My Eye.. My Eye...

I was driving that other day, when I felt an itch in my right eye. Carelessly, I rubbed it with my finger, which somehow penetrated the slit between my eyelids and grazed my eye balls... yew......!!!!!

It stopped my heart a beat, and I almost ran my car off the road. God, that was dangerous!!!

I checked my eye later on, and saw a bright red string to the inner side of my right eye. I was so tempted to believe that it was really a piece of red string (the kind that we Chinese used to tie around our wrist or finger to ward off evil spirits) sticking onto my conjunctiva (i.e. a piece of membrane that forms the outer layer of your eye ball), but I knew better. How could anyone have a piece of string in her eye and not feel any irritation? But we humans are so vulnerable at times. We choose to believe in things that we wanted to. It makes life easier.

But life is never easy. So, wake up!!!!

Life was also busy that day, which meant that I did not have the time to go find a decent doctor for a check-up. That evening, the bright colour of the string had faded to a more brownish shade. Well, that's slightly comforting. At least the inflammation had subsided.

The next day, I went to a doctor, just for the peace of my mind, and also to stop my mum from nagging and lecturing me. Sometimes I do wonder who is the one holding a p******* degree in the house, she or me?

That cuckoo of a doctor gave me steroids and antibiotic for my eye!!! After he had examined me in a darkened room, Dr. K told me that there were two spots of microhaemorrhaging in my R eye. He said that it would heal in a few days time, and in the mean time, use this...

I should have known better to listen to him in this sort of situation. I had doubts about using steroids here. The thing there then was to prevent an infection, and steroids would only make that worse. But then I thought to myself, hey, what do I know, he's the doctor. I'm only a pharm*****.

Ok, so I dropped that *cursed* eyedrop into my eye, and by lo and by ho, I got a swollen eye lid the next morning!!! Now, I really got an infection!!!

Ok, so I had an infection. Each morning for four subsequent days I woke up with hard yellow crust sealing my eye. Each morning I looked at myself in the mirror and cursed myself for not listening to myself. My eyeballs stung at times, and my eyesight was worsening. Now, I was really worried.

I went to an eye specialist on Monday morning. It was due to the weekend that I waited this long to see my second doctor. The clinic was filled with patients, mostly elderlies and their families. The lobby was so crowded that people waiting in line had to sit at the outside of the clinic.

I registered myself, and was told to wait for at least an hour. Well, an hour sounded alright given the amount of people waiting in the clinic.

Dr. T was my specialist, and he flipped opened my eyelid to have a good look under it. The swelling had subsided that morning, and I was most convinced that the infection had gone away. But the good doctor took out a sterile needle and pricked me under my lids. "Don't move your head, and don't panic... ok? Don't panic.."

He used a cotton bud to squeezed a big lump of pus out of my under-lid. Yellow pus stained with red blood. Oh, my heavenly goodness...

But it did feel so much better.

Doc gave me antibiotics, and I made sure this time that there was not steroids included. Nah ah.. no steroids for me.

Big-Muscled Narcissists

I work in a place where there is a gym situated on the first floor next door to my office. This gym houses some of the most prominent body builders in Kuching, e.g. Mr. Sarawak, and the runner-up to Mr. Sarawak.

Every morning from 9.30 to 11.00, and in the evening after four, you will hear the banging and crashing of weights onto the floor above. One of my staffs, Rozza, who did not know at first that there was a gym above our heads (not directly, though, it was our next door neighbour), was always wondering what sort of construction was going on on top of us. They actually rock the whole building when they put their weights down!!!

Body builders go for lines and not strength. They are judged by how clearly defined their muscles are, and how big they are. Therefore, my neighbours are always trying to bring down their body fat and pump up their lean muscle mass, and they love their mirrors!!!

Believe it or not, body builders do not really eat a whole and complete meal. They would drink protein powder, and take nutritional tablets (sometimes more than ten tablets in one serving, two to three servings per day), and push needles. Their total calori intake per day could amount up to 1,800 cals only!!! That is for a muscly guy weighing 74 kg!!! Their diet was even worse than Atkin's!!! One of them had not even had carbs for a week!!!

There is a competition taking place tomorrow night at the Rajah Court, Kuching. The guys taking part will actually have to go through all the steps and pain of beautifying themselves. Mr. Sarawak was telling me today that he would have to cut his nails, shave all his body hair (from the back of the hand, to the armpits, to the chest and down the legs), trim his nose hair, and hydrate himself well enough, but not too much to give himself an oedema.

Right before the competition, they would have to apply tanning cream onto themselves, from the neck down. That would give their muscles a better dimensional look. One application took about one jar of tanning cream, and one jar of tanning cream cost about RM140.00!!! Imagine that...

I learned today too that it was better to wear a black posing trunk than a red one. The reason was that if you sweat in a red trunk, or had the tanning cream stained it, you would look as if you were having your period!!! Now, imagine THAT!!!

Update! Update!!!

Ah, I finally got around myself to organize some of my pics from my first ever diving trip. There were loads of them, from the moment we went on board, to the moment I put my suit and gear on, and the time when I back-rolled into the water.

It was my open sea exam in April, 2006, and it was Good Friday (just so you know, Good Friday is a public holiday here in Sarawak). Hallelujah, I passed all skills required to perform!!!

I can't quite remember much about the scenery underwater back then. All that I could recall was we were told to do much more than required in the syllabus, but it was worth it, because it was so much fun!!! Tiring, though.

One such extra requirement was the 'Tired Diver Tow'. Each one of us was supposed to pull the other diver (supposedly so tired that he can't even swim himself back to the boat) at the neck of the gas tank (it's normal air inside, not pure oxygen), and swim backwards towards the destination.

Can you imagine trying to swim while pulling someone with you, against the waves and currents? I was lucky that day, for the current was not too strong, and I only had to swim halfway before Edward, the instructor, told us to switch places. Then, I was the tired diver. Ha ha!!!

Just a Thought

Dad has his friends over again tonight.

I do not really like his friends much. I mean, I don't mind some of them, but I do mind it when my mum starts to complain.

And she complains a lot.

Luckily, I was able to see this trait when I was younger. I told myself then that I would not be like her in this sense.

I am still trying. So, God help me!!

My First Deep Sea: Japanese Ship Wreck

Now, I have just been to my first Deep Sea Diving Trip, and I was completely and absolutely ecstatic after that trip. The trip was last Sunday, but I am still elated even until today (it's Thursday today, by the way).

Why? Well, first of all, this was my FIRST deep sea trip!!! Previously I had only been to sites around the Talang-Talang island which depth was only down to 15 m, that would be about the height of a four or five-storeyed building. Places like that are fun, but if they were the ONLY place that you had visited since passing your exam, they could get pretty boring after the third trip.

Secondly, we were a bunch of crazy kids (I called us 'kids' because we all played like any five-year-old would), even though some of us were in our forties (not me definitely, I'm still in my sweet twenties, my skin is still taut and smooth). We played pranks on one another and told silly jokes, before and between dives. Kim, the assistant, was constantly throwing ice down our wet suits, and Edward, our instructor and dive master, would spray tanning oil on everyone and drew pictures on our backs while we were dozing in the shed.

We did three dives that day, at three different sites. The first two sites were where the Japanese war ship had sunk in the days of WW II. The first was a smaller ship and the the second a much bigger one. I was pretty nervous when I did my first dive. The last time I did my dive was roughly about three weeks ago. You start to get a bit rusty if you stop for even two weeks.

It was a long way down, with nothing between the sea bed and the surface. All that you could see was a wall of sea green and white sun light filtering through. But once you reached the bottom, the richness of life underwater would overwhelm you!!! There were corals, and angelfish and even lobsters!!! So much life around you, yet it was peaceful, even with the wrecked ship looming up beside you.

I got seperated from my buddies once, and was ('probably') carried away by the current. Then I lost visibility, seeing nothing but tiny microorganisms floating towards and around me. No ship, no people. I was lost at 20++m under!!!

I was lost under water, but I was not lost myself. One of the most important thing to remember when you are down under is that you must not panic!! Think!! Girl, Think!!! What did the instructor said when he taught about ascending from a depth of more than 18m? (It is considered deep sea if the depth is more than 18m).

Ascend slowly, and do your safety stops.

Alright, ascend slowly, and do my safety stops. I could do that. Now, 20m, 19, 18, 17... 15m, STOP! Now, breathe... Check the air pressure.... keep on breathing.... air pressure ok.... how long am I suppose to stay here???

By the time I reached the surface (I did another stop at 10m), I was alone, and the ship was roughly 200m away. Alright, at least I could still see the ship, though the swim back would be tedious....

Kim gave me a good talk later.... and I hung my head down like a good puppy would trying to show my remorse. But when Kim turned around, I was myself again... Hehehe.... Hey, what's that?? Edward found some bullets from the ship!!! (They were real bullets, those that they used in the standing-type of machine guns, and you use those to bring the airplanes down.)

The last dive was at a sunken barge. It was said that this was a Portugese barge taken by the Japanese. This was the largest of all three ship wrecks. Now this was where all the big lobsters lived. Too bad it's against the law to catch lobsters. Kim saw one that would weigh roughly about 80 grammes, and it was huge!!! Well, at least it was larger than the ones that I saw in Talang-Talang.

Fish, another lady diver (she is really called that), suffered from mild decompression symptoms. Pity her, she vomitted thrice and had a throbbing headache, which paracetamol did no help. Oh well, so much for going to the RainForest after our dive.

By the time we reached the jetty, the sky was dark, mosquitoes were everywhere. Never, ever, get yourself bitten by swamp mosquitoes. Their bites are the worst!!!

Oh, I am going back to Talang-Talang for my next dive. Now that I know, I need more practice. So, next trip, Talang-Talang, be there for me... :)