Damages

Shucks! As I rushed into the operation from time of diagnosis to scalpel being under 8 hours, I realized that recovery was gonna be pain ridden. The memories of my previous back surgery and the one month in bed starring at the ceiling came to my mind. It was utter despair and frustration. There was a sense of panic but the fact that I could stand made me feel better as I was wheeled out of the ward. Imagine being a vegetable for a month.





The three almost "handiplast like" bandages look rather sedate but what you do not see is the long horizontal cut behind my knee that was used to take out the small bones that have fragmented over the years! Gosh!

Thankfully the only similarity between this recovery and my back recovery is the use of the walking stick. I was much more mobile this time around and really eager to get back to the action. The previous time there was no rush because I would be returning to the Army.

Anyways it's has been 10 days on and I'm pretty mobile with my trusty walking stick. I pray that the progress continues and soon I will be running and jumping.

M in recovery

Admitted Again

Being admitted and going under the knife again felt quite a simple thing to me. Considering this was the second major surgery that I was going through it was familiar. So I entered the hospital with little trepidation and I was as confident as be the prospect that in a few hours I was gonna be knocked out and cut open. Fear was far from my mind.




But as I got onto the gurney to be wheeled to the OR, fear crept in. As I lay in the OR prep area, I was gripped with fear. As I turned to prayer I felt this calm coming over me. It was a presence that was with me that was almost uplifting. So uplifting that I was cracking jokes with my OR nurses and even asking the anesthesia guy why is the formaldehyde taking so long to take effect. At that point I knew it was all gonna be ok. Before I knew it I was in recovery

M bed bound

Same same

Same smile, same cheeks, same eyes, same eyebrows, same forehead, different nose.

M

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Bye Bye JK!

Seems fitting that I pen down some thoughts on the end of an “era”. We have left the village of Jalan Kayu and moved back to the town of Ang Mo Kio. You may be thinking what village? What town? Singapore is Singapore but I beg to differ. The wife, said it well when she declared “It’s like we are back to civilization!”

Situated far in Singapore’s North East, is the eclectic village of Jalan Kayu. A hamlet that is synonymous with roti prata, it was where we called home for the past four years. I was not a stranger to the place when we moved here four years ago, I actually quite liked the locale but the major draw to this place for the both of us was the lush greenery and the countryside like feel. In hyper modern Singapore, it was almost a step back in time. Chickens ran freely, huge trees dominated the skyline not HDB flats and best of all on a lazy weekday afternoon the outdoor soundtrack would be the crickets! All in all, it was therapeutic to return home….well most of the time that is.

We have been blessed going in, with good neighbors, great experiences and unforgettable memories. We are blessed going out with a good capital gain, smooth move out albeit with some agent hiccups and blessed timing before the whole neighbor turns into a construction site. Emotionally this has been a rather charged period for us, with the hits and misses of buying a new house. But all in all, it has been a learning experience and although there are times when we needed to hold our breaths, at the end it always end favorably for us.

Praise be to God!

As the next round of breath holding is going on as I type; I know that, He will not bring us this far to drop us off a “cliff”. Good Lord No! He shall see us through.

M not holding my breath


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Vasse Felix – Price Journey

At winery – AUD $24.95

At regional wine centre – AUD $26.00

At bottle shop in town – AUD $28.00

Self importing – AUD $27.00 (inclusive of Singapore duty)

At SGP Duty Free – SGD $55.00

At Carrefour Singapore – SGD $70.00

At ROCKS restaurant – SGD $130.00

Consumer advice at its finest!

M Cares!

Sh*t My Dad Says

I have been seeing this book on the top seller list of many bookshops including Amazon.com for quite a while and with my recent trip to OZ, I needed some light reading. At the end of this book, I realised why its so highly acclaimed.

It’s really an apt book for sons and fathers, so basically all males. I highly recommend it to fathers of young children especially to Dads struggling with the notion of what kind of fathers they should be to their children.

Did I mention that it is funny. Well funny is an understatement, it is as the quote says on the book “Ridiculously hilarious”. There was a night when the girls were asleep and I reached the most hilarious point in the book. I literally had to press my face into the pillow so that I won’t wake them up with my eye tearing laughter.

Well is not just funny but, very heart warming that a father can have such a tremendous impact on a child when there is nothing but love between them!

M still laughing.

Herman Miller Chairs Fashionable?

One thing I have noticed since I joined my new company was the fact that while at urinals, the guys here tend to let out farts. It was as though this practice was completely kosher. I found it to be extremely gross.

I mean seriously if you gonna to do it please at least get a cubicle. Until I realised that it was sometimes involuntary. The other day I was at the urinal and lo and behold a little bleep was let out. I was horrified but kept on looking straight at the wall hoping people in the toilet would be nonchalant. But deep down I knew they knew.

So I found the culprit. Presenting Exhibit A: One Herman Miller chair




Exhibit B: Mesh fabric




Verdict: Due to the lack of pressure that results from normal chairs, the mesh does not allow for normal passing of gas as such, whilst urinating their is a pressure built resulting in an involuntary bleep. Case closed. Fart away and blame Herman. (this is backed up with absolutely no scientific evidence but from years of farting)

M sitting on Herman
Its Friday lah!

Sept découvertes cette semaine #2

1) Is imagining himself sitting on the railing overlooking Cottesloe beach.

2) YOU version is my favourite app!

3) Contentment is putting Sophie to sleep and just watching her sleep.

4) Realised that more pictures the better, every wall should have something.

5) Ecc 11:4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest. -- there no such thing as perfect timing other than now!

6) "Paci" is the short form Sophie has conjured when she wants her pacifier. It's so cute.

7) An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city. Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars. Proverbs 18:19 -- sorry for the additional verse but it's amazing that someone who is an unbeliever read it and was impacted to unlock the gates.

M

Contentment

Whenever my cousin comes to town I enter a phase of "what would life be like if..."

Over the weekend, I attended an ex-colleague's thing and I was sure to meet lots of other ex-colleagues. Wasn't looking forward to it but I went albeit late. One of them asked is where you now are better than where you were? I sensed ears all around me opened attentively when that question was shot. I tried to be politically correct and give them a 'it's all relative' type answer. But on my way home I realized that the politically correct answer was indeed the honest answer. I wondered then and there what would life be life if....

My cousin and I, were pretty much on the same path around 15 years ago but a few years on from that we forked. His life now, is an individual's life, he has loads of friends, lives in a country where English is not the medium of communication thus, culture wise it's the complete opposite, he travels, explores lots and he loves it! He epitomizes the true Sagittarius.

As a saggy myself, I expected myself to be green with envy to his adventurous existence but, I was not at all. I wasn't packing my backpack just yet instead I was donning a backpack filled with diapers, milk power and little clothes. And as I looked down there was this smiley face with a toothy grin and big eyes saying "Dadddddie!" I reached down to pick her up and I immediately felt contentment filling me. Thank you Jesus!

M seeing goodness

BlogPress

This issue has been with me for a while but I think I am finally on top of it. It's was relating to blogging on the go. Just found this app and have used it in the last two post very successfully thus this post.

BlogPress costs 2.99; it's pretty good and only app I found that handles picture uploads in text. Try it!

M on the move

Stain Scourge

If it is acceptable to wear bibs while eating out, I would be a supporter. But we are adults and not children ergo it's not acceptable. But when you are eating noodles or liquidy type food, slippages are bound to happen.

It always seems to happen to me on days when I need to look presentable or when I have important meetings, that is when I am overly conscious of how I look.

After trying a few shirts in the morning to find the perfect one for my interview. I carefully headed to work not to crease my shirt too much. Then when I went to the toilet, horror of horrors this is what I saw!




Noooooooo. Coffee stain!!! Look closely. How the heck did it get there? Sigh! This was at 10am and so I needed to get a replacement shirt in a hurry. Went to Marks and Spencer got a shirt, headed back for a few more meetings and then at 3ish made my way for my interview. It went well. Praise God!

M domestic disaster averting


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Internet Hell

As previously posted, I kinda figured out why I haven't blogged for a while.

I have been stuck in Internet Hell! This is an unpublished post I wrote on Notepad back in Sept 2010 but never got published because it was unable to get the post out from my work computer literally.

==========Post start

Joy of all joys, I am back to work! Yippee! What’s more I am back to a large UK based company, with cavernous office and heaps of employee benefits. Far cry from my previous company. But all this comes at a price. Being an investment bank, the security is tight,……. very tight. Especially in the area of internet security. Thus the title, internet hell. It’s amazing how dependent I was on things like Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Facebook, Google Reader and Dropbox. All of which when navigated to is greeted with a “Restricted Access” page.

There is no wifi, so my only window into normalcy is via my trusty iPhone, though I have to contend with Singtel’s 3G network. Today I tried to visit the wife’s blog not to realize I can’t see any of the pictures! What the …….. Haizzz where’s that iPhone.

M stifled
======== Post end

So what's changed? See the next line;-).

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M Testing

Sept découvertes cette semaine #1

1) No brainer, back to blogging, the first post after a break is the hardest and sometimes awkward. Mine was.

2) Sophie's way of saying Wassssssuuuuppp!

3) A good glass of Single Malt Whiskey

4) Is 15 days away from the open road in OZ

5) Enjoys walking back from MBFC with the wind of the bay on my back.

6) Seeing His overflow of teachers for this Sunday. He is truly faithful.

7) Does not see the appeal of Angry Birds.

M

Bleah!

When the wife asked me why I have not blogged in months, I answered her with a single word; "Bleah!" I even imagined a blog post in that instant where I would have some words and a picture of me looking slightly constipated to convey my emotion at the time.

 

Now is that accurate?

 

Definition of Bleah - to express disinterest, tiredness, or overall feeling like crap.

 

Does that describe how I feel and my overall perception of life in general? No it is most certainly not. To the contrary life is great. I go to sleep each night happy, tired of course but happy! I guess to a certain extent it is how I feel sometimes but, everyone does at some point during the day or maybe the week. It's like that dead spot in the middle of the afternoon after having a plate of mutton beryani, or in my wife's case; chicken rice, you know the time, 3ish just before 4 where at 4pm, it's the right time to trundle downstairs to Ah Wang's for that Kopi O Kosong.

 

Long story short, I got lazy. Ha! Here's hoping that feeling is no more.

 

M Regular

Sept découvertes cette année

1) Year after year, this point resounds when I get reflective during the small hours of the New Year. It's the most important and I am glad I did not take it for granted this year. So essentially it's not a discovery but an exclaimation. Family is everything; I am the most prosperous man on earth with my Maju and Mojo in tow! Thank God for the best wife a man could want and the most glorious daughter a father could want.

2) Romans 8:31 If God is for us, who can be against us. This verse became real for me. It was a mantra to myself almost everyday of the year. It helped me, in the lowest points and pushed me to greater heights. Thank God for being such a great God!

3) Lots of people warned me about it, they said I am gonna regret it, and my life as I knew it would be over. Good thing, I am not one to listen. Becoming a parent! has been the 2nd best decision I made next to getting married. One year down a lifetime to go.

4) Restful increase. When it was first mentioned on the first Sunday of 2010, my heart yelled out "YES!". I remember it vividly sitting by myself at Gallery West. I embraced it and ran with it, not knowing how restful it was going to be. 2010: The most restful year ever and not to mention the year of greatest increase. Can't wait for this Sunday.

5) We all, at some level, want to belong and be part of something. This for me has been pivotal. Ministry has allowed me to have a greater appreciation and wisdom to see all that is good and blessed in my life. This year, ministry has come alive for me, unlike the previous years this year has been tremendous.

6) A row of friends. It's may not be a row yet, but it's forming. The wife told me, she has a dream that there will be a Sunday, in the near future, when we go to church we will be sitting in a row of all our friends. At that time when she said it is was just the two of us but we agreed. Today we can count one new soul, one returning and two more...let's just say it's a matter of time. We have half a row down. Somehow I feel one row might not be enough.

7) Highlight of the year: Once again, I can firmly declared I am THE most Blessed Man to walk this earth. Thank God for allowing me to be ME.

M in MMXI

Bonne année mes amis