Bye2 Jan, Hi2 Feb ..

30 days January have passed
A month of madness I shall not demand
One task and another made me ill
It was the time I meant to kill

February's coming more tasks await
Can't seem to push or keep 'em aside
God spare me my strength inside and out
So this madness I will always shroud

Make me stronger than before
Grant me patience all the time
Grow me tougher than those up above
Never fall unwell ever again!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Finally, I had my long sleep last night and was woken up by Johnny's call at 10.35am. The BLA+1 had to work overtime today except for me, Imah and Niza. We had lunch at Emperor's Court, me being late again, as usual! We saw Mrs. Lim there and we got invited to her open house later this afternoon.

I went home for Zuhur then parked my car at Suria's. Her lil niece was with me in the living room, asking her, "Buncu, is this your friend?" Hehe :P Suria replied as she was leaving the room to see her dad, "Yes, of course!" I added, "I wouldn't be here if we're enemies now, would I?" She laughed to my remarks. Ain't she the cutest!

Our first stop for Chinese Raya was at Mrs. Lim's. We met 'Ain and Ting Hing there, with their other colleagues. 'Ain had her hair cut short, making her look younger :) Too bad I didn't manage to take pictures with her since she was sitting at the far end of the living room. We had a group photo with Mrs. Lim and her cool hubby before we left. I also took the opportunity taking a picture with Ting Hing. We used to be close colleagues before he got transferred to PTE Berakas.

Our next destination was to Jacky's. Gosh! The road to her place was so hilly that it felt like we were going on a Pirate Ship! :P Hazel, an old friend from college, who's now Jacky's close friend in UBD, was also there. It was our second meeting after we met at Orchid Garden a few months ago. She was my junior back in MD. We knew each other from friends of ours. It's always nice meeting familiar faces now and then :)


Next, we zoomed to Johnny's at Rimba. It's his sister's new home and they're spending New Year there. We went touring her place, which gave me ideas on how to renovate my bedroom ;) I took a few snaps so I could always refer to it when I finally got my butt off to start renovating my room :P


Our way back to Suria's was really crammed! Thanks to Johnny who didn't want to waste his fuel on me, cheh!! if Lulu had joined us, we wouldn't have to squeeze in like that huhu~


We haven't gone tp Lulu's, Kiem's and Leng's. The week's been hectic! BLA+1 are all busy ... and stressed!! Grrr!!!


PS: Next plan, a road trip to Miri on 1st March. Can't wait!!!

Take This Depression Away

Life is simple for some
But is difficult for them
When I lead mine as days past
Nothing I feel but depression inside
As I lie myself in bed
My head spins to most everywhere
When it finally stays and rests
This feeling still keeps its chase
Please hold me close and never let go
Fly me high from these rough clouds
Draw these lips grinning sideways
And send this depression forever away


PS: A poem created with a sweet friend, Anih. Thanks for the ideas darl. Can't wait to read your next poem. Keep it flowing babe! :)

Stress and Your Health

I am ill again. Last year in October, my menstrual cycle was a few days late, 4 days I think. I usually have it 4-5 days earlier than the date in the month before. When I was late, I was scared of course! My friends all came to a conclusion: stress. I chose to believe them.

This month, just before I fell sick again, I had my period 11 days EARLIER than last month. Again, I was scared. Shocked even! What's more frightening, I had it continuously flowing for 9 days, having 4 days excessive flow but a few during the rest of the period. That still left me puzzling. I never had my menses that long.

My worries didn't stop there. 2 days later, I had my period again: yesterday to be exact. And today, it gives me the stomach cramp, like I had never had it before this month. So I surfed the net, trying to find out what's behind all these.

Of all the info that I read through, these are more related to my condition now .. so as I thought it is ..

====================================================================

What is Stress Doing to Your Health?

By Tracee Cornforth, About.com

Updated: October 14, 2007

About.com Health's Disease and Condition content is reviewed by the Medical Review Board

Look around. One of ten people you see at work, at the store, and wherever you go in your daily life is over stressed at any given moment. Scientists agree that stress causes actual chemical changes in the brain, and these changes can influence the state of your health.

What is Stress?

Stress is any change in your normal routine or health. Stress occurs when bad things happen, as well as happy things. Getting a raise or promotion is stress, just as getting fired from your job is stress.

Speculative changes cause just as much stress as veritable changes. Pensiveness or anguish about whether you will get that new job is stress the same as being offered a new position is stress.

What Causes Stress?

Women are particularly susceptible to stress caused by hormonal changes. During puberty, your menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause, your hormone levels fluctuate consistently and cause stress.

Emotional and physical changes that happen in your life, illnesses, and environmental components such as extreme heat, cold, or altitude, and toxins cause stress. Pushing your body too hard at work or at play will soon deplete your body of the energy it needs to restore itself and result in your becoming over stressed.

Stress Related Illness

Science is constantly learning about the impact that stress has on your overall health. Stress is or may be a contributing factor in everything from backaches and insomnia to cancer and chronic fatigue syndrome (many people believe that CFS and fibromyalgia are the same illness).

Stress is often a key factor when women experience either absence of menstruation or abnormal bleeding. Hormonal imbalances caused by stress may proliferate the symptoms of fibroid tumors and endometriosis, as well as make pregnancy difficult to achieve for couples with fertility problems.

Heart disease is the number one killer of American women. High blood pressure, heart attacks, heart palpitations, and stroke may be stress related cardiovascular conditions. Some women experience changes in their sexuality and encounter various sexual dysfunctions such as loss of desire and vaginal dryness as a result of stress.

Often people feel the effects of stress as fatigue, various aches and pains, headaches, or as emotional disorders such as anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances. Stress affects others by causing gastrointestinal disorders such as ulcers, lower abdominal cramps, colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome.

Frequently people under the effects of over stress will have more colds and infections due to lowered immune system responses. Stress can initiate dermatological conditions such as itchy skin and rashes.

Steps to Reducing Stress and Improving Your Health...

Eliminating stress completely from your life is impossible. However, implementing some stress management techniques can subdue some of its' harmful effects. Stress management includes following a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and making time for uninterrupted relaxation.

====================================================================

I do hope it is just the stress that causes all these abnormal cycle. I don't welcome anymore illnesses. No more ..

PS: If you have the same problem as mine, and have found the answers whatsoever, please let me know. I'm worried sick now girls :(

The Night Ride

The ride to Gadong was dark. Literally dark. It was lucky to have the street light on the right side of the road working. At least, we could see the road a bit clearly since the traffic lights weren't working at all. The glittering blue light put up by the traffic police wasn't helping! One at the Kumbang Pasang was put up at a junction instead of at the traffic light at middle of the road.

Turning to Gadong, it was darker. Again, the right side of the buildings were not dark so it was kind of helping. Come to think of it, it was funny. Only the right side of our road was working all the way. Seeing the building where Borneo Clinic was without electricity, we moved on to the centre of Gadong, also to find it closed. Even The Centre Point and The Mall were dark. The images of flooded Gadong in Fred's page sent me a shiver. This, what we saw, was the effect of the sudden flooding recently. With that water level on the street, for sure our Honda Accord would send us shake our heads in dismay.

The Kiulap area was affected too, tough some shops and restaurants survived the night. The entrance junction into Kiulap was closed. A wise thing to do since the traffic lights weren't working too so it could be fatal if accidents happened. We passed Kiulap and went towards Ong Sum Ping. The lights were working here! We could even spot babah in his Vitara!

Going to the public clinic, we were kind of lost. We didn't know which floor to go till this man came in and went straight into the lift. Clueless, we followed him. A quick look at him, the way he dressed and his hairdo, I remembered dad! Just that he was slimmer :) It was him who told us which floor to go to. He said, we had to register our name on the 2nd floor first then to the 3rd floor for check-up. He was very kind, even let us leave the lift 1st before him. We thanked him for that! Really nice to see there are still nice people around :)

The waiting took a while but not as lengthy as we thought it would be. The male Indian doctor was nice. He was concerned about my asthma attack though I told him I was still under medication. To his wish, I showed him how I should use the puffer. He was satisfied but as I was about to make my 2nd puff, he stopped me! He then told me only to take it after 5 minutes! I was like .... Owhhh .. So the rest of the session, he was writing up the tablets I am going to take while the female nurse was writing my MC for today since I couldn't wake up from bed this morning. I had fever all night through that mom told me to sleep downstairs so she could look after me all night. Dad was also worried that he offered to drive me to the hospital but knowing his bad sight at night, of course I refused. What's more touching was, dad finally did NOT smoke inside the home since I was downstairs all the time :)

At the clinic, Sharul was on the queue for my medicine while I had to go back upstairs to ask the unclear prescription given by the Doc. He then told us that it was an appointment slip for my nebulizer at Room 9. I was glad knowing that as I sure needed it, especially after climbing up the stairs.

In Room 9, the machines were all occupied. On queue, we were sad seeing a baby on the nabulizer. His cries made my heart melt. When my turn came, I had a clear view of him in his mom's lap, with his mom putting the nebulizer up-close to his nose and mouth. He kept crying but his cries slowed down when his dad sat next to them and held his hand. What I saw made me wonder how his parents must be feeling at that time. I wondered how must my mom feel bringing me back and forth to the E.R. when I was little when my asthma attacked. Was dad around us too every time? The sound of the guy next to me sniffing shove away the thoughts. The drugs must have worked by then as the baby finally stopped crying. Minutes later, both the guy and the baby had their time up. Soon after, my machine was switched off too.

We dropped by Jollibee Serusup to have a quick bite. I never liked taking antibiotics cause it never failed from giving me gastric. So I had to have something to eat before taking the pills. It was a full house! We bet it must be the electricity cut that made the restaurant have its cash top-up! While queuing, there was a couple next to us. It was so sweet seeing the love glitter in their eyes. I could tell that they were playing "I-whisper-nothing-you-hear" game, the same game Sharul and I used to play when we were still drooling over each other hehehe. Upstairs, I spotted another couple eating. How nice to see the girl wearing her scarf, covering her head.

Before sending me home, we dropped by Pertama Jaya to buy some goodies for my Chinese friends for their Chinese New Year celebration this Monday. We had to make it quick as we entered the supermarket at 10pm, the time it was supposed to close erk! But we made it before we were locked in ;) Sharul wanted me to stay at home tomorrow to have my rest so shopping in my list tomorrow should be done tonight! Thanks to my sayang :)

It was a quick night ride, barely 3 hours but my time with Sharul around has always been meaningful :) Alhamdulillah ya Allah. I thank You for sending a generous loving soul in my life. May his love to me stay as it is, till we count our hundreds wrinkles. Aaminnn .... :)


PS: I didn't join the January BLA+1 dinner tonight. I was too weak to get even get up. I had to go to the clinic, any clinic, so as to get the MC from the Doc, or else, habis la!! Kiem, Suria, sorry babe! Don't worry, I had your presents wrapped up! Will give it to you this Saturday okay. Just hope I will be fine by then .. :)

Have You Ever ...

Have you ever
Felt so weak
When you wake up
Can't even speak
Or to even seek
What the source is
Of your agony
That makes you sick
And to explode
To the extend
You can't remove
Or even erase
Whatever is in you
Even feel sicker
When you can't halt
When your body shakes
As tears roll down
Your very face
And what's worse
Your eyes can't even close
As your brain wanders
To wherever past has gone to
And sadness you only feel
Till you finally roll in bed
To tirely sleep
Have you ever
Felt this way
When all you see
Is your mistakes ever made
That you can't seem to shove away
Makes you rot inside
Like fleas eating up the dust
To pieces making you rust
Hours to last
Minutes to crush
Seconds to mash
That tracks you back
To Whom you forever belong
And to where you should go
As fogs had covered
The path you should follow
Made you realise
Your life is a journey
Where you must lead
To make yourself see
How beautiful life can be
If only guilt let you free
Let me free ...

My First Attempt to Bookmaking :)

Phew! I couldn't believe I DID manage to make my own handmade book! Thanks to Rozi Yunos for her class yesterday :D I actually came feeling nervous cause I had never tried on doing any sort of creativity-related work before. I am not a scrapper even! What's worse, my other 3 classmates are scrappers, among them Maya..

Maya and I were late. She had tummy-ache at a last minute so we were 15 minutes late. We were greeted by Wina, my long lost schoolmate. She didn't remember me, obviously because I've grown literally bigger than I was back in primary school. She still looks as slim as she was back then. I wonder how she could stay that way hmmm ...

Inside, we found Renee feeding her baby boy. She's also my long lost friend, though we were not close back in college. I remember I knew her from a friend whom I was close with. She'd to bring Mateen along since her baby girl was having fever at home.

The class started soon after. Wina took the time babysitting Mateen while his mommy was with us in class. Rozi showed us the step-by-step way of making a book. Amazingly, I found it okay to follow the steps! Me! Non-talented girl! The end product? I got a book!!

We were so serious in class that we didn't really chat. Even Rozi commented that we were too quiet hehe. As for me, I didn't wanna make mistakes cause I didn't want the rest to wait for me cause for sure, a beginner like me should take longer to finish the book. So I didn't really get to talk to everyone in class. They looked too attached to finishing their books too :)

I don't think it's fair to list down the details of how the make the book. I did take snaps of every step of making it but I guess it's better if you join Rozi's class yourself. Believe me! It's worth the $75 fee. She provided all the materials, even refreshments :)

Today, I took my book to work and proudly showed it off to everybody! Luckily, I had dozens of Rozi's business card in my wallet (I took quite a lot when Maya and I went to her books display at Orchid Garden a few months ago). So Rozi, don't be surprise when you got calls from strangers asking about your class ya ;)


PS: Will upload pixies of our graduation soon after I found my camera cable. Yes, I lost it! :(

A Gist of My Day Today ;)

PS: Details in the next entry, soon!! ;)

Dinner Date With Chaperons at Cheezebox :)

We finally met at Cheezebox last night. Saiful, Harisman and Fairul couldn't make it but it didn't stop us from having fun! My sayang came too but he was a bit tired after a long day at work so he didn't really talk much.

What I'd remember about the dine out? Meal 307 and Escargot! :P

I will upload pictures soon after I found my camera cable. More pixies at Fred's page though ;)

Nurul's Lightning ;)

Well, NOT literally. She's got the call from MinDef, as I said in my previous post so this time, I wanna share how her interview went on as she told us over lunch today :)

Sure, she did her research before the interview. Following her instinct, she gathered all the info on worldwide issue: the food crisis. The Gaza Dispute never occurred to her and of course, Defense and War do come together so she was asked about it but she was good enough to lead the interview topic to the Food Crisis instead. I'm proud when she could answer the attacking questions thrown on her. Her Geography basic background really helped after all :)

So her arguments went on .. saying how the global now faces the problem with food productions everywhere. When asked why this is happening, she argued saying it's due to climate change. Little did she know that it's also actually because of the rise of oil price worldwide, as argued by the interviewers.

Good point for me personally but to say it's simply due to the price of oil per se, is it the main reason to why sometimes our moms find it hard to find onions in good condition? Or even have to pay more just to get a kilo of it? What does oil have to do with onions?? Of course this happens because of flooding that's a very major problem in India, the main producer of onions for us here. And bad weather contributes to this, doesn't it? Weather changes of course due to the change in climate ..

The rice production here in Brunei is limited. That, of course we know the reason cause not all Bruneians are interested in farming. Why? It's a hard job, especially for the young ones (for me too! I did some planting with my campers last month as one of the activity challenges, which was hard though fun..) but mind you, IF the main producer of rice to our country has internal problems .. say .. civil wars, or drought, what will happen to us? Do you think oil can solve this? And make us plant our own rice in the end?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Just a thought. These are the similar arguments Nurul had with the interviewers somehow .. though she had to give in saying it's the high cost of oil that causes the food crisis in the world. It's an interview after all. Not a court where lawyers fight their views ;)

She's bright, isn't she :) I'm proud of her. I'm so proud of my baby sis :)

I bought a 'congratulatory cake' for her. Will upload tonight's pictures soon for all to view :)

Congrats to My Baby Sis!! :D

Congrats to Nurul. She's just got the call from Ministry of Defense a moment ago that she's got the job! She applied for a Research Officer post. Alhamdulillah she got it!! :D The next minute, I lent her my Prima so she could give our mum a call (and to stop her from jumping up and down from all the excitement hehe). She'll go get the letter of appointment at MinDef later at 2.30pm :)

Alhamdulillah for Your blessing ya Allah. Alhamdulillah :')

Nope! She won't have to cut her long hair short ;) She applied as a civilian ..

Ok peeps! Am off to buy a cake for her! Will upload the picture here later ;)

First Attempt to Editing ;-)

Hey peeps! I finally tried on editing snaps that I took using Microsoft Office Picture Manager with the help of this entry :) Thanks to Ziggy for the tips ;) She shared on how to change a coloured picture to black and white. While trying out, I tried editing the pictures' colours and brightness and contrasts. The results? See below ;-)

~~ Thanks for viewing :-) ~~

Sudden Agony

I woke up this morning feeling sad. There were things I did in the past that I regret today. Even make me wish to turn back time so I wouldn't do them back then. I cried in bed praying God would sprinkle a bit of His mercy to me for the sins and mistakes I did, to me, others and family.

Please God, forgive this servant of Yours. I know time is running out for me so as others around me. Give us strength to go through the life ahead of us. Give us faith stronger to You so we will always remember You in our hearts, say Your name and forever praise You among other things.

Aaminn ... Aaminnn ... Aaminnnn Ya Rabbal Alaminnn ....

Ideal + Crazy Shop @ Veena's

Zainul really had a good time in the weekend at home. We all went out for a late lunch at Ideal, his treat (thanks NyoOot!!) then off to Nazmi. The actual plan was to check out for cloths for us on Boy's wedding day but Puchen broke away from the group and went to Veena's. The next minute, all of us were there, learning that it was giving a one-day Crazy Sale there! The next 3 hours, we spent $500 for all items only to pay at the counter for $250!! :D Worth buying!!

Great family out and great bargain indeed ;) Enjoy the pixies!! :D

(Nurul) mem-vain on the way to lunch :p

Late lunch at Ideal: 3 whole chix, 8 garlic rice, 1 macaroni cheese, 1 pasta & 8 ice-lemon tea :)

Shopping at Veena's. Crazy Sale yaw~

PS: Thanks to Kaka Kami for buying us a bag each!!! I grabbed the Dolce & Gabbana handbag originally cost $65 ;)