Nothing Like The Present

Spoke to an old friend today and he told me how he missed the good old days. I told him that although my youth was good in general, I surely don’t miss them. Those were the days of shopping with friends, checking out boys, watching local bands play and getting away with many, many things. Those were also the days fraught with illness, sadness, and struggle.

Life has been a series of constant learning and improvements. It took me so long to realise this.  Everything “bad” that had happened was an opportunity for me to learn and better myself. So in effect, each new day is better than the day before.

The present is a comfortable place for me to be right now. The people I love are healthy and relatively happy and that makes me happy.  It’s funny how now that I live life fully aware of the present, every little “good” thing is magnified. “I’m having a funny conversation with my husband, how cool is that?”, “My cat is dreaming in its sleep. This is cuteness personified!”, “I’m eating a chocolate bar. What a delightful taste!”

10, 20 years on, when I look back on this day I hope I’ll still be saying  “those were the good old days.  And thank you for the present”.

Invest in Your Health

Nothing like starting a brand new month in a brand new year all raring to go,  pocket full of ambitious resolutions. And then falling ill. For a good half of the month. Oh well, I’m just glad that’s over. By the way, thanks for the get well wishes guys.

I’ve been thinking about the stress thing my doctor kept talking about. I believe deep down inside, despite the mental preparation and all, I’m really more than a little worried about the current state of the economy. Add to that news of friends being layed off every other week…

Quite a few companies here will closed for a longer-than-usual period for Chinese New Year next week. Workers are being asked to take extended leave due to slow-down in operations. The company we’re doing a project with is also affected, so my husband and I will taking a week-long break next week too.

We don’t have anything planned for the week. I’m just going to basically chill out, eat well, exercise and, if the weather is good, tackle some of the things on our “Things to do on a Fine Day” list. I guess in these uncertain times, the best investment one can make now is in your health.

Surely There’s More Than One Way to Skin a Cat?

If you’ve read my tweet a few days ago, you would be aware that I had been sick. Again. Hmm…

My doctor suggested that I may be allergic to my cats. Of course, the obvious solution is to remove the offensive allergen. But you see, I’m very, very fond of my cats. Apart from vacuuming and wiping all the corners of my small apartment, washing all the sheets and upholstery and keeping the windows open, I don’t know what else I can do to make living with 7 giant furballs more tolerable. Should I shave them bald? Keep them locked in the bathroom during the hours when I’m awake? Ok, just kidding!

Are you allergic to your pets but still live with them? How do you cope?

Wouldn’t It Be Great If…
Shopping Was Exercise?

I’ve just started walking to keep fit. I have clocked 20 hours in the past week.  And it all started with a post-Christmas sales shopping spree.

You see, I only shop for clothes about 3-4 times a year but it’s usually a multiple-day affair for me — 1 day to plan and check out styles in magazines or websites; 1-3 days to scour ALL the clothing racks in town, a day to decide whether I really need whatever I’ve singled out in the stores, and another day to actually buy the stuff. I’m probably the least impulsive shopper you’ll ever meet and have annoyed practically everyone who’s ever been shopping with me — even my mom. Which is why I now only shop alone.  She doesn’t get why I need to think so hard about buying a $10 pair of sandals.  To me, $10 spent on something I’m not gonna use regularly is $10 wasted.  (However, this habit does not extend to other areas of my life like  buying snacks for myself  (unfortunately) — “$16 for a tub of ice-cream? Sounds delicious!” — or buying gifts for others (fortunately) — “$80 for a box of fine chocolates? Why not? She’s worth it!”)

Anyway, I realised that I could spend up to 8 hours a day on my feet, walking briskly from mall to mall, trying to find the perfect shirt at the perfect price and this exercise proved to be quite a work out. A hugely satisfying one. Why not create a fitness regime based on shopping, I thought? So with that in mind, my Shoppercise programme is born. It goes something like this:

1. I’ll award myself $5 of spending money at the end of each hour of walking (window shopping).
2. Unspent allowance will be brought forward to the next hour. So if I want to spend $20 on a t-shirt, I’ll need to walk 4 hours to earn it. A lot of work for a bit of money, but that’s the point.
3. At the end of the day, I either have something new in my wardrobe that I had “exercised” for, or earn a few dollars of somewhat guilt-free (I “earned” it by burning calories, right?) shopping allowance.
4. Repeat every week until I get sick of this scheme.

Still on the topic of walking, I have recently discovered a park with a mangrove forest just a 15-minute walk away from my apartment. I was there yesterday and saw a monkey, a huge spider and so many species of plants I’ve never seen before. The whole trail takes about an hour and a half to cover and I can see myself going there at least once a week.

One for the Superstitious

In a phone conversation I had with a friend last week, I had announced, prematurely, that I may have outgrown my asthma. That very night, I dreamt of someone choking me and then I woke up coughing profusely. A few hours later the coughs became more severe and were accompanied by deep wheezing and by noon, I was getting more and more breathless.

This is the fourth time in as many years that I’ve fallen ill after telling someone that I’ve never felt better. For someone who is superstitious, this is probably a good enough rate to warrant a jinx status, but fortunately I’m not.

I noticed that I tend to fall ill around this time of the year. According to my doctor, he sees more people in the last few months of the year — November-December are the wettest months here and when people tend to be cooped up in their homes and offices, it makes it easier for viruses to spread.

The end of the year is also the time I catch up with old friends so this pattern of calling people up telling them how good I’ve been only to fall sick a few days later is not a just case of bad luck . :)

Well, Chill

Sorry guys, I was down with a nasty upper respiratory tract infection. I asked my doctor about the rashes I have on my arms and legs which I initially thought were a case of fungal infection. Apparently I have stress-induced eczema. I told him that I was under no pressure from my work nor personal life but he laughed it off and asked me to chill. Is it possible to be all stressed up and not know it?

Before I left the clinic, the good Doc reminded, “no ice-cream and chocolate bars for now!” Unfortunately, the two things I had been yearning for the past few days were a big tub of Ben and Jerry’s and a whole family-sized bar of Toblerone. Has my doctor been reading my blog?

PS: No, doc, I didn’t give in to my cravings. :[