Just Blogging Around

Oh well, geek has to do what geek HAS to do, right?  

It is Diabetes Week this week. And at my workplace, we organised ‘Don’t Ignore Diabetes’ Campaign. This campaign was launched since July 2005.
I was quite excited with this activity at work. You know.. the whole display, a little bit of design, and most importantly — getting out from the dispensary and do something (more) exciting!

I was asked to design a poster 2 days before the campaign begun.. gosh! I wasn’t inspired at all. I can’t think artistically under pressure like this. So, I called Keegan to get one done. And guess what? Keegan did it in less than 10 minutes time. How awesome is ME? — One phone call, and all done. Of course, Keegan is more awesome in this case Many thanks, Keegan.

I was excited about the uniform sponsored by Diabetes WA and Abbott. It was awesomely blue! You know, for one week, 5 days, I don’t have to wear my granny-like uniform to work. G… my uniform is getting tighter and tighter. Not impressed at all.

Before the start of the campaign, I was told to read and understand my work well. You know.. like a nerd. I have to understand all the answers before I got the questions from the public. So yeah, pretty much everything. We were told how to read the nutrition label well. Example, you are recommended to have less than 10% of glucose (sugar) in each serve of meal. 10% can be few milligram.. or in some case, 6 bloody gram!
Once everyone was told how to read the nutrition labels.. ppl start getting very cautious. In my opinion, they are rather frightening. “uh! gosh! I’m not eating that!” “G! That’s alot of sugar” Erm, why they only got terrified by now?

Come on, people! Thay are food! They are high GI .. but they are food! They aint joker from The Dark Knight!! They aint your face without make-up! for pig’ sake.

Clearly, I’m not the best candidate for this sorta campaign.  

I personally think Diabetes is somewhat scary, if you don’t manage well. You know.. the eye problems, amputated leg. Eww 

But hey, moderation is the way to go. You have to enjoy your food! I must confess, I’m not that sort person would completely cut myself off from chocolate, Oreo, peanut butter etc etc…when I was told that eating peanut butter and chocolate are another form of catching cancer, oh dear, I just can’t help to help myself with 6 pieces of chocolate. Hey, Life is freaking short, mann!

and you know what? It is awesome!

p/s: Anyway, ignore my PMS-rant, please. We all should eat healthily and ‘Find 30′ everyday for a better life, right?

Woohoo! I had my 15th blood donation this morning. And I’m feeling awesome!

My missed my appointment on Monday at Red Cross Carousel ’cause I had to pick Kian up from work. Tsk tsk tsk.
Red Cross rang me yesterday, and kindly to fit me in today at City Red Cross. How cool is that? 

As usual, I’m a good ‘bleeder’ — eh, that’s the term used among the nurses who work at Red Cross.
This time, I managed to bleed 470mL just under 7minutes. I could have done better than this if I drink alot more water. Oh well, it’s Winter.. honestly, who will drink plenty of chilly water in a chilly Winter morning?

I met a new nurse who just started working at Blood Bank fornot long ago. I just knew something was going wrong - she didn’t poke the needle deep enough into my vein. So yeah, the needle was probably sitting very close to the nerve ending, and it was killing me!! At that time, SEVEN minutes seem like a freaking ages!
Anyway, I smiled at her, telling her for all the good work. But, she could ‘poke’ the needle abit deeper.
I tried to stay calm and put up a ‘pain-less’ facial expression. I figure it out, we all were new/young once. We have to start somewhere. I was given plenty of oppurtunities in my life, and I shall do the same for the others as well. Right?

On my way to my car, I decided to do a Karen Cheng. Eeeep.

Apparently, Red Cross is running some campaign for the local AFL teams — either you pick the Dockers (purple) or the Eagles (yellow).

My option is pretty obvious if you manage to spot the colour compression bandage on my right arm.

Cool eh?

You know what? I was saying about those speeding tickets in my last post. sigh.

NOOOOOOO!!!! It is not me larrrrr!

Kian’s car was hit by another car last week. A car ran into him from a junction. Clearly, the other driver didn’t see the STOP sign.
Kian is always being very careful on the road. Gah! Sometimes, you just can’t help when other driver being silly on the road. SIGH. what can I say?

So NOT impressed.

Kian is OK. He doesn’t suffer from any injury. I tried to get him to see a doctor for a physical check-up, in case there is post-accident syndrome. He refused to go because he bloody reckon he is OK. Oh boy boy boy!

We are down to one car at the mo. Kian has to send me to work earlier. If it happens we both start at 9am, then one of us have to rock up work way way earlier so that we are not running late. As a consequence, we had to get up way way ealier as well. You know, this kind of rush in the morning is absolutely not my thing. I like to get things started nice and steady. And at the moment, I am exhausted.

I never looked forward for the wekeend as for me, everyday is Monday. I still have to work through the weekend. But for once, please babe, bring the weekend! I really need it.

Ops!

I don’t usually make a special entry in my blog to wish people Happy Birthday. See, I have many many people whom I know and I love. If I have to so, my blog would probably ends up like a ‘wish-u-happy-birthday’ blog throughout 364 days. One day for myself – obviously  But for Buddha, itu lain cerita. Cos at the end of the day, He is dead man satu, right?

Honestly, I didn’t event know it was Vesak Day until an old friend of mine told me. Yeah, an old friend whom I know ~15 years ago. I remember I used to tell him that I always wanted to be a pharmer, and he on the other hand, who pretty much into forest and wanted to study further Buddhism studies at that time.
Guess what? We haven’t been keeping in touch over these 10 years. Turn out, when we managed to speak to each other thesedays, he IS a Buddhist monk, residing in the ‘jungle’!! I am soon-to-be druggist. How cool is that? We both are very determined, aren’t we? We thought we were insane, dreaming over some destiny that probably unreachable. But, we are pretty much very very close to make our dream into a reality. Oh well, at least he is there already

Speaking of Buddhisy thing, I have these two cards that I have been keeping for awhile. 10 years, to be exact. I learn them every few days and remind myself don’t do/say/act the wrong fink. I believe in plenty of small simple things: a smile, a helping hand, a nice word, a greet, a nice thought …

So yeah, whenever some hardcore Buddhist friends of mine question me why I don’t go to the temple… at least I know I haven’t done any thing bad yet ;P

Another friend of mine, Zhen. whom I know since we were in primary school.
She sent me some book marks from Taiwan. Holy cow!!! I was absolutely thrilled! You know, I have soooo many books, and I can really use them! From my beloved AMH *insert sarcasm*, ALL the books from Jeremy Clarkson!! and more nerdy books.. awesome!

Me, Zhen, and Yong Jun Rev (the monk la) are all from quite a different background. Yet, we share so many similiarities. Erm, is that because we all are pisces??

Interesting,eh?

Anyhow, I better go now. I need to help Kian in the kitchen.

p/s: I did my first salsa dancing tonight. It was bloody brilliant!! I passed the beginner lesson, and got sent to next class! Woohoo! I reckson the instructor musta overlook my cleavage (deliberately??). It must be something to do with it *ahem*

It was sometimes ago, back in Chinese New Year in Feb. I went to he Fo Kuang Shan Buddhist Temple.
An elderly lady came up to me, and asked me if she can have one or two photos of the lion dance.

Of course! It wasn’t a hard job at all. Few minutues to choose a nice one. 5 minutes to print. 10 seconds to place the photos into an envolope. One second to stick my tongue out, wet the stamp and stick it on the envolope! Easy peasy!
Neh! The last bit is a joke. The stamp I’ve got here is self-stick type.

After sending the photos out, I couldn’t even remember much what’s going on. (Ya know, I constantly living in a busy routine) Erm, not until I received a card from this elderly lady.

It is very lovely of her. Thanks!

This card also reminds me that it is time to take a short break, a deep deep breath and do some cards (again) or even write some letters for my family and friends. 

and they are not funny at all.

It started last week. Sunday. Midnight. There was a sudden irritation. I don’t think my eye lid got bitten by mozzie. It can’t be Wii Boxing either because I haven’t got a Wii.

I knew this is not allergy or some kind of common eye problems. I therefore self-prescibed chloramphenicol antibiotic eyedrop. They cleared up after 2 days but there was some kind of stain in my eye.

I was damn panic, sial. I tell you. These are MY eyes that I am talking about. And I really dislike the idea of wearing glasses out at the public. Some say I look inteligent, but I personally think I look like a geek!

Anyhow, I was trying to get a doctor to check out my eyes desperately. And guess what?
“Oh! We don’t see NEW patient.”
“The next appointment is.. is.. NEXT WEEK!”

WTF. I was practically WTF. I might gone blind by then.

I completely loss my concentration at work. Hoping some kind of micarcle will happen at some stage. And guess what? It did!

My favourite doctor on the planet rang. He was asking me if I can change some med for our patient.
*oh well, can I say NO?*
So I thought: bugger it off. It might sound unprofessional, but if I never try, I would never know.

“Excuse me doctor, I know you always under the pump. Would you be able to check my eye, please. I think …”
I haven’t finish with my sentense yet..

“come in tomorrow first thing in the morning. 9am”

AWESOME.

So, there I went. Flagging my big arse to the receptionist who asked me to come in NEXT week.
“I suspect it is some kind of Meibomian Gland Infection”

GREAT.

“I believe you have used some drops. If it doesn’t clear up, and you feel uncomfortable, call me.”

FANTASTIC.

p/s: doctor knows I don’t need a presciption for an eye oinment. But, for the sake of seeing my name under his Rx and to proove to my gf that I ACTUALLY seen him,  I requested one. *Happily kill a tree*

p/p/s: I went all gatal wore contact lense in the past 2 days. Now, my eyes got flare up again. Worst, I must use both drops and ointment for at least 10 days. Argh. Compliance is a bitch, I tell you!

So, I cooked up a storm on my day off.

For no reason, I felt there was a sense of pressure, stress and emptiness. Out of control. I felt guilty too, for not cooking over the weekend. Kian and I ended up have to get some take-away at work.

I drove down to the local shop. I bought some grocery without a proper shopping list. I picked as I walked down the shoping aisles. Couple of items. I was trying to be sensible at that time too.

I cooked one kilo of keow teow.

Before that, I boiled some eggs, diced some mushrooms. I made a small pot of five-spice chicken.

On the stove, I cooked almost 1.5kilos of curry chicken. I had 4 roti canai/plata to go with it.

I haven’t mentioned there was a bunch of chinese kai-lan (vegetable), and brocoli in the fridge.
I cleaned up the entire kitchen after that, leaving the whole area spotlessly clean.

I starred at the food, and I had no idea where to start. And guess what, I wasn’t even feeling hungry. Not a tiny bit.

You know how I used to (and I still am) taking photos everyday. I used to capture almost everything I eat.
I went to a local restaurant at the Cott the other day, the portion served was sooo small, yet so cute. I couldn’t help but take a few more photos so I can keep looking at the food photo to fill me up (even more).
Oh! That was so nice.

Sometimes the food photo might look nice. Fact, the taste isn’t that nice after all. Gentle light and macro mode do the trick most of the time.

I like the little saucer served up in Chinese restaurant. Thou me and Kian hardly use them at all.
See, I am not a big fan of chilli. But, I still reckon the colours of the chilli are very nice.

Things have changed a little eversince we do more cooking at home nowadays.  I don’t get to bring my camera to take those nice photos in the restaurants.

I can’t possibly take nice photos from my lunch box either. I microwave my lunch for 2 min, once I lift up the lid, the steam escapes. I am always hungry for lunch before I manage or able to take a nice photo of my lunch.

But, one thing has never changed: I still bring my camera with me almost everyday

So. No nice photos from my lunches. But, I still have some nice photos from.. from.. elsewhere.

I see people coming in everyday with all sort of request. Very often, they present with some skin problem, without any hesitation, they lift up their clothes, and show it to me.

And most of the time, I have no idea how to react appropriately, so I say: OH! That’s very er..er….nice.
Full stop.

Due to my portfolio requirement, I need to take some photos to show the Council people that I have had actually seen such things. Oh well, not quite really a requirement. I just like taking photos after all. I admit.

So, yeah. No photos of food/flower/myself. I’m still very happy to satisfy my ‘photography craving’ by taking thse ‘nice’ photos. Wonder why? Am I lost my sense of photography or what?

Or it is just because the workaholic fink in me???

I was told this toe is infected by fungal. I couldn’t help but requested a photo.
She removed her shoe. I saw the badly infected toe. The smell of the feet shoooo-ed me 3 miles away.

Holy cow! That IS so ‘nice’!!!

Saturday night. Out of the blue, someone rang the door bell. Kian answered the door.

It was a girl, claiming herself that she is our neighbour.

In her broken English: “Where is THE girl? The Malaysian girl”  “The one drives a white small car?”

I sensed the girl was obviously looking for me, thou I no longer own the white small car.

“are you looking for me?”

I hurried up myself from laundry room, while looking for a short pants.

“I am your neighbour. Do you remember me?”

I opened my eyes, wide. Clearly, not.

“Er.. you are?”

“I am your neighhour. Monday is Labour Day. I have a day off. I make a small party pack for you, thanking you for fetching me to uni sometimes ago.”

She handed a plate of goodies.

“Oh dear! You don’t have to do that! It is my pleasure”

Hmm. I did fetch a few people to uni from my area when I was in uni. I totally understand how difficult it is living in Perth without a car! I always thought, might as well eh, since we all going to the same uni anyway. I shall make use the petrol.

I saw the Vietnamese rolls, man! That is my favourite! I couldn’t resist to say NO by then. Alas, ppl susah susah made it for me, might as well let me ’sapu’ everything, right?

She walked out from the shadow of light, feeling so please. I, on the other hand, just realised I almost happily ’sapu’ ppl sushi, without asking her name.

Gosh! 

p/s: Honey, don’t worry. I never picked any other boy(s) on my way to uni.

Another February.. Another Year.. I am officially one year younger! Hoooray!

Happy Birthday to me!