Viral Fever -- Losing 3 Nights' Sleep

Kayrin developed a fever on June 24, and I no longer remember when I discovered it. It's a bit of a blur now. How can anyone blame me for my not-too-great memory when I lost three straight nights of sleep after that.
She saw Dr. Wong on June 25, I still went back to work that day. But two more nights of being awake after that, I had to call in and ask the boss for a day off. Thank goodness boss is a nice fella and I got my day off to recuperate. I slept and kayrin slept the afternoon away too after we got Augmentin, dhasalone and Piriton from Dr. Wong. What a big difference the medicine did!
So on Saturday, June 28, we went to thank Dr. Wong and her staff with a box of Belgian chocolates. All for giving mummy back her sleep!

Contact Dermatitis

I've got another theory for my cold sores -- contact dermatitis. Last week, I was rinsing my mouth twice a day with Bactidol. On the rare occassions when I use it, at SF's urgings when I complain of a sore throat, I'd get tingling sensations on the tongue. Since SF dismisses my complaints, I thought that may be it was natural to get these sensations. So last week, I just overdid it with Bactidol..and voila, here's the cold sores in full-blown stage, at least 4 lacerations on the tip of my tongue, and three more on the insides of my cheek. And 2 on the frontal part of my gums. No more Bactidol for me. People with eczema are more prone to contact dermatitis, which is an allergic reaction of sorts.

Cold Sores

Apparently I can't blame Kayrin's teacher meeting or the boss or Shaw feng for my cold sores. Not entirely, anyway. Some food trigger a breakout and most times, you inherit from your parents the tendency to develop them. I know for sure that my mom has them from time to time. Mouth ulcers are also triggered by food such as cheese and nuts.
Guess what..on Friday the 13th, I couldn't stomach the lamb served at the office lunch, so I had yoghurt with crackers smashed into them. And when that wasn't sufficient, I had my second slice of cheddar cheese with bread! That was two slices in a day after months and months of not having any cheese.
Now I'm really suffering.

Stress and Mouth Ulcers

The stress of having the boss in town, the nightly dinners with colleagues and Kayrin's parent-teacher meeting must have gotten to me. Over the weekend, I woke up with a mouth full of ulcers! Yikes. Tongue was so swollen I couldn't talk properly. There was a cold sore on my gums, on the insides of my cheeks. Wah, I haven't had it so bad for so long. This is really torture. That plus the cheese, the Jacob oatmeal crackers on Friday must have done it. Uggggghh. I'll have to try meditation to destress.

Meet the Teacher

I'm going to my first parent-teacher meeting at Kayrin's kindy tomorrow. It's quite unnerving for me. One, it means I'm really the adult here now, with someone to be responsible for apart from offering her my breast when she used to cry. So if it didn't sink in during birth that I'm now someone's mommy, if it didn't register when the Tumble Tots teacher called me "Kayrin's mum," then this could be it.
I'm anxious because it means that instead of telling the teacher how I want my daughter taught and what I want her to learn, I could be the one under the microscope for my failure as a parent.
What if measured against other parents, I'm always not there for her? What if measured against Nicodamus' mummy, I had failed to teach my cheeky one how to write? What if up against Aliyah's emak, I didn't spend enough time showing my daughter how to draw? I've always been a failure at drawing, anyway. Oh yikes, I need some sort of hand-holding at the meeting tomorrow.
And adding to my distress is Shaw Feng having to scoot off to Hanoi yesterday after my arranging for weeks for him to come along. Boy, oh boy :)
Kayrin's headmistress must have sensed my anxiety when I rang this morning, hoping I'd dreamt all this up.
"Oh, it would be good for both parents to come, not just the mom or dad," Miss Cheng said. I muttered some sort of reply about being there early.
I guess doing this is just like giving birth, no? I just have to go through the experience on my own. It's great that Shaw Feng was there to hold my hand throughout. For that, I'm so very proud of him. There are the doctors and nurses to urge you on but guess who pooped the baby out. Breathe, let the air out of the lungs, unclench the teeth. And pray for me!

A Peck on the Cheek..

A peck on the cheek
A hug for the day
A warm word to get me on my way
on this I count on to keep nerves from being frayed

A smile as a greet
A touch of the hand
A loving look makes the day end
on a sweet note, just like how we were when we began.

Happy Father's Day, Sweetie!

Gasoline Surges 41%

And so the day begins with a 41 percent jump in gasoline prices to 2.70 ringgit a liter, for the 97-RON grade. 41 percent. Ouch.
If you had been pumping 50 ringgit of gasoline into your car till yesterday, today that same amount of the liquid gold would cost you 70 ringgit.
If you had been paying 70 ringgit each time, now it's 100 ringgit.
Now, does that hurt or what.
We shouldn't be so furious, I'd say. After all, we'd been shielded from a fuel-price increase in the past two years. In Australia, prices for the drivers have surged 60 percent in the past year.
In Singapore, the 95-RON is going to S$2.186 a liter (latest info from May 23). That's 5 ringgit. So phew, we are such lucky Malaysians.
But wait, no! Just a minute. What gets my goat is the lack of options! In Singapore and Australia, one could take the train, the bus.
At the Raffles Place MRT station, changing trains mean crossing the platform, or taking the escalators to another level of the station.
Anyone been to the Masjid Jamek interchange lately? To change trains, cross the road at your own peril. Sure, there's a zebra crossing but it's not even sheltered. When it rains, I can't even cross that road without getting into puddles that are at least a few inches deep.
And taking the train means I have to rely on SF to drop me off at the station in the morning. Reasons:
(1) not safe to leave my car at the carpark if I drive there. Car could be gone when I return.
(2) not safe for me to walk alone in the carpark at 6+ a.m. or at 7+ p.m.

And not safe to take the cab on my own to head home from the train station.
So, tell me, oh wonderful ministers, have you ever had a day of commuting to work on public transportation in the Klang Valley?

Shoe Horn

We got a free shoe horn when Shaw Feng bought a pair of shoes over the weekend. Curious as a child is, Kayrin wanted to know what it's for. Aha! A chance to keep her occupied for a while, I thought. So I cleverly asked SF to show her what it's for. Five minutes passed, and having learned how the 2-footer long stick works, she goes around lightly smacking SF and I with it.
She was chanting as she did it: ``Horny, horny.''