Friday, June 27, 2008

Mis-alingned planets

Packrat's gone to the movies. He asked me to go but I mournfully turned him down because I had work to do. It's an hour after he's left and I've only just settled down to get my work done. It's taken me that long because,

a) I couldn't find my mouse. I know I don't need my mouse to do work but since Packrat's not home, I need some company.

b) I couldn't find my pencil case. That I needed otherwise I really couldn't get down to work.

c) I really didn't want to start work so I sorted out my clothes into piles. Want but cannot fit into, Don't want but can fit into, Don't want and cannot fit into, Want and fit into.

Now I'm done with all that so I should be able to get down to work but some how or other, my world just feels out of order and the planets are misaligned so I think it's going to take me that much longer.

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Ondine tossed this thought in at 22:07

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

Delusions of grandeur

Some days ago, out of the blue, Packrat mentioned something about the US drilling for oil in Alaska. I blinked and looked at him, asking him whether this was something that had just been announced. He said yes. So, why had I already heard about it? Was I clairvoyant or something? How did I know that, not only did the US want to drill for oil in Alaska, it made no sense because the oil under there wasn't enough to sustain the US for all that long and environmentalists and anyone who had 2 bits of a brain knew that it wasn't worth tearing up thousands of years of flora and fauna and wrecking the environment just for that little bit of oil.

Slowly, the pieces fell into place. I had seen all this on the Live Debate in The West Wing. We took a long sabbatical from watching TWW. The seasons between Aaron Sorkin leaving the show and this last season of the series were a bit painful to watch. But we recently picked it up and ventured into the 7th season which basically revolves around the Presidential Election. Problem is there's a real election going on as well so some of the time, I forget which is which and because TWW is written by people that have dreams of an ideal presidency and government, the issues are real and heartfelt. This isn't the first time it happened. When 9/11 happened, we were watching TWW when the ticker tape started whizzing across the bottom of the screen and the next day I remembered wondering whether it had anything to do with the coup in Haiti which was what we were watching. I have also been asked by students doing work on human rights abuses and violence against women whether Qumar where they executed women for adultery was a real place.

So, we try and watch it when time and space and kids permit. And surprisingly enough or not so surprising, we're actually more fired up by the campaign we're seeing on screen then the one we read about in the paper and watch on CNN. We're down to the last 5 days of the campaign and it's shot in a way that makes me feel stressed and tired just watching the candidates. Now that's good tv. But it's also beside the point. While watching Jimmy Smits play Matt Santos attempt to work 5 states in a day on 6 hours of sleep in the past 3 days, I wondered out loud who could possibly do such a job. We came to the conclusion that Packrat couldn't. As is, functioning on anything less than 8 hours of sleep is difficult for him. He however, thought I could because I work well under pressure though he didn't know if I could last an entire presidency.

Who knows? I have taken enough career/personality tests to know that as long as the job interests me and fires me up, I'm pretty much the energizer bunny. Give me something that kills the brain, it'll kill me too. So could I be president? Would I want to be president? I'd probably like the trappings of it but will probably want to slap the political leaders of nations that don't listen to what I say. Talk about Superpower status...All the delusions that I ponder the day before I go back to the grind.

If only I could remain in all these delusions...

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Ondine tossed this thought in at 10:39

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Sunday, June 15, 2008

All I want for my birthday...

Packrat asked what I wanted for my birthday. I took a deep breath and rattled off the following...

  1. Time with him
  2. Time for a facial
  3. Time for a massage
  4. Time for a pedicure (I don't do manicures cos they get scrapped off too quickly)
  5. Time to do my brows
  6. Time to shop
  7. Time to go for high tea
When I paused to take a breath, he asked again, "So what can I give you for your birthday?" and I repeated the same list again. Of course, there's the usual jewellery, Kate Spade path that he can head down, but much as I love pretty things, I also just want some grooming time and time is sorely lacking now.

And I have these severe migraines now. He thinks it's work related and when he said that, I burst into tears further proving his point.

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Ondine tossed this thought in at 22:03

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Saturday, June 14, 2008

Blocked passages

All through the time I was pregnant till now, I'd hardly been sick except for a bout of food poisoning that sent me into a panic with wild thoughts of possibly being pregnant again. Unfortunately, that luck's run out. Actually, it's got to do with the kids more than with me. When the kids get sick, because of the close contact, their caregivers succumb and drop like flies. This was literally what happened. Kids were sick before we left for Melbourne. So, I got sick but because they were so ill, I didn't have time to look after myself.

I took the sick to Melbourne and lost my voice there. With the opportunity of sleep, it didn't get all that bad even though it didn't go away. I did find out that if, in the event of war, I was taken hostage and needed to be tortured, what the perfect torture device for me would be. Flying on a small plane to and from Sydney, with a congested upper respiratory track not only blocks up my ears, it makes it feel like my brain was expanding rapidly inside my skull and threatening to explode out from between my eyes. The pain was so excruciating, I was ready to cry out in pain and was almost ready to yank out my arm to hit myself so that I could distract myself from the pain. I would have sold national secrets (if I knew any, that is) and possibly a kidney to make the pain stop.

By the time we got back to Singapore, I thought the worst was over and plunged myself into making up for lost time with the kids. I knew I wasn't all good and ignored the fact that the temperature change couldn't be all that good for me. And it wasn't. I woke up yesterday morning feeling like crap and when I went to clear my throat, everything came out bloody. That wasn't sounding like something normal. I thought TB or pneumonia or something vaguley horrific.

Turns out my nasal passages were blocked from all the change in pressure and temperature and that caused an infection to occur. And there was no avoiding the antibiotics because it was a bacterial infection and it was bleeding which really isn't a good thing at any time. I got something like 5 drugs to clear off the infection and that amounted to a princely amount of $140. Argh! Pain! Just when I was listening to a political debate about how it's better for someone to take a drug that costs a dollar a day rather than a $40 000 surgery. Sigh, I guess that would really be considering the big picture but it's much easier to focus on the here and now where $140 is a lot of money to spend on medication. Obviously I'd much rather spend it else where, especially since I haven't quite made use of the big sale that's on everywhere now.

But since it has been more than 18 days of sick, I should focus on getting myself well even if I'm not contagious.

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Ondine tossed this thought in at 08:02

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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Piss off

Every time we come back from our trips to Melbourne, we are often floored by the differences between the two cities. Obviously, Melbourne wins because of the weather. Singapore however has cheap food. Melbourne has got big supermarkets that are fun to trawl at midnight. Singapore has cheaper public transport and cheaper movie tickets. The comparison and the list goes on.

One thing however, that puts a point in Melbourne's court is the condition Singapore toilets often find themselves in. In Melbourne, even if we go to a bathroom in the middle of the freeway, it is relatively clean and dry. Here, we'd be hard pressed to find a bathroom that is clean, dry much less one that does not smell foul and does not have tissue paper on the floor.

It's a running joke that the government of our little country has tried to use the draconian methods to get bathrooms looking more reputable. The problem with those methods is that the human element is not taken into consideration. While a government can legislate the need to flush after every use, it really is up to the user to put his hand on the flush and depress it. And then, there is the issue of the chicken-egg-vicious cycle component.

From young, my mother always reminded me that I was not to touch the toilet seats because of the germs, footprints and possibly pee on it. I suspect, that is what a lot of women grow up learning, that toilet seats in public are not fit for the human bum. Therein lay the problem. It doesn't negate the fact that we need to pee. We need to pee but we can't sit on the seat. So what is the next best solution? The Hover. Hovering over the toilet seat is an art. The problem with it is for the uninitiated or the inexperienced, it is quite a challenge. This results with pee being splashed onto the toilet seat causing the need for others to hover once again over the toilet seat since, once again, the toilet seat is wet with pee and adding to the general gross condition of the public bathroom.

Someone assured me that Melbourne bathrooms are equally bad. The only difference is that the weather delays its stinking up. And that in itself becomes another tick in the "Yes, we should move to Oz" column.

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Ondine tossed this thought in at 22:28

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" Far in the stillness, a cat languishes loudly"