A Mind of My Own

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I have always hated mosquitoes to the core. It is always worrying when you have some sort of illness that the doctors are unable to figure out. Having said that, I was extremely worried about my mother when she was hospitalised.

Since Sunday, her blood was withdrawn a few times for tests that were inconclusive to what sort of sickness she was suffering from. The first 3 days, she was lying on the bed, weak from the virus attack. By the 4th day, she was much better and with a better appetite.

Her angry red rashes on the body, arms, legs and face had also faded by the 2nd day which was a huge relief. The blood tests stated that she wasn’t suffering from any dengue and liver problem, another major relief. Just today, the 5th day of the hospital stay, the doctors said that she was suffering from Chikungunya. Another form of horrible disease by a variant from the Ades mosquito.

The victim will show symptoms that dengue brings about. Joint pains, red rashes, fever, etc. Is there no way to kill mosquitoes permanently except for squishing them to death?

Credit cards are evil or so my parents believe. Yes, they can be evil when you overspend and don’t pay last month’s bills. However, they are evil when it’s so difficult to earn the precious points or rebates when you have been swiping them a lot. It does get discouraging when your expenditure isn’t enough to get back some rewards when you need them most.

I personally use Citibank’s SMRT Platinum card for my travels and have been very discouraged by the long time taken to earn back the rebates for topping up my card again. Even UOB’s One card has been evil. Anything slightly less than $300 per month, I don’t get my rebates at all.

Needless to say, I am also disappointed with Lady’s Card too. I prefer my rebates earned instantly like Citibank’s Tangs and POSB Everyday cards. That way, I get to enjoy using them more than anything else. Money is precious especially during this down time for the economy.

Dabbling in stocks and Forex isn’t my cup of tea since I don’t want to monitor the charts every time. Finding and staying in recession-proof jobs is also tough since companies are now hiring higher expectations. At times like this, I think of ABBA’s Money, Money, Money.

The Healing Society is a place for healing oneself by doing regular exercises. However, it is different from other forms of exercises that we know of. It consists of Dahnhak and Brain Respiration as healing methods for the body, mind and spirit. This was formed based on a book by Ilchi Lee.

While the site promises free online Dahnhak classes, I see short paragraphs on how the exercises will benefit us but nothing of how to do the exercises except on the length of doing them. I assume the photos beside each paragraph is telling us that we should be doing them.

Perhaps it would be helpful if the page tells us that we can join as a member so we can view the exercise routines. I dislike viewing the same site with another window or tab opened unless there are some things to be referred to. Since I’m viewing the same site, I don’t see why some of the links need to open another window.

The site is neat and easy to navigate as a public user. I wonder if being a member of the site will bring about the same interface or another interface. It would help to let the public know the benefits of being a member of the site too.

This is a review for a contest.

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I saw a bird gliding into the A & E of Alexandra Hospital and literally hit the glass window hard. I was going outside when I saw the bird flying and attempting to fly straight and a loud ‘thunk’ was heard the next second. I was wondering if the bird giddy but it angled to its left and tried to fly towards another glass window except, this time, it had learned its lesson.

After a few seconds, it managed to fly under the window where it wasn’t covered towards its destination wherever that was. Now, what on earth was I doing on a Sunday morning at the A & E? My mother. She started having rashes last night and it got worse by this morning.

Worried, my dad promptly decided that the hospital was the best option since the polyclinic doctors and private doctors are never opened on Sundays. The wait was short for the consultation. However, the blood test would have to take longer.

That meant my mother would have to stay at the hospital under observation until the results are released. A week of aching joints is a serious case since Dengue is known to cause that symptom. I hope it isn’t Dengue since it’s going to be troublesome in future.

That’s why I hate mosquitoes.

Women love accessories. I love them too. I have earrings of various lengths and types. In my hunt for jewellery pieces that are not worn by anyone else, I realised that I have to make my own otherwise I will be seeing everyone wearing that same piece.

Who doesn’t want to be unique? There pieces that I sell too. I try to go for light-weight pieces that are suitable for daily wear and those hook-ons since it’s faster. As of this moment, seasonal pieces are for sale. They are also suitable for daily wear too.

Clothes, earrings and necklaces are currently in stock at Cheri Divas. Free gifts for purchases made is also available. Free gifts are while stocks last.

Image by World Bank Photo Collection via Flickr

Money, money, money. It’s so funny, it’s a rich man’s world! This song will always be applicable at any time. Sung by ABBA, it has always reminded me of how money makes the world go round. Without money, you can’t buy food for your basic needs, house to live in and bills to pay.

What the Uganda women are doing in their villages in order to earn money to buy food, the make paper beads. Some call it Mzuri beads. The beads are recycled from unwanted paper such as magazines, brochures and scrapped paper. The women are doing this so that they can try to get out of poverty.

In Singapore, some temples give out free lunches for the poor so that they won’t have to worry about their meal and can work without worries. However, it is a disappointment that even those who can afford a meal are blatantly eating at the temples upon arriving in their BMWs or Mercedes.

Every year, there are some charities giving out free textbooks to the school children. Those who truly need the books for their children are sometimes unable to get them because there are people who can afford to buy the textbooks will be there in their cars and grab the books before leaving.

Giving out free meals and books are part of the steps to help the poor. However, when these are abuse, there may be no more good Samaritans who can carry these acts without worrying that the poor won’t be receiving these kindness as the ones who can afford are snatching them up before them.

The World Bank provides books on poverty so that people will understand and take steps to help the poor move out of it. When charities attempt to help the poor by giving out free toys, food and textbooks, greedy people will abuse this system.

Thus, the poor are often pushed away even when they do need the stuff. Other than begging for money in the streets and busking, the poor can only do so much. The laws in Singapore prevents anyone from busking in the streets without a license.

No one can sell street food without a valid stall. Every business has to be reported and the rentals are expensive. With the current recession, one can only do so much. Even attempts to selling products online may become an issue as humans being humans will only buy from a trusted site. The products must not harm the human if it’s a toy for a child.

What can the poor really do to get out of poverty in Singapore then? They have to apply for help at the various authorities such as CDAC, Salvation Army, Singapore Red Cross Society and many more. Those who can help can only do so much.

Only you can help yourself to get out of poverty. Have you done anything to help yourself yet?

For Blog Action Day

10 Promises to My Dog is a family movie that teaches about a dog’s unconditional love and support to his owner. Socks, the Golden Retriever, wandered into Akari’s house as a young puppy when she was 14 years old. His presence in the family brought about some relief when Akari’s mother passed away due to an illness.

I like this touching movie because of its simple message. Animals have only us for companionship when they are our pets. Be it dogs, cats or guinea pigs. They depend on us for food as they can’t hunt on their own. They remember what was done to them even if they can talk.

Dogs have a lifespan of 10 to 15 years and neglecting them over the years or even abusing them will make them be afraid of you and even hate you. Don’t forget, dogs are natural hunters and their sharp teeth do hurt. 10 Promises teaches about Socks being a therapy dog; there is a few scenes about how he does it simply by being there and playing the “See There” game.

I feel this is a touching movie as it reminds me of my lost pet. The tears refused to stop! I feel that it is a pity that people adopt just any pet thinking it’s cute or “KAWAII” and then abandon them on the streets after a few years. When a pet has been domesticated for a few years, the hunting skills don’t just magically appear so that they will survive in the cold streets.

Just like if you have been used to being served with food at home without cooking, you can’t just magically cook a great meal when you are living on your own, do you?

Image via Wikipedia

Freelance can be a torture. That’s when you don’t plan the schedule. Your family members keep calling for you thinking that just because you are home, you are free. You try to let them know but they fail to see the logic when working in the office means you are busy (can’t see you so they assume you are busy). Eh?

I need the Harry Potter’s Invisible Cloak. Or even a jumper’s ability to just jump to a quiet place to do work. I won’t say that I am fully freelancing since I’m not exactly doing that. It’s like I’m more in dabbling in a pet project at this moment with too many other mini projects that need the brain cells to be active at the same time.

I am still wondering if I can do freelance. I’ve always wanted to do professional writing. I know it doesn’t pay that well since I’m not Stephen King, J. K. Rowling (Did I spell the author’s name correctly? I have this problem with initials) or Dan Brown.

Maybe I should just give myself a name with writing credits to that name so that I do get some exposure. I read that some authors use different names for their books, like Mark Twain and the author of Alice in Wonderland. Here I am, digressing in 3 paragraphs about doing freelance.

Anyway, freelancing means discipline and not everyone is able to do it. There’s a way to make one self-disciplined too. By blogging the deadlines so that readers will pester you for results.

Nobody will understand the feelings of a freelancer except another who had gone through the same situation. Everyone needs a little tender loving care at times and support. Freelance may not bring in stable income but it does bring the flexibility of time schedules. You don’t have to tell anyone why you are submitting that leave form.

However, you get calls from clients who call you in their day time while you are at night because they are on the other side of the world and forget the time difference. And you get calls from frantic clients on Saturdays because they think that by paying you, they can call you at any time without considering the fact that you may be spending some family time.

It will be my last if possible. I was so looking forward to it but when we arrived, there was a major anti-climax. Party World at Oriental Plaza was a disappointment. We had problems trying to select songs due to the remote issue. It took us 15 minutes trying to get it to work each time.

I felt disappointed that when I called for booking, I was greeting in Mandarin. So, only Chinese go for KTV sessions? Apparently so. We did manage to select quite a number of songs to last throughout 4 hours. I doubt that we’ll go back there unless there are no other places.

Party World near Maxwell Road wasn’t selected due to the weird timings. I mean, who on earth sings from 7pm to 11pm? Or 11pm to 3am? Don’t people have to have dinner before that? Maybe I am wrong about 11pm to 3am but 7pm is too early since most people knock off at 6pm. I don’t like packages that fix the time slots.

I went to Asian Civilisations Museum on Children’s Day. The irony. It’s been a long time since I last had some kiddy fun. After meeting DD at Raffles Place MRT, we crossed Cavenagh Bridge. Anyone knows how to pronounce Cavenagh?

The naughty kids pushing one another into the river.

Entrance of ACM. They have yet to take down the poster about the Vietnamese exhibits. A real pity to have missed those.

A weaving loom. I think it’s used by the Vietnamese.

The lion welcomed us just as we walked in.

Buddha is that huge!

A vase that reminds me of hearts.

I find the place interesting as it showed me the cultures and the influences that each Asian country tries to differentiate but yet the essence is there. The beliefs of certain objects to ward off evil and the cultures overlapping each other despite the attempts to be unique. I hope to see some Japanese and Korean cultures to be included too.

More photos of my trip can be found here. It isn’t complete as there are quite a number of the exhibits that were too huge for my camera to capture. Why not visit ACM yourself to soak in the cultures and understand the origins?