Ergo, eating desserts should give relief to one who is stressed.
Ouch ;)
I drove RoundBoy and OnlyGirl in a separate car to school this morning because I needed to buy some books from the school’s bookshop. Since we were caught in the usual morning crawl, I asked RoundBoy to check his timetable so that he could take out the books that he doesn’t need in class today, in order to lessen the load in his schoolbag. He took out one book and put it beside him on the backseat.
RoundBoy: Mama, the book is here at the back. Make sure you bring it back, okay?
Mama: Okay.
RoundBoy: Are you sure you won’t forget?
Mama: I won’t. And even if I do, I will surely see it later when I go to work. And even if I still forget, we can always take it out of the car tonight.
OnlyGirl to RoundBoy: I left my books in the car last time and Mama remembered.
RoundBoy: But that was BEFORE (direct translation of the Malay ‘dulu‘, used to indicate a period of time in the past). Now, Mama is so much older!
Mama: (laughing out loud) I’m not THAT old!
RoundBoy: (grinning impishly) What??! Everyone gets older everyday…
How can you possibly argue with that? ;)
Sometimes I Forget I Live In KL
Sometimes I forget that I live in KL, right under the shadow of the most famous twin towers in the world… until I browse my phone and find a gem of a snapshot like this:-
The twins posing in front of the Petronas Twin Towers
This reminds me of the time I was in Geneva in April 2008. The proprietor of Hotel Central asked me if the Petronas Twin Towers are truly beautiful. I had to pause (!) to think of an answer. And all I could say was, “I suppose they’re beautiful in a man-made way. It’s just that I see them so often — I drive past them almost everyday — that I’ve taken them for granted already.”
May I never take anything for granted again. Especially the things that I see everyday. Amen.
You Know It’s A Bad Sign…
You know it’s a bad sign when you arrive on time at the airport but can’t find your check-in counter.
You know it’s a bad sign when, after successfully locating your (unmarked) check-in counter, you are told that the flight is delayed for “about an hour”.
You know it’s a bad sign when, upon reaching the departure gate as printed out in your boarding pass, the doors are closed and the only person in sight is a solitary guard idly watching TV.
You know it’s a bad sign when, after being escorted by that very same guard to the newly assigned gate (with nary a notice in sign), the pre-departure lounge is full of restless passengers but your plane is nowhere in sight.
You know it’s a bad sign when the budget airline that doesn’t serve meals on board starts to distribute free lunches — meager but they’re free — to all passengers.
My only consolation is that I have my MacBook with me and a head bursting with blog post ideas.
Knocked Out
I had my Friday all mapped out yesterday. Send kids to school and the twins to playschool, drop by the bank at 9.30 a.m., meet with some guys from Hong Kong at 10.30 a.m., get insurance quotes settled, meet with some people from Ipoh at 3 pm.
But what I didn’t count on was catching some kind of viral infection that left me with a low-grade fever and aches and pains all over my body, similar to what one experiences just before catching a cold.
After sending the bigger kids to school yesterday, the pain progressively got worse, to the point where I could hardly get up, much less drive, and had to ask someone else to drive the twins to playschool. And as soon as I got back home, I curled up on the couch and called the office to say that I wouldn’t be able to make it to work.
That’s where I stayed the rest of the day — the couch. I tossed and turned fitfully, mercifully falling asleep sometime towards noon a few minutes into the most boring movie on DVD.
This morning, I thought I felt much better, so I got ready to go grocery-shopping. I even asked the kids to draw up the shopping list. Then the pain came again. Like burning fire in my joints and the back of my hips. A thousand butterflies wreaking havoc inside my abdomen. A giddy lightheaded sort of headache. And once again, I spent the day on the very same couch, to spare me the trouble (and the pain) of going up and down the stairs.
Funny thing these viruses. They’re organisms that are so minute — some 100 to 1000 times smaller than bacteria — yet they pack such a punch, they can render one’s entire system in complete chaos. Think AIDS. Smallpox. The common cold – the one thing that doctors have yet to find a cure, despite all the advances in the medical world. Then this mysterious, unexplained viral thing that strikes me every once in a while — low-grade fever (sometimes none) and pain all over my body as though as I’ve been hit by a truck.
Viral infections. They’re God’s way of reminding us how frail the human body is. You can be the President of the most powerful country in the world, four-time Olympic gold medalist, or the most popular recording artiste of all time. But the moment a virus infection strikes, it knocks you out and reminds you that you are just like any other mortal on this planet.
About Me:
Selamat datang (welcome)!
I am Mimi -- mother, careerwoman, incidental world traveler, photography enthusiast, self-confessed gadget geek, and aspiring linguist (7 languages to date).
I'm a Filipina married to a Malaysian. Kuala Lumpur has been my home since 1993.
You may reach me at mimi[at]sleeplessinkl.com.
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