was actually quite frustrating. I'm not a fan of the instructor (his attitude) and I felt that the class size was a little large. As a result, we were practically rushing through lessons and when we were unable to finish certain parts, they would just go ahead and complete it for us. So technically, I probably only really completed 30% of the ottoman myself. (And based on the response of the instructor, poorly done too.. Whatever, I'll just let Mr Lim sit on it! =P) 

Even though I didn't think the instructor was unclear, everything I replicated (after watching him) turned out wrong. Several times, I was told to undo what I did and wait for him to come back to demonstrate again. But since the class size was large, he never got around to showing me the 'correct' way of doing it. His assistant would just come by eventually and complete it for me. This sure was really frustrating.

I was really excited about this class initially and even wanted to proceed on with the second level before I attended the class. After this, nay~ I would rather save the money and spend it on my chair obsession! You should have seen my grin when the project was finally completed and I was so glad to get out of there for good.

On a good note, at least it's over and someone seemed to appreciate the hardship hard work put in.

 Yap, as usual, the little monster has to sit on it.

Despite the bitching, I am really pleased with the end product. But that being said, it sure wasn't money well spent. -_-

Food allergy...

Ain't I a little too old to start developing food allergies? Well, apparently not. After two separate incidents of pretty severe abdominal cramps after eating lobster rolls (from two different sources over two separate occasions), I've had it. While I'm not 100% certain that the cramps were the result of a food allergy, no other possible explanations seemed to be applicable (Mr Lim had some of the lobster roll on the second occasion and was perfectly fine) and nope, I'm not risking another night of crippling cramps just to verify/confirm the claim. I hereby conclude that I'm swearing off lobster.

I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that this 'allergy' doesn't apply to crabs.. =/

Professional VS DIY..

I recently took a liking of having wall art and bought two pieces that I wanted on my wall - the Izak Zenou's Henri Bendrel drawing and the Christina Strain's drawing I got at comic con. The next step was to get them framed. Annoyingly, both pieces were of awkard sizes, making it horribly tough to find frames and matting that fit to a T. I wanted to get both pieces professionally framed. However, after a quick research, I came to learn that framing is ridiculously expensive (usually cost more than the drawing itself. duh right?). Hence, I decided to frame one of the two (the more expensive one of course) and DIY the other myself.

I made a quick trip to Michaels' and found a matting board and a frame.

The original drawing..
A good 20 minutes and USD40 later. Unfortunately, the matting board did not fit ideally and showed only 1/10 the autograph on the bottom right corner. Pity as this was the best fit I could find.Meanwhile, 10 days and USD200 (+USD15 for transport. -_-) later, I received the professionally framed drawing that clearly showed the autograph and nicely cut matt.
What you pay is what you get. While the photos above looked pretty similar, the difference in the quality was quite drastic. The cheap frame from Michaels' was pretty much falling apart while I was putting it together. The ill fit also showed. In contrast, the frame from the framing shop was sturdy and looked/felt good. Most importantly, it fit to a T.

Having wall art is such a chore. Oh well, at least they both look good on the wall!

My biggest headache..

Everyone around me knows that I love the little monster to bits. (Possibly more than anyone/anything else in my life) BUT, his shedding is just driving me nuts! To attempt to minimize the stray hair, I do brush him about 2 to 3 times a week.

Here's a preview of just how much 'loose' fur he has..

I vacuum the house every single freaking day and still there's just endless amount of stray fur around (even after the brushing!). Sigh, I'm pretty sure we are going to invest in a heavy duty vacuum cleaner when we are back... Meanwhile, -_-...

My days..

People always asked me how I pass my days doing nothing.. but the truth is, there are always tons of things to do - that is if the little monster is at home. I bring him out 4-5times a day and we recently got into a "Let's walk till we die" routine where we would go for 2-3 hours walks (which often end up with one of us being carried home, and no surprises, it's not me). Other than that, whenever I'm bored at home after doing housework (if ever) or anything else, I would either bring him out to kill time or disturb and play with him. Even holding him in my arms makes time fly by.

But, without him, it's just B-O-R-I-N-G.

I decided to leave the little boy at daycare to allow me a day of errand running, which I lazied out from (I blame it on the rain). Thus, I ended up staying home. Without the need to bring the little boy to relieve himself or to exercise him, I just literally rotted at home.

And damn, time is crawling~

So I guess life's a bitch. I complain when he takes up too much of my time, and I complain when I have too much time in my hands. Nice~

You know that...

your husband secretly hates you when you asked him to be a photographer for a wedding and all he took were really unflattering photos of you. -_-

In case you are wondering, there are worse shots that I am not showing... N-E-V-E-R.

sigh. what can I say...

All I want for breakfast is...

I miss YAKUN!

OUCH...

No, it wasn't Zim (LOL, he wouldn't dare), nor was it Sam. I actually got bit by a random dog at the dog park, a dog that was probably Sam's size. Well, for once, it really wasn't my fault. I did not disturb the dog at all. In fact, I was just chatting with the owner (whom I had met a couple of times) while I sat down on the bench. She followed suit and signaled her dog to hop on the bench as well. Within a split second, the dog attacked me and bit me hard. Seriously, like WTF right? Zim was really annoyed that the owner wasn't more responsible as she had known that her dog was aggressively protective of her. (I was aware too and thus was trying to keep my distance from him, but I didn't expect him to come at me like that.) What luck...

While it really did hurt, I'm not intending to see a doc since the swelling has gone down a little. Well, in the worse case scenario, I've approximately a year if I'm infected with rabies. I guess I should just live life to the fullest for now!! Or rather, try to...

It's Really NOT my day.

When bad and unlucky things do happen, they all happen at the same time. And yap, today is the day.

It started off with a confrontation with a neighbour I really dislike. (Yes, I'm biased...) I was dreaming for a dashing ang moh, preferably with a Daniel Wu resemblance, that would move in opposite us. And of course, that did not come true, nowhere close at all. In came this fugly balding middle aged guy. (Okay, I'm not against his appearance) I just didn't have any good vibes about him. We had an encounter before this and he was just purely unfriendly and stuck up. So, in a nutshell, I don't like him. I guess I must have been really extremely unlucky to meet him on my way back. (I was carrying this uber heavy box all the way back from times square and I was in a rather frustrated mood already.) He was complaining about a barking dog and how the dog had been driving him crazy for the past three days blah blah (no, it's not Sam, Sam isn't even at home most of the time, it's a dog we are dog sitting.). To his credit, his complaint was valid. Unfortunately, being a bitch I am, it's just his face and his tone that I was upset with. Plus, I was really tired from dragging the box, couldn't he had picked a better time? This was actually one of the rare few times that I was not apologetic for something that's partly my fault. It didn't help that the dog was barking when I was struggling to open the dog. Sigh, maybe the barking might make him move away? And maybe then a daniel wu look-a-like would move in instead? *Praying~*

On one hand, I was also pretty frustrated with the barking. I am dog person and while I don't mind the barking, it's getting on my nerves a little and I'm also a little stressed out that my other neighbours would complain as well. I had to change some of my plans for the rest of the week as I had to stay home to prevent the dog from barking incessantly. And I really appreciate that Zim's mom was around to help out a great deal.

And things just didn't get any better. I decided to carry my two uber big textbooks to school to sell today and after struggling with the stupid books on the long train journey and long walk, I arrived at the bookstore just 2 minutes before closing! RAWR~~~~~~~~ Super upset. So, I was left with the two horribly heavy books. Thank god for my classmate who was willing to let me leave them in her car. So annoyed.

The best part of all, to end my day, I dropped my underwear in the toilet bowl (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh) just five minutes short of a new day.

WHAT THE HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL...

KeY's Life.

Pardon the MIA. So, Mom and bro came and left. While I was pretty excited having them over, the 15 days got pretty unbearable quickly. I guess I'm just too used to the freedom and routine I had before they came. I was actually excited prior to their arrival, annoyed when they were here and sad (which a huge pinch of relief) when they left. (What a ride.) It was in fact more of a bittersweet feeling when they left. On one hand, I was extremely thankful that I'm finally getting my usual schedule back (no more entertaining them and cracking my [already empty] brains for ideas of what to do and where to go) and of course, no more naggings. On the other, I'm missing the familiarity of the feeling of home and of course, Mom doing my housework for me. =P

That being said, I'm back to enjoying the little freedom (not so much of the housework though). It sure feels good to be back on my daily routine (Yes, that means revolving my life around Sam). Till Sept I guess.

Hard Rock Hotel Orlando..

We chose to stay in Hard Rock Hotel as it was one of the few pet friendly resorts available. But I had to say, I was really quite disappointed by the experience. I guess the reputation of the Hard Rock chain kinda raised my expectations and unfortunately, the experience fell short of the expectations.

There were several incidents that kinda cheezed me off. Here it goes...

1. The place was advertised as being pet friendly. Ironically, the only pet friendly thing about it was that it allowed pets in the rooms. Period. The room was pretty pet unfriendly in fact. Maybe I was expecting too much. The room was pretty much similar to hotel rooms around the world - fully carpetted with arm chairs in awkard position. Zim and I had a pretty stressful time chasing after Sam, making sure he didn't pee or poo wrongly (which he obviously did anyway). Besides that, there were nothing indicating that it was pet friendly. We had to make a call to the concierge to double check and then only then did they send us a pathetic bag of 'goodies' containing a door sign (to indicate that there is a bit), a bag of treats (that I threw away anyway), a plastic food and water bowl (which I didn't bother using) and a bottle of water. It was completely different from what I have expected from the Lowes Love Pet programme. I needed some advice from the concierge about other Pet sitting options (the hotel offered such services at a costly price) and the reply wasn't helpful at all. I was better off googling for information on my own. The only places that Sam was allowed in the hotel were our room, a courtyard (which was actually pretty good) and the lobby. He wasn't allowed near the pool area nor outdoor dining and Universal's citywalk, which was a complete disappointment. In the end, we decided to check Sam into boarding for a few days to spare us all the agony of having to chase after Sam.

2. After checking Sam into boarding, we kinda started chilling out at the pool a fair bit. The first day we were there, we were unable to order any drinks as we didn't have our IDs with us. So we went back to our room just to retrieve our IDs (our driver license - which we also used to buy alcohol at other places in Universal as well). The second day I headed to the pool on my own to chill (equipped with my ID and my room card) and attempted to order a cocktail. The stupid waiter stared at my driver's license forever and finally told me that he could not accept my driver's license as there was a policy that foreign driver's licenses are not accepted and I had to bring my passport with me. I was completely annoyed. Which idiot would risk bringing their passport to the pool side? What if it gets misplaced? And, why was I able to get a drink the day before and at other places in the area with my driver's license and not here. I stomped back to the hotel room and got Mr Lim to lodge a complaint via phone to the concierge. No surprise, no reply was given after they promised. We raised the issue to the staff upon checkout and was given a 'standard' reply that just simply put me off further.

3. We bought our 2 days pass from the concierge at Hard Rock Hotel. We happily did our visits to the two parks, putting Islands of Adventure on our second day. While we were there on the second day, we learnt from the greeter at the park that there was a special arrangement between the Universal Resorts and IOA - apparently, hotel guests get the special honor of visiting the Wizarding World of Harry potter even before it's opened to public. I was ecstatic, yet angry. I was quite unhappy that we weren't informed of this privilege earlier and had to end up extending our pass for another day (we spent USD30 extra for this). Upon questioning the concierge, the explanation given was that it's a special arrangement by the park and the hotels and thus could not be publicised (Apparently, it was meant to be for a special group of ticket holders and they decided to secretly include hotel guests who happened to find out). I was pretty pissed actually. While I came with the understanding that the harry potter section will not be opened till 18th, I couldn't understand why the person whom we brought the tickets from didn't bother informing us. Mr Lim seemed to be more forgiving and kinda understood where they were coming from but I refused to do so. I simply could not understand any benefit of withholding such information from us. On the contrary, I would have blown my top if I had returned only to find out about this later. Thankfully, we had some time to spare and the weather was great. Otherwise, I would have screwed the management upside down. I can understand if we had bought the tickets online and thus was not informed. But on this occasion, we bought the tickets right from the counter at the hotel and I really could not understand why the arse behind the counter couldn't even share this little piece of information. Did they not realise how appreciative and thankful we would be then?

4. The ice dispenser was crap. We chose not to take the key to the minibar as we would not consume anything anyway, but it kinda slipped our mind that we needed to chill the drinks we bought from walmart. As a result, I had to rely on the ice machine. The first day I went, the ice was out. I decided to let it go. I went to the machine again several occasions and there was ice. On the last day, there was no ice again. I was pretty pissed by this point of time after all the experiences above and decided to call the concierge to inform them. (There was a note on machine stating that we can call the concierge to inform them if it was out of ice.) I called them and was told that they would send someone to fix it. At the back of my mind, I was expecting that he would send someone to deliver some ice meanwhile. (well, this is after a 4-star hotel, am I expecting too much?) To my horror, the person ended the conversation by stating that there were other ice machines in other floors and I could get ice there. I guess I could have react more sarcastically and demanded for ice to be delivered, but at the moment, I was just stunned by how lousy the service was that I was dumbfounded. He actually had the audacity to ask me to go to another floor to get my own ice! (Btw, it was a pretty long walk to the elevator from our room.) What kind of service is this? Self service? Geesh, I'm pretty sure I didn't check into a 4-star hotel to serve myself.

5. The brilliant housekeeping just seemed to want to clean our room at 8.30am! WTF. We couldn't even really sleep in peace. The knock just come seemed to come everyday at this time~ Sigh.

Of course, there were some pretty good things about the hotel as well, but the cons just triumphed the pros and I couldn't even bothered to compliment them anymore. Maybe I was expecting a tad bit too much, but again, at the price we paid and the reputation of Hard Rock Hotel, I don't think so. Nonetheless, I'm extremely sure I won't be back in another hard rock hotel in future.

My voice.

I'm not really complaining. Really. I just needa voice it out.

Life in Nyc? Good or bad? I'm not sure. While I'm totally free from work stress, I'm a little overwhelmed by my aimless day to day routine. So I wake up when Sam does (which is REALLY early by my standards). I bring the little guy for walks to tire him out. I come back and pray that he will stay asleep till it's time for lunch or the next walk. I watch trashy shows and sneak to the toilet to avoid waking him up (this I never succeed, unfortunately). I countdown to the time Zim comes back when he's not out of town. I contemplate for hours whether I'm in a cooking mood. He comes back, we eat dinner, Sam sleeps, Zim works, I watch more trashy shows. Period.

I'm not sure what I've signed myself up for by being here, leaving behind a job I had (okay, this isn't a bad thing I suppose), family and friends I adore and activities I really enjoyed. Sadly, Fridays don't mean any thing to me anymore. (It used to mean the world to me.) Weekends are just days when Zim is either out of town, or days when he worked from home. Of course, not all is bad. There were days when I truly enjoyed myself and thank god that I'm here, yet there were also days when I just waste my days away watching trashy show, cleaning after the dog (I still love Sam despite this) and doing housework. It's especially horrid when Zim's out of town which actually is becoming increasingly frequent.

Ironically, Sam is the only thing that is keeping me sane. (well, he does drive me insane too.) His stupid acts and cute face bring lotsa smiles to my face. Bringing him for walks and to the dog park is something I always look forward to. Meeting other dogs and dog owners is probably my only socialization on weekdays. In addition, it's also a blessing that our social circle is expanding. There are more activities planned for us on weekends too.

Okay. I'm just whining. Yes, I am working to find some aim in my life. Keeping my fingers crossed that things will fall into place. For now, I'm just feeling really sianz. Guess I need a break from being a homemaker. LOL. Maybe the break in Orlando will do me some good.

Meantime, it's a just another boring friday night, a zimless saturday and hopefully, a better Sunday?

Pain in the arse...

The red tapes in USA for an alien are amazing. (And this is NOT a compliment.) Yap, and the complaining begins...and it's a REALLY looong one.

It first began with our apartment search. We fell in love with a particular apartment with fantastic views and decent location (and really good rent!). It turned out that we were unable to rent the apartment as Zim isn't paying US taxes and that is one of the requirements for verification under a rent stablized building. (WTF) The option given was to purchase insurance from an external party (I ain't too sure of the rationale behind it.) and the insurance would cost approximately USD8k. At the point of time, we weren't sure that the amount would be reimbursed by the company, thus we gave up the apartment. (Honestly, I kinda felt that the management was just making things difficult for us so that we won't be able to rent it. Oh well, too bad la.) But on a good note, we managed to find an even better apartment (At least this current one has an island and even better view, though we compromised abit on the space available) eventually. Nonetheless, the process for the current application was equally painful for Zim as he had to get several documents done for verification. I'm glad it's finally over! (And yes, we officially moved in on 16th February! Photos will be up shortly~)

The next pain came from the internet application. (This totally killed me and yes, it explains my tweet.) We chose to get Verizon Fios as the plan is cheaper (about USD30 per/mth) than it's competitors, so we went online to register. Well, rather, Zim went first. At the end of the registration and a call to the credential office to verify his credentials (Probably to prevent identity theft.), the application was rejected. Apparently, Zim failed the verification. (It was really dumb! They asked questions that were ridiculous, like they asked if you had stayed in any of the states mentioned and gave you three options that you probably never even heard before, thus you just answered negative. At the end of it, apparently we failed. Duh~ how do they expect us to pass the verification?!) He was told to have a copy of his documents verified by an attorney and then faxed over to the credential office. (Honestly, W T F?!) Annoyed, Zim cancelled the whole application and asked me to give it a try.

So, now my turn. Expectedly, I failed the verification as well. The operator gave me two options: the one that Zim got OR I could bring my documents down to the shop (which is about 1 hour away!) for immediate verification. Since I was super eng, I chose the latter. I travelled across to the other side of the world and searched for the shop. (Just a quick note: Apparently, there is a Verizon and a Verizon Wireless, and they are separate entities. How the fuck would I know....) I happily walked into Verizon wireless thinking it was the correct place. The lady was really kind and went through the entire process (photocopied my documents, faxed it to the credential office, followed up with a call to check that it's all cleared) to help me get my verification (took about half hour). It was only when she asked me which mobile line I was applying for that we realized that I was in the wrong place. So she directed me over and added that since I got my approval for this, there shouldn't be an issue for Verizon itself. (This further contributed to my impression that Verizon and Verizon wireless are ONE entity!)

I walked into the store that was about 4 stores down and was stopped by a security guard mending the queue. I explained my purpose and he directed me to a row of phones. (The store has a row of 5 phones cubicles on the left and some counters with staff in front.) I tried to tell him that I wanted to speak to someone about my internet application and he simply insisted that I was to use the phone to speak to the operator. WTF. So I got to the phone and explained my situation to the operator (with the impression that my documents had already been faxed to the correct credential office.). She didn't seemed to quite understand what I was saying and kept mentioning that they did not receive my fax. (I was trying to explain that it was faxed over earlier already and the verification was done thus the fax wouldn't be at the fax machine anymore.) Sigh, I was obviously speaking english, thus I didn't understand why the hell she couldn't understand me. After about 10 minutes of non-conclusive conversation and her insisting that I provide her with the fax number I faxed from which I did not have, I simply hung up. I was super frustrated at the situation and approached another security guard asking him if there were anyone I could speak to face to face. He insisted that there weren't and that Verizon had ended the face-to-face customer service about 5 weeks ago and all I could do was either to call them or to email them. (This is CRAP~)

I went back to Verizon Wireless to get their fax number and went back to the stupid line of phones and dialed for the operator again. Of course I was directed to a different operator and I had to repeat my super long story again. So the operator transferred my phone to the credential office and in the midst of doing so, they fucking disconnected me. (I was really really fuming by then.) So I redialed and was freaking put on hold for 30 MINUTES!!!! By the time I got connected, the store was already about to close. I explained my situation AGAIN while holding back my tears of pure anger AND was once again transferred to the credential office. The lady (My saviour for the day and probably the only one who could understand english) quickly clarified that the two companies are separate and that all I had to do was to bring my documents to the counter and the lady there would verify everything!!!! O.M.F.G.....................after one fucking hour of doing crap and arguing/speaking with idiots, all I was supposed to do was just to go the counter! WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK~

I sweared I looked like a bitch when I approached the counter. I slammed my documents and my bag on the table and trembled when I explained my situation for the FOURTH time to the lady. (She machiam looked like she saw a ghost and was obviously freaked out by me.) She calmly explained that they were closed for the day. Then my small eyes widen and I was about to swear vulgarities when she added that she would speak to her manager. I don't what she said to her manager (probably something along the line that a crazy lady was at the counter), but it worked. The manager (my second and BIGGEST saviour of the day) came out and agreed to help me with my application. He made a couple of calls and even stayed back half hour for me. I was so thankful. I guessed he saved everything. Had he not done that, I will be sending in an ultra LONG complaint letter and switching to a competitor provider. But thanks to him, I am going to send in a compliment instead, well, provided the installation is complete (It's supposed to be done tmr, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for now.)

When I finally met Zim about an hour later, I just started crying as I felt sooooo 委屈 (This is the first time I cried since I left Singapore lor and it's over such a ridiculous issue). It's like I was being put through all these crap just because (1) I am not a US citizen (2) I met some FREAKING stupid people (3) Verizon and Verizon Wireless are two separate entities (TMD, why can't they just have unrelated names!) (4) I had to repeat my ultra long story 4 times before someone finally understood and could point out what went wrong (5) was just super duper uber unlucky. And the best part is, I HAVE A SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND AN OFFICIAL PASSPORT WITH A VALID VISA!!! Doesn't that at least help?!

Okay, this post is just so long that I don't even want to bother complaining about the red tape in applying for a Citibank account. And I really hope that this is gonna be the end of the crap red tapes, else I am sooo gonna blow...

Moving on...

I'm finally back from my trip. (YEAH!) Well, I won't exactly say I enjoyed myself. There were times when we had a lot of fun hanging out as a family (I call us 'The Clan') and catching up with Qiwei and Qian was wonderful. But on the whole, this is one Hong Kong/ Taiwan trip that I did the least shopping (I came back with less than 10 victory items!~) and I'm not exactly very pleased about it. =(

Anyway, Zim's been amazing when I was away. He settled our visa (something we were worrying about.), booked the local hotel and NYC hotel, booked our air tickets and liaised with the relocation company. So suddenly, we are all ready to go. Well, almost, if you exclude the packing part (That I terribly failed in...) !

So I guess this is it. We are really going over. A moment ago, the posting seems to be the furthest thing ever and now, it's just one and a half week away. Scary~

On a side note: When I bid farewell to Qiwei on monday, I really felt quite sad. (Okay, I'm starting to emo abit. LOL) It's like, I can't imagine not seeing my good bud for so long. Not much of an issue with Qian and Ray since I will be popping by Singapore at least once a year. For that moment, I kinda wondered if we will still have endless things to bitch about when we meet again. This also applies for most of my friendship here. Erm... okay, no point pondering too much since all of us can't really tell what is going to happen in the next three years. So fingers crossed and let's just see how things go...

Okie, time to get back to packing!!!!!!!!!

Another lizard scare....

I hate lizards! Why the hell did God ever create lizards!? The only function they seemed to have is to eat mosquitoes. (Oh, does scaring people count as another function?) If this is so, I would rather be bitten to death by a zillion mosquitoes than to be in the same room with ONE lizard~

Sigh. Got a lizard scare again today. (Si Ey Suay~ It seems to happen periodically, once a month maybe? Is this a curse?) We came home after a good session of basketball and I was just chatting with Zim while opening the gate. Suddenly, a brown little thing on the door caught my eye. (CRAP~ what else could it be...) Almost immediately, I shouted "SHIT!" and jumped back. (I'm pretty sure Zim got a scare from the shouting cos I thought I saw him jumped and he went "WHAT?!" rather loudly too.) After calming down a bit, I told him that there was a lizard and being the scarly-kat KeY, I insisted that he get it off the door and out of my way before he would be allowed to open the door or enter the house.

Zim fidgeted with the door and gate but was unable to find the lizard. As my bladder was bursting, I had no choice but to eventually allow him to open the door to further investigate. (Well, opening the door risked the chances of letting the lizard into the house...grrrrrrr..) After a fruitless 5 minutes, (I swear my bladder almost gave way..) I reluctantly allowed Zim to open the door and gate widely to check if the lizard did go in. All cleared, thankfully! (Oh well, at least this was what he said. And it better be real!) So, finally, I took a deep breath and dashed into the house like there was no tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the lizard is still missing. It almost felt like the lizard disappeared in thin air as I was quite sure I did not see it run away. Of course, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the lizard did not come into the house.

Sigh, I HATE HATE HATE HATE lizards. =(

At least there won't be any in NYC. Not in winter at least. (Here's another reason to move there...)

Die lizards die... BUT not in my house or better not let me see...

Rain rain go away...

I like rainy days but not on Fridays and not when I have limited time left. (No, I'm not dying.)

I've about 10 more fridays to go. There's about all the basketball I'm going to get for quite a while. But if the stupid rain continues, that is really going to suck..

Sigh... wish the rain would just stop... at least on fridays...

Out of touch..

After being on course for 4 days (excluding the weekend), I'm feeling a bit lost. Sigh, think I momentarily lost my momentum. Oh well, time to buck up and put in some effort to get my mind back to work and start clearing the mountain of unread emails!

On a side note, Zim's double hatting is finally coming to an end! So, that means that he won't be burning as much mid night oil..(and so I hope..) Well, unfortunately, that also means that he is going for his 2.5 weeks long US trip. Really wished I could tag along. Pity I've officially ran out of leave. This trip would had been much more exciting than the April one since he would be popping by SF as well. Oh well, time to do some online window shopping and give Zim my shopping list.

btw, this time round, I won't be trying hard to stay alone. Mom has moved and the new house is gorgeous, so of course I'm packing up and moving over to enjoy the nice condo facilities.

ho ho ho...

Curse of a degree holder?

Sometimes I can't help but wonder if my life will be happier if I didn't have a degree. There are definitely more expectations from others just because you have a university degree. Of course, with expectations, comes more responsibilities. And I don't like it, not at all.

Maybe it's just the nature of the job. Maybe it's because I'm not doing what I really like (but again, what do I like?). I look at my colleagues (those w/o a degree) at work and I'm actually envious of them. Envious that they have less responsibilities, less stress and do seem alot happier and more carefree than I am. I'm not ambitious at work. I don't aim to climb the corporate ladder. I just want to live my life in a simple manner - happy and stress free.

With the deadlines and stress at work, I can't help but wonder what the hell I'm doing. What exactly am I suffering for? Why do I have to endure being scolded for this and that?

I know I won't be earning as much as I am earning now if I have anything less than a degree. But again, money isn't everything. Let me choose again, I would rather earn less and be happier.

Sigh~ It's okay. I just have 4 more months. After that, I will take some time and search for what I want exactly.

Back Pain... (Part 4)

After my mom's endless nagging (And of course, her offer to pay for the consultation fees), I decided to seek a second opinion from a doctor in private practice. Mom's friend recommended Singapore Pain Care Centre @ Paragon and I quickly fixed up an appointment.

Headed there after my physiotherapy at NUH (Was pretty good and the pain went away for say, an hour?). The wait was pretty quick (duh...) and the doctor, Dr Lee, was really nice and patient. Well, a piece of good news at last. Turns out that the Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD) was actually an accidental discovery. Which means, the pain I've been experiencing was not actually caused by the changes in my spinal disc. It was in fact due to another condition, Myofascial Pain Syndrome, (MPS). Apparently, the consultant at NUH has conveniently attributed the pain to DDD since it was reflected in the MRI. In actual fact, the pain had nothing to do with DDD and it's simply an inflammed muscle/ soft tissues possibly from an accident (I'm thinking of the leg spraining incident in April and it all adds up! Especially since I've been experiencing pain from then!). Nice~

Another encouraging fact: instead of just telling me to take care of my body posture, blah blah, there was actually a treatment option to this condition! (Hooray~) So Dr Lee proceeded to use Localized injectionS to numb the pain and treat the inflammed soft tissues (well, it's my lower right hip to be exact). Hm, interesting fact to note: the injections consist of BOTOX, local anaesthetic and steriods! (Hee.. cool, botox to my ass.. does that make it firmer???)Best of all, he injected so many times that I lost count. (He said seven in total. T_T) Geesh, it was really really painful... =(

Well, the prognosis is really positive. If nothing goes wrong, I should be completely healed within a month, after the injections and a series of physiotherapy sessions. Dr Lee did offer me the option of either doing it at NUH (NO WAY~) or at the clinic. Of course, after all the bad experiences at NUH, I'm definitely not going back! So, he lined up a series of 5 sessions over the next 3 weeks! Can't wait to be pain free!!!

Of course, while I am really glad to finally have answers and most importantly, solutions, my pocket surely isn't. The consultation today comes up to about $450 and the 5 physio sessions will add up to almost $1k. Seriously, thank god for insurance!!!

On a separate note, I find myself losing confidence in doctors. I don't really know who to believe anymore. On one hand, I'm choosing to believe what Dr Lee has told me. Maybe it's because, he offered me a solution, not just a diagnosis. On the other hand, the consultant at NUH only offered me a diagnosis and left me helpless after that. Thus, I do not want to believe him. (Geesh, it's called self-deception ba...)

It's scary how doctors have such varying diagnosis and I really don't know who to believe. I honestly don't know who is right or wrong but for now, I'm definitely placing my hopes on a complete recovery!

Wish me luck!