And the award goes to...

Wow.

Has it been so long since I posted an entry here? I thought it had only been two or three days. But when I logged in, I saw that my last post was the beginning of the week. Now, it's the beginning of the long weekend!

I have my reason(s) of course! I'll give the popular excuse - busyness. Busy with this, busy with that, busy here, busy there...which basically means being busy. But, if you asked me what I was busy with, I'd be hard put to actually tell you what it was.

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised today. I got an award! The award was given to me by Nick. Well, I say, it's about time! I was wondering when I'd get an award for the brilliant writing I've been doing. Muahahaha!

But, seriously, I'm truly grateful for such an honour. Feels like I'm receiving the Oscar or something! Thanks a million, Nick. You just made my day!

On a different note, tomorrow's going to be a busy day for me. A good friend of mine is getting married tomorrow, and I've sort of volunteered myself to be his photographer. Not the official wedding photographer, mind you, but HIS, the groom's photographer. That means, while the official photographer will be at the bride's place taking pics of her getting all dolled up, I'll be at his place taking snapshots of him and his bestman tomorrow playing dress-up. But, I've also taken it upon myself to take pics of the wedding ceremony, but I plan to give the whole thing a more creative slant...I hope.

So, right now, I'm psyching myself up. Wife says to just keep on snapping - and that's what I'm going to do - snap till I'm dry. Hoping tomorrow will bring new perspectives and angles to me. Wish me luck!

Emergency Aids

Life can be pretty challenging sometimes. It's already tough enough without having to endure the many trivial physical discomforts below. How many of these have you experienced before?

• Difficulty in hearing a conversation
• A painful injection
• Sinus problems
• Acid reflux
• Toothache
• Dizziness
• Nervous attacks
• Pins and needles
• Difficulty in remembering a speech
  

Not very serious problems, but when they do come, it can still be quite uncomfortable. But I recently read that there are simple things we could do ourselves to make dealing with these discomforts that bit more easier. And where should I find these tips? A health magazine? Some fashion magazine? No. From a magazine for owners of a certain brand of car for all things! You'd think that all you'd read from such magazines would be articles on cars, their accessories, tyres, motor oils and what nots. But, it was interesting reading. I have not tried any of the supposed 'cures' yet, so I can't verify if they really work or not. Anyway, here's what I found out:

• Hear better - Lean in using you right ear to listen to the conversation as it's better at following rapid speech patterns. However, when it comes to identifying a particular piece of music, your left ear does it better.

• No more pain - Try coughing the next time you have to be pricked with a needle. It's supposed to lessen the pain as the cough causes an abrupt, momentary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal canal, and so reduces the pain-signalling structures of the spinal cord.

• Easier breathing - Alternate thrusting your tongue against the roof of your mouth and pressing between your eyebrows with one finger. It is supposed to loosen congestion and your sinuses will usually clear after about 20 seconds. Apparently this will rock the bone that runs through the nasal passages to the mouth, called the vomer bone, and so frees all the clogged pipes there.

• Stomach acid - Sleep on your left and you're less likely to suffer from acid reflux. Reason? When you sleep on your left, your stomach is lower than your esophagus, and with gravity's help, prevents your food and stomach acid from sliding up your throat.

• Pain in the tooth - Rub some ice on the back of your hand, on the V-shaped webbed area between your thumb and fore finger. This stimulates an area of the brain that blocks pain signals from the face and hands.

• Light headed - Too much drinking can make you feel all woozy. To regain your balance, put you hands on something stable. This provides tactile input to the cupula (that part of the ear that's responsible for keeping you in balance) and makes you feel more in balance.

• Stay to the rhythm - Getting anxiety attacks is not a nice feeling. Remember to blow on your thumb the next you get all nervous. Breathing can control the vagus nerve which is in charge of heart rate. Work your thumb, baby!

• Sleeping hands and feet - When those prickling sensations come, rock your head from side to side and those pins and needles will go away in less than a minute. The action loosens the neck muscles and which in turn releases all the compression of the nerves in your neck, the usual cause of those tingling sensations.

• Memory technique - Finding it hard to memorise that speech you're supposed to deliver in front of a huge crowd? Try sleeping on it. Review your speech just before you sleep and it's more likely that it will be encoded into long-trem memory, as most memory consolidation happens during sleep.

Let me know how it goes. Carol, you can use some of these preparing for that emcee job that's coming can't you?

:)

Date with nature

Creepy crawlies and flying stingers have been the order these past two days. Yesterday, all three of us were out in front of the house: my wife was trimming the grass, Adelle was busy 'helping' and I was keeping watch over her. I was going to clean up my car, but my wife got me distracted by something else. She asked to look at one of her potted plants. So, I checked it out and I saw a strange green creature. The first time I saw it, I couldn't make up my mind what it was, but it did look like a caterpillar - albeit a very strange one. Have a look for yourself at the photos below and see if you don't agree with me.

Creature from the potted plant!

Another view of the caterpillar

The bulge just behind the head with a bright red circle on either side makes it look strangely like the head of a snake. The black and white marking around that area further helps create this illusion. In my entire life, I've never seen a caterpillar like this. So what do I do? I take my camera and shoot it for posterity's sake. The caterpillar looked quite healthy. Well, what wouldn't since it's been devouring the leaves of my wife's plant. The leaf on which you see it in the photo was more than half gone. That's not counting at least two other leaves which have already been eaten. So, my wife gave me the duty of disposing it after I was done photographing it. I didn't kill it. I just picked it up and threw it into some bushes in front where it could eat to its heart's content (do caterpillars even have a heart?).

Then, this morning, the three of us were again outside the house - this time at the back. My wife and I decided to clear up our backyard a bit as it was getting a bit untidy. So, we sheared unwanted plants and hacked a few of the more stubborn ones. I was clearing the back fence when all of a sudden I felt this stinging pain on my left arm, then another, then on my right arm and I looked around and saw a small wasp nest. I quickly ran down shouting to my wife that there were bees at the same time. By the time I reached safety, I had been stung 5 times - 3 on my left arm, and 2 on my right. I washed my arms with water and that was the only treatment I had for the stings. The pain didn't stay for long and the swelling from the sting subsided not long after, and it was fine throughout most of the day, not bothering me one bit. But, right now, it itches. And I have half the mind to just scratch and scratch and scratch. Maybe I should have put some antiseptic cream to it or something. But, at least I've not experienced any other effects from the sting. Thank goodness Adelle wasn't there then. She had gone to the neighbour's house.

These things stung me - ouch!

Well, that's my date with nature yesterday and today. Not bad for someone who didn't even step out of the compound of the house, don't you think? Just to end on a positive note, the light that fell to the ground yesterday caught my attention. They reminded me of disco lights - not that I've been to many discos - but I thought the bright and dark patches of light made for an interesting pattern on the grass.

Nature's disco lights

Living to eat?

It seems I've been eating out a lot recently and this is another one about food (sorry, Nick). All of us went for lunch with some friends yesterday at Krishna's Curry House, and it's always a joy to eat there. The food is quite good, even better when you're being treated!

Food lovers

We had banana leaf rice so we had the usual yummy condiments that came with it. But, instead of white rice, we had briyani. Of course, a visit to the place wouldn't be complete without the fish head curry - the house speciality and very, very appetising. We also had mutton curry another dish I like, deep fried quail (which I didn't eat), and prawns in sambal (which were quite nice). To wash it all down, we had teh tarik (that's milked tea, but 'pulled' - can't think of any other way of saying it without going into a lengthy description - to bring out the froth) which is part of the meal and it can be replenished without any extra charges!

Yummy food!

Adelle enjoyed the food as well as the company though she seemed a bit shocked when we first arrived as I think she didn't expect to see so many people at the lunch. We had been telling her about it, but only saying that we'd be meeting a few people. So, Adelle wasn't very friendly and stuck to my wife. But she warmed up soon enough.

So, planning where to eat? Try Krishna's Curry House. Yum, yum!

p.s. Btw, in case you're wondering, I'm not getting paid for this post. Just sharing the joy of eating delicious food!