Friday, September 6, 2024

Protein-focused meals and Facebook aunties

Today my mom made very nice healthy meals for breakfast, lunch, and an afternoon snack. Forgot to take a photo of the breakfast though... maybe mummy can upload it?

Lunch: Chicken tortilla wrap

Snack 1: Chicken salad

Snack 2: Banana and peanut butter toast


Ever since 36w of my pregnancy, I've been eating a lot and rather unhealthily sometimes. I don't watch what I eat. So I'm truly grateful for these healthy meals made lovingly by my mom. Of course she's also doing it for her own health! πŸ˜‚ She's been active at the gym and working out every day—which is why she looks amazing now. Her skin is glowing and she looks bright and energetic.

At the end of the day, she was scrolling Facebook and showed me her cousin's (my aunt) profile on Facebook. It was hilarious. My aunt added random men on Facebook (she likely accepted their friend requests) and as a result, started posting strange but funny daily pictures. She now edits her photos, does her makeup and poses as prettily as she can for the photos. She then takes a screenshot of the men's profile photo and uploads it along with her selfies. She doesn't even know these men... truly peak boomer Facebook.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Toothache

About one and a half month’s ago (around mid Jan) my upper right molar was going bad. I had a fillings done a few years back, so that means I will have to re-fill it when the pain became unbearable and I couldn’t bite properly. I went to Noble Dental on 1st Feb near home after making that appointment. The dentist whom had treated me have a new clinic to manage. So, it makes sense to go to one that is nearest to home. 

I was made to wait for more than half an hour before being ushered into the dental operatory. I understood that I needed to wait for whichever doctor was available at that point of time. There, lady dentist Dr Joey Ngeow behaved obnoxiously or should I say uncaring. I sat on the treatment chair, asked her if she could save my bad tooth by re-filling it. Her reply was ‘okay’. She looked at it and started doing something to it. Having my tooth in my mouth, I knew she wasn’t doing the re-fillings. I could feel she was pushing something up my gums. After about 5 mins, some polishing and scaling and fluoride was coated. I asked again if she had done re-filling to the affected tooth. She giggled cynically and said that it was done. The entire process took less than 15 minutes. She told me to apply Sensodyne on that tooth before going to bed. She also proudly claimed that her advise to others were positive. Being a good patient, I applied Sensodyne nightly until my gums were sore. Before I left to make payment, she said I will need a root canal on next visit which prompted me to ask for a next appointment. She declined giving me one. No medicine were prescribed.

I thought, ^good ah^ no more pain. Well, that’s because the numbing agent in my gum hasn’t subside. Lo and behold, after about 5 hours, the pain came back.My thought, quickly use Sensodyne should help. 

The ordeal lasted for 27 days. Inside the 27 days, I couldn’t eat properly, my mental state went ding dong, easily agitated to the point of suicidal and violence.

An episode erupted on 15th day first lunar month. A reunion turns up to be a mental nightmare. I lose my mind, thinking about ugly past. (We all have past memories, good and bad. A past created by oneself and by others to you). I will never forget and will try put this behind. But, that action puts others to see me differently as a magnanimous person. I regret being in that state. 

Mid afternoon of 27th Feb I called for another dentist as the extreme pain on my right face radiated up to my right brain hemisphere. Pain also spreaded to my jawbone and soft tissues on my right face and beyond. I wasn’t intuitive, emotionally unstable, clouded with unspeakable imaginations. My quality of thoughts weren’t there at all, although I put in a lot of effort to do some ‘self reflection’.

At 8pm, Dr Arron Chow’s clinic, he noticed that I had recently seen his colleague. He took an X-ray and found I had a hairline crack and my gums had receded. The tooth was infected and terminal. A root canal can probably last about 2 to 3 months when I told him that that was Dr Ngeow suggestion. Am now on painkillers and antibiotics. He also assured me that I will be able to sleep better after extraction.

Googled yesterday’Danger of a toothache infection’ and found frightening results were exactly the same as I was suffering for the past 27 days. Untreated toothache can lead to severe life-threatening such as sepsis and brain abscess or infection spreading to other parts of the body. Death may take weeks or months when left untreated. I count on my strong immune response, or else I would have left this world already.

I’m thinking of giving a law suit to Dr Ngeow of her negligence and obnoxious behaviour. She is not qualified to be a Dentist and her name should be struck off from the Singapore Dental Council.

Any thoughts?

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Jalan Senyum

Hi Oli, I woke up at 6am and left home at 6.45am for Dhammasukha Memorial Hall. Today is David, gugu's 100th day prayer. The gate was still closed when I reached there about 8am. Jimmy, the staff noticed me and opened the gate for me. The usual is to lit and place the joss sticks in the front joss urn. The first floor hall was dimly lighted. Got my way around and spoke to my ancestors as well as David. Then i went downstairs to wait for my sister. She arrived with Audrey, Tze Wei (TW), Jeffrey, Claire, Celeste, and Charles.

After the prayer, I distributed red packets (3rd day of Lunar New Year) to the juniors, including Charlotte, who wasn't there. I asked TW about gugu's estate, telling him that we should not wait too long to do it. Seems like he had already sought legal advice. I asked if he had a Will written out to his beneficiaries. According to TW, the Will was written out 20 years ago, but the lawyer could not trace it. Audrey immediately said that it was in the safe and it was missing. Am wondering how she knew that that was in the safe? She said rudely, "he don't want you to have a share in the flat". Then TW said that gugu's CPF money goes to Audrey. She said the safe was empty after I returned the key, insinuating that I took the Will. How the hell did that happened. First of all, I was never allowed to enter gugu's flat, plus he had installed a new gate and wooden door. I even returned Mama's set of keys to him through his locked gate once she passed. No way was I able to gain entry into the flat? She insinuated that I stole the Will. I was furious and my heart was racing in my mouth. I kept saying, I didn't steal, I won't steal and I never steal. Heaven is watching all wrong doings.

My sister told me during gugu's' funeral wake that Audrey used gugu's money to pay for the urn. I also told TW that gugu kept a lot of cash at home and it has been distributed without my knowledge. TW said the flat should be distributed according to Estate Law. Supposed to have lunch together but the situation turned the other way and they all left in their car and I walked in the rain to the MRT station. I was very sad but felt better after speaking to you.

Oli's 初二: Ryan's Paternal Family Gathering

Hello mummy, this is Oli! This is the first post on this blog. On this blog, I'll write about my day in detail and you can read it whenever you're free. You can post about anything — whatever happened during your day your thoughts and feelings — and I will reply as soon as possible!

My Late Morning and Lazy Afternoon

Today I woke up around 10AM, rolled around in bed until 11AM, then went to have lunch at McDonald's around 12PM. Ryan and I had the Prosperity Burger. We ordered it via the McDonald's app. There's a game on the app called "My Happy Place" which follows the Mario games format. Basically, you try to collect coins and jump to avoid obstacles so that you win McDonald's points or vouchers. Ryan won a (M) fries and I won a voucher to get a Pineapple Coconut Frappe for only $2 with any spend. We didn't redeem any of these.

After that, we went home and Ryan did some work while I washed my underwear. I took a nap in the middle of it. I woke up around 3:30PM and lazed around on the couch until 4:30PM. Then we got ready to go to Ubi. I decided to wear my blue dress that I've worn for so many events (mostly weddings — don't worry, you've seen it before because I bought it when I was still staying at Yishun).

Ubi

We reached Ubi around 5:30PM. There, we waited around for the family (Ma, Pa, Dianne, Mark) to get ready.

All Saints Memorial Chapel

We set out around 6PM+ for Kovan, where Pa decided to buy flowers to pay respects to his parents at the All Saints Memorial Chapel (columbarium). This is my second time visiting this place. As you already know, it's all within the immediate vicinity of Florence Rd and Lim Ah Pin Rd. I did think of you as we drove through those areas. I thought about how you were living at Florence Rd before the government removed all the kampongs to create HDBs. The entire time we were driving through the estate (as well as the other areas in Kovan), I thought to myself that this must be a nice place to live because of how orderly and cute everything in the area looked.

At the Chapel, we placed fresh flowers at my grandparents-in-law's niche. It was like a maze there, because all the blocks look the same. But I guess most columbariums are maze-like. We also went to pay respects to Ma's grandmother.

Hougang: Ryan's Paternal Family Gathering

After the Chapel, we went to Auntie Angeline's home for the gathering. The gatherings were actually held at Ubi the past few years, but this time they chose to hold it at Auntie Angeline's. It was nice and Auntie Angeline was a great host! I think she quite likes me. She gave me a hug and called me Oli when I stepped in. The food was great (it was potluck) and my favourite was the henghwa noodles. There was fried chicken, grilled chicken (courtesy of Ma), a really good seafood fish maw soup, stir-fried shimeji mushrooms, brocolli and abalone, ngoh hiang, bakwa rice, and one of Ryan's cousins went around giving out mini ice cream!

I think I'm getting more comfortable at Ryan's family gatherings. It was very awkward the past few years but this year I feel a lot more comfortable speaking to people. Today I didn't speak to many people, but I spoke a lot to Angel and her boyfriend (Angel is Ryan's young cousin). They were very funny and cute, and super nice to talk to. I wish we could have spoken to more people but maybe next year?

I find that Ryan's paternal side are more outgoing, but because the family is so big, they're not as close as his maternal side. His maternal side see each other so often and are super close.

At the gathering, a few relatives insisted on giving me angbaos even though I refused because this was my first year of marriage. I feel bad but they were very insistent.

I think overall my day was good and I ate well and had fun.

Ryan's dad sent us to Paya Lebar and we took a train back to Tanjong Pagar.

I'm going to go shower now, so I will write again soon. You can respond to this post by writing a comment. I would love to hear about your day and your feelings so you can write about them in another post. Be as free and open as possible and if you have to express your emotions strongly, don't be afraid to do so. When I'm angry or feeling some strong negative emotion, I will also feel free to express them here.

Talk soon mummy!

Love,
Oli