Nat's ill

My daughter fell ill. For the first time. On my birthday.

Her nose is runny, her breath is thick with phlegm and she has a temperature. The works. She goes about her daily routine as normal and still smiles as cheekily as ever but my heart is heavy. I want to just hold and comfort her the whole day. I don't want to go to work and so I don't.

Our usual paed, Dr Junina's clinic is closed on Thursday mornings (coincidence you say?) so I had to look for an alternative. After scouring the Net at home, I settle for Dr Kwan in Damansara Jaya. He's a good doctor that I would go back to if Dr Junina is again unavailable. He prescribes Polaramine for the runny nose, Benadryl expectorant and Bricanyl for the phlegm.

Nat obediently opens her mouth to consume the spectrum of colourful syrups (including Paracetamol) that are her medication but you can see she's not happy with them. Mum comments how good a girl she is. Spoke too soon. Later in the evening, she absolutely refuses to even so much as open her mouth upon seeing the syringe in my hand. When I manage to force one dose down, she promptly throws it up again with the next dose. I am left with no choice but to put her to bed without the drugs.

God, please help her recover soon. *Big sigh...*

Another year older but none the wiser....

I am officially now in the Thirty-something category.

Do I feel smarter? No!

More capable? No!

Older? Most certainly!

And no doubt this stems from my being a mother now. Spontaneity is a thing of the past. It's a good thing though that Hubby hasn't lost his "spur-of-the-moment"ness for he really pulled a surprise on the eve of my birthday. The last time this happened was when he proposed to me in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere in York.

So anyway, we were sitting down watching telly after a sumptuous dinner of "Buka Puasa" delicacies from the Taman Tun market when the lights suddenly went off, everyone else broke into song and I was presented with a green tea cake from San Terri Cottage. Anyone else would have basked in the moment but I kept asking "When did you get the cake?", " How come I didn't see you bring it in?", "Did you get it yourself?". Count on me to spoil everything. But seriously... it was really sweet and I was happy of course.

"SURPRISE!!"

The accomplices

Mel : You're the king of surprises. I'm not worthy!!

About being older, well, what of it? *Shrug* It doesn't matter to me. As long as I'm with the ones I love, I couldn't be more blessed.

Crankypot!

This is what happens when she doesn't get enough sleep and gets woken up. It's so ugly I've decided to use it as my desktop wallpaper to remind me that I should rush home once it's 5.30pm lest she unleashes the monster within.

You're cordially invited to an intimate dinner with...

...read the invitation I received from Sunrise. Hubby and I were lucky enough to be selected again for another Sunrise-sponsored event last night. This time, it was a dinner and fashion show at the recently opened Umai-ya at Uptown 37.

The co-sponsors were V-Mag, Omega and Estee Lauder so instead of showcasing apparel, the models went round the restaurant exhibiting Omega's latest watch and jewellery collection. I had a free hand massage except it wasn't so much a hand massage as it was a 3-minute application of hand cream by the promoter.

Dinner was a elaborate 7-course Japanese meal comprising among others sushi, sashimi, unagi tempura and various maki. I breached my dietary restrictions a little by having some soy sauce. Hey, you absolutely cannot eat sushi without dipping it into wasabi and soy sauce, can you? Hubby and I were lucky to get a table for two so we practically had a paid-for date.

the freshest and tastiest sashimi I've had in a long while

Hubby couldn't wait for me to finish taking the shot before poking his chopsticks into the delectable Twin Towers maki

Unagi tempura. Yum!

Overall, it was a well organised event though they could have kept it a little shorter with a bit more planning. Food was good and so were the door gifts. Hubby and I are all for freebies (the cheapskates we are!). Hand them out this way anytime!

Humancopter

I'm welcoming suggestions on this one. Anyone care to offer an explanation as to what my daughter is up to here?

Flower Power

A few weeks back I had the fortune of getting acquainted with Josephine who works a few doors away from my office and who introduced me to Phytobiophysics, the science of harnessing the vibration energy of plants to release energy blocks in the human body so that balance is re-established for all levels of consciousness; spiritual, mental, emotional and physical. It is believed that stress, disease and viruses also vibrate at different frequencies that bring disturbance to the healthy, balanced life flows within the body.

A load of mumbo-jumbo? I couldn't agree more at the time. But since Josephine insisted her husband's eczema visibly cleared up within a month of taking the herbal formulas, no harm trying, I thought. Not to worry folks, I'm not going barmy just yet.

Hubby and I brought Nat to see Dr Yeap when we were back in Ipoh over the weekend. Her method of diagnosis was unconventional to say the least. She would form a circuit with the patient and ask him/her to resist her downward pushing motion on his/her outstretched left arm. I ended up acting as the "lever" for Nat and Hubby (a few occasions) and by the end of it, my shoulder was positively aching.

I wouldn't go as far as to say that we were completely sold on the "science" but Dr Yeap handled our questions so well that Hubby and I did end up asking for a consultation as well. We alternated between being skeptical and hopeful of the benefits of the "flower vibrations". Conceptually, Phytobiophysics is as abstract as Reiki but the antidotes are akin to a combination of Homeopathy and Bach Flower Essences. As with most alternative medicines, you can't help but attribute its efficacy to a placebo effect. So as I was telling Hubby, if Nat's eczema really does clear up, we'll know it's for real. After all, you can hardly expect a toddler to be psychologically affected by a sugar pill that she doesn't even know has been dissolved into her drinking water.

In addition to taking the pills, I have to give up quite a lot of foods as apparently I currently don't have the right enzymes to digest them hence they create an energy block within which manifests in the eczema and lower lumbar pain that I have. So just as Eileen urged me to go on a restrictive diet for Nat's sake, I was told by Dr Yeap to give up wheat (or anything with gluten), eggs, soy (that means soy sauce too!), dairy products, beef, lamb and duck for the timebeing till my imbalances are corrected.

It's been three days and I still can't think of anything convenient to eat for breakfast. No eggs, bread, cakes, biscuits, noodles, cereal or milk.... How long will I survive?

Is your face on it?

Facebook that is.

Since a few months back I've been receiving countless invites to join but keep telling myself I didn't need another social networking utility to waste time on. I still don't know what possessed me to (I guess you could put it down to a slow afternoon at work) but I signed up 2 days ago and now there's no turning back.

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

Nat traversed the whole flight of stairs at home yesterday evening without any help. She never faltered although I was following closely behind. Sigh... this little "samseng" of mine... I can foresee many heart attacks to come in the not-so-distant future.

What crap!

Just the other night I launched into yet another one of my diatribes against my lousy HP iPAQ rw6828 when the battery heated up and drained again for no reason when I chanced upon this.

Now, I seriously doubt this person has an iPAQ and if he/she did, it certainly wouldn't be the same model as mine.

As a PDA, its capabilities are at most, ordinary, but as a phone, I must say I was much happier with my several-generations-old Nokia. The iPAQ is slow as a tortoise, the text on screen shakes at times (don't ask why), it hangs ocassionally, the battery does not last, loudspeaker is anything but loud and certain simple features are non-existent.

HP should seriously invest more money in R&D before they attempt to make anymore PDA phones. I would gladly sell it off and buy a new phone but don't think I can get even half my investment if I were to trade it in. Sigh... looks like I'll have to bear with it for a while.

Nice long weekend

Malaysia celebrated her 50th year of independence last Friday so we had a 3-day weekend. Hurray! After not having had any public holidays in a while, it was a welcome respite and a great opportunity for lots of family time. In our case, this means lots of food as well.

To kickstart the celebrations, Dad & Aunty threw a poolside BBQ party at their still-quite-bare condo. A clear sky, cool night breeze with nary a touch of humidity made for a perfect night to throw a BBQ. Although not on a very high level, the poolside had a good view of the KL skyline, complete with the glimmering Twin Towers in the background.


After putting Nat to sleep, Hubby and I joined Val and her friends in a game of Taboo. As usual, girls reigned although it was 3 girls versus 4 guys. Heh, heh, heh.... Just before midnight, we gathered at the balcony expecting to see fireworks light up the sky in the KLCC vicinity. Well, we heard the explosions but the fireworks were nowhere to be seen, from that angle at least. Ha ha! Talk about anti-climax!

The next morning, Hubby and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 5.45am to attend a charity yoga class at the Saujana Resort, organised by Manasa Yoga. It was held under the skies between the swimming pool and the man-made lake. To commemorate our 50th year of independence, Manoj announced that we were to do 50 sun salutes! It had been a whole year since I last attended a yoga class and my muscle stiffness that early in the morning sure did not help. In spite of that I was pleasantly surprised that I did quite well indeed and managed to keep up although towards the end, my back got a little achy and I could feel the lactic acid build-up in my triceps during the press ups. Must have been the fresh air and Manoj's soothing voice!

Keat, Val, Yu Lin & Shu Wei came to visit in the afternoon and we watched "Blades of Glory". It was hilarious! A typical Ben Stiller movie but somehow I was in the mood for it. Then for dinner, we headed to Rick's Cafe Casablanca, my third and Hubby's fourth (!) foray since Tim invited us to the opening just a week ago. Yup, you read right! We seem to be a permanent fixture there. A cosy place (but without a non-smoking area), serving good food in generous portions at reasonable prices. What's there not to like? We like the mushroom soup, mushroom burger, lamb patties and smoked duck carbonara.

The Gorgeous Banana Souffle

On Saturday we took Nat swimming at the Plaza but she was uncharacteristically unenthusiastic about the pool for some reason. Still we let her splash around for at least half an hour. I got a bit worried when she cried during bath-time, something she almost never does, so much so we decided to give her a dose of Paracetamol before putting her to bed. Thank God she was fine after that.

Dinner that night was at Ho Ho, our favourite steamboat place in Dataran Sunway. It seems we head there everytime we feel like something light and soupy to balance out the over-indulging earlier. Highly recommended.

Yesterday, Pui San & Kwok Wai invited us to their son Jake Meng's full moon high tea at Bernard's. It was the first time we had been to one where the guest list reads longer than most weddings'. Little Jake is such a cutie with a really pink complexion and a full head of black hair! Nat got to meet up with her friends Aidan, Jean and Jodie but she wasn't as friendly as usual maybe 'coz of all the distractions around. Until then, Hubby and I had never had a reason to eat at Bernard's but we were quite impressed with the Hainanese chicken rice and the lamb chops and will go back sometime.

Wrapping up the weekend, we went out for dinner with Dad's family to Ozeki in Menara TA. The boys were back from Singapore. Food wasn't as great as I had expected it to be and most dishes were fusion. I only really enjoyed the sashimi platter.

So there goes another food-filled weekend and my chances of losing my pregnancy weight gets slimmer!