The Bride Who Caved

Never thought I would be the sort to pick up bridal magazines and talk endlessly about the 'big day' but here I am, eating my own words.

Yesterday, I bought my very first copy of bridal magazine. 480 pages of glorious advertisements and content all promoting wedding related stuff from the perfect napkin holder to that dream gown that not only downsizes your hips but magically add 2 bust sizes at the same time. I swear it weighs close to a kilo (all the better to do some weight lifting exercise as you skim through the pages...such a little multi-tasker). For the uninitiated, it costs $8!!! And I'm embarrassed to say that all is keeping me from buying more, is that they are too heavy to carry around.

I'm practicing a lot of self-restraint already. I mean, for a person whose most of my adult life is involved in events, I ought to be smarter about these things right? NO.

You folks have been forewarned. From now till next year, every other word, thought, perspiration from me will be about the 'big day'. Thank gawd Ribena is taking me gown hunting soon (mostly to shut me up, I suspect). Can I just say I'm so glad she got hitched first and I held her hand through it (at least I hope I did?) and now its payback time. No need to pore through magazines and online forums for information, just bring along a married person for the ride.

~SeamonkeY~

Legit Spray

And that, my friend, is a bottle of pepper spray. Homemade.

I always assume that pepper spray is available in Singapore until my recent search for it turned out to be not. My first (and only) bottle was bought a few years back while backpacking through Malaysia and Thailand, purchased over the counter at Watson's in KL...how easy is that?

This recent search is for Zaza's birthday present as well as for her impending trip to the States. I mean, she is flying off thousands of miles to meet a man in person for the very first time. Psychos are aplenty in US – haven't you been watching CSI or even better, true life re-enactments on Crime Night (that's Friday for us losers staying at home on a date night) on Discovery? Sure, the disclaimer on CSI is that characters portrayed are all fictitious, but dun you wonder where the writers draw their inspirations from?

Anyway, back to the pepper spray...

Turns out, pepper sprays are illegal in Singapore. What's a girl to do for something handy against perpetrators? Ems gave me the brilliant idea of mixing actual pepper with water and storing it in a spray bottle. While shopping for pepper at the supermarket, I came across tabasco sauce and the bulb went off in my head. Emptying out the tabasco sauce into the bottle and viola...pepper spray!

Zaza's new weapon of choice is good for robbers, snatch-thieves and even for the occasional pizza or spaghetti. As Charissa puts it, it even leaves a impossible-to-remove stain on potential criminals' clothes. Handy indeed.

~SeamonkeY~

A Walk In the Dark

We were walking along Bukit Timah Road, just opposite KK Hospital towards Newton Food Centre when a Taiwanese (judging from their accent) couple stopped us.

Taiwan Chick: Can you direct us to Hotel Royal?
Seamonkey: Oh, its that way (pointed to the opposite direction).
Taiwan Chick: Oh, but we just came from there. You sure? (took out map to hotel)
Seamonkey: Yes. You need to walk across the roundabout at Newton Food Centre. We are headed that way too. Its about fifteen minutes walk.
Taiwan Chick: (looked exasperated)
Seamonkey: Its really not that far...
Taiwan Chick: Of course not far for you both...you're in love!

(-_-") Awkward pause for 3 seconds.

Seamonkey: Or you can take a cab. Five minutes only.

Kenneth Cole and I gave each other strange looks and thought how being in love (or not in love) can affect walking distance.

~SeamonkeY~

Curse of the Wisdom Tooth

I've been hit by the worst curse ever! The 'Curse of the wisdom tooth'... Well it's not cos i have got to have it extracted, rather, i'm having a severe gum infection as a result of my upper and lower wisdom left tooth. Here's the thing, if i'm overly stressed, haven't had enough of sleep, coupled with the foray of my over-indulgence of dark chocs, ice cream plus the ever so wonderful food... i would essentially land myself in big trouble, i.e. the Gum infection. IT's all related Gums, wisdom tooth, lack of space... oh well you get the drift.

Here i am seated in my room... really wishing i was back at work. All in all, i've been given a total of 5 days of MC. So i feel really bad because i've left my team at work to hold the fort and i can't be part of the excitement. Call me workaholic but i've always been plagued by the irrevocable "R"... Responsibility. Hence, been having quite the guilt for being away from work for that long.

I'm miserable... i have never been in so much pain and never had so many jabs (other than when i was lil i.e. 5/6 yrs)... that will be in 25 yrs of my life.

Yes i was having syntomps of the gum infection late last week, and up till Sunday afternoon i was still fine... I took my dad out to Waraku (which was excellent). Things took a dif turn on Sun eve when i was out with the Roo to watch the movie "1408" (which btw, was pretty gd). There was an almost burning sensation happening to my gum... by the end of the movie, it was so bad that i had to scram home without having dinner. To cut the long story short, here's a quick summary:

Mon AM:
- Woke up with a swollen left cheek the size of a Ping pong ball
- Headed for the dentist immediately and was given abt 3 or more jabs to bring the swelling down... also darn the nurse for having to put so much pressure on my mouth whilst taking the x-tray.
- Was told that the severe gum infection was due to my wisdom tooth and had to get it extracted. But they can't do anything cos my mouth was still swollen.
- Collected the medicine from the auntie nurse:
Auntie Nurse: "Come i give you strong painkillers!"
Lara in Pain: "I'm allergic to Aspirin, you sure i can take?"
Auntie Nurse: "You wait ah..." *runs to into the doc's room* OH doc says CAN!
Lara in Pain: "Mmmmrph... ok"

[Was given 2 days MC]

So went back, had lunch and ate the medicine. Lo and behold... at 6pm, i woke up with a SHOCK! Where on earth did that BULGE on my right eye come from? IT started to itch terribly.... Imagine this: Ping pong ball sized cheek and swollen goldfish eyes... Aiyeee... Was totally badly disfigured!

I decided to go see my family doc who was just downstairs my block. Had to totally SIAM all forms of glares, least they start to think that "The Aliens have landed on earth".

I brought the medicine my dentist had given me that morning to show my doc. One look, he knew it was the painkillers that gave me the goldfish eyes. He immediately made me take an antibiotic jab and gave me a round of anti-histamines to take for the eye.

Note to self: I'm never going back to that dentist to do my teeth/gums ever again! Dang that auntie nurse!

[Given another 2 days MC]

Tues came round, i called my Doc as the antibiotic jab i had on Monday doesn't seem to be working as fast as i hope it would. Turns out the effect wasn't instantaneous... And he advised me if by Wednesday, the swelling and pain were around, i'd may have to go in to get a dbl dosage of antibiotic jab.

Sigh... Wednesday (today), sad reality is that although i'm slightly better... but it's not recovering as quickly as i hope it would. The goldfish eyes have gone away.... i'm still left to fend the Ping Pong ball cheeks.... I went anyways for the jab... Doc gave me another 2 more days to rest at hm....

Ok call me paranoid... but i've just made an appt for tmrw with the dentist that my bro and sis-in-law goes to, which apparently, did quite a good job on both of their teeth. Reason? I'm just worried that there might be some pus somewhere beneath the swollen gums, that may be left to rot... And i just want to be 100% safe. God knows if i'm going to be jabbed more tomorrow... but this week is definitely one jabbing painful week for me...

~ Miserable Lara ~

#57 The Case of the Missing Plant

We came back to the office to find our plant missing. This is reminiscent of the lion that went missing from the festival site in 2005 (which is still MIA till now) except that I unwittingly stumbled onto something online today that may lead us to the plant.

We sent our plant to be babysat by our next door neighbour. 2 weeks after the festival, we found out that the plant never stepped into the restaurant. All we have now is this blog entry posted by another mysterious neighbour who may very well be the last person to see the plant alive.

http://therapeutik.wordpress.com/2007/08/17/womad-2007/

Another one bites the dust.

~SeamonkeY~