twisted and bruised

I twisted my ankle yesterday just before I left for work in the morning.

Kinda silly actually. Wen was acting up (4th time this week) and fussing so by the time she got ready for breakfast, I was almost late again for my transport. In my rush, I stepped on my slippers while trying to open the shoe cabinet to grab my heels. And that's when it happened.

I hobbled out of the house and caught the bus in the nick of time and didn't think very much about my left ankle because I thought the pain would subside after a while. So I went about my usual activities at work and continued to walk around, ignoring the niggling pain.

It was only after lunch when a few of my colleagues noticed me moving awkwardly. That's when I looked down and realised that my left ankle was slightly bruised and swollen. I called the hub and he suggested I visit his regular "Tui Na" 推拿 expert Henry whose office is at Chinatown.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeks. I hate this form of Chinese Massage where they knead, push, stretch the muscles. The hub knows my threshold for pain during these "Tui Na" sessions is pathetic although he can't understand it especially since I survived 3 natural childbirths without the use of epidural.

Anyway, I decided to go ahead and left office at 4pm (at the advice of my colleagues and supervisors) before the ankle got worse. The hub accompanied me for the "Tui Na" to lend me some moral support - although I think he was more interested to see my reaction during the session.

All I can say is that I let my dignity fly out of the window 5 minutes into the massage. I grimaced in pain as Henry kneaded, pushed, stretched and massaged my left ankle. Halfway through my tears were flowing freely and I was whimpering like a baby. He's obviously very seasoned and even rightfully commented that I had a previous injury years ago which I hadn't bothered about.

Before I left, Henry smiled and said that it would take about 2 days for my ankle to heal as it really wasn't very serious as I hadn't broken any bones. "No need to come back unless it still hurts after a few days." I made a mental note that I wasn't coming back.

This morning when I woke up, my ankle was red and still slightly bruised, with a light swell but I went back to work:

I could move about albeit a little slowly. By the end of the day, I wasn't limping about as much, and walking up and down the stairs wasn't too difficult. I'm quite confident the ankle will heal soon and more importantly, I won't have to visit Henry again.

Hub, be my Valentine!

It was Valentine's Day yesterday.

Over the years, the routine of celebrating the much-hyped and commercialised event with dinners and presents has somewhat lost its lustre and I no longer care very much about it.

Perhaps I'm just too jaded and overwhelmed by my multiple roles (mum, wife, daughter, DIL, educator, work slave etc) to be enthusiastic with a day's celebration of love. And it's hard to be in a romantic mood when 4/5 of my waking moments is spent worrying about whether the kids have finished their homework, what the girls want to eat for breakfast, how I can race against time to complete my marking and other administrative work, what I can do to help out since the hub's business is gradually slowing down because of the financial crisis, what I haven't done which I'm supposed to etc.

and the other 1/5 of my time spent in trying to keep track of the growing list of issues to worry about and keeping my sanity afloat.

Simply put, I'm old. And my priorities in life have changed.

Honestly, the thought of buying a gift or having a special meal with the hub didn't even cross my mind this year! And I'm ashamed of that too.

I'd taken leave on Friday for a Refresher Course to familiarise myself with driving again and the hub suggested we meet for lunch at his office after that. We also had to take Wei to the doctor's as she was suffering from a severe case of nappy rash and the diaper cream we've been using didn't seem to work.

On my way to Chinatown (where he works), I got off at Dhoby Ghaut station along the North East line to stop by Plaza Singapura's Dorothy Perkins. I had a $10 voucher to use by Sunday and bought a belt (because my jeans keeps falling off and unlike the fashionable youths, I don't intend to show my coloured knickers to the rest of the world).

But that detour cost me about 40 minutes and the hub was non-too-pleased because I had ruined his plan: he wanted to take me to the China Square Central Sushi Tei outlet for a leisurely lunch before bringing Wei to the doctor's but we were running on a tight schedule because I'd taken too long to reach town. :(

We still managed to have a quick lunch at Sushi Tei though. The hub drove back to Serangoon Gardens (there's an outlet there) because it was closer to our home and we could grab Wei quickly after our meal before the clinic closed at 4pm.

The hub wanted me to try the Hokkaido Chirashi Don - they were having a Hokkaido Promotion at Sushi Tei - and the dish consists of Sake (salmon), Uni (sea urchin), Ikura (salmon roe), Nama Hotate (Japanese scallop) and rice.

What can I say? It was a mmm-mmmmmmmmm-licious Valentine's Day treat.

The hub *really* knows me well.

On our way home, the hub and I reminisced over our courtship days and how we'd try to outdo each other in the gift-giving department and Valentine dinners. Back then, everything seemed like a big deal and oh-so-important!

So much has changed in 10 years. I suppose this is just part and parcel of the circle of life. But I must count my blessings and thank my lucky stars for marrying someone who may not be perfect, but who's perfect where it matters most: loving me for who I am and knowing that I'm not perfect either.

25 tidbits about me

There's no escape. I've been tagged too many times in Facebook to do this, so here goes!

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I was up this morning at 3 a.m. and have been awake since. I figured that since I'd to wake my eldest daughter for school at 5.40 a.m. there really is no point in going back to bed.

2. Being a mum of 3 girls = money saved on kids' clothes. Plenty of hand-me-downs for the baby.

3. I'm a breastfeeding mum. My older girls were on 100% breastmilk and were weaned off at 25 months. Since baby Wei's probably going to be my last kid, I'll let her decide when she wants to stop.

4. Strangely, I'm much slimmer now after 3 kids than I was before I got married. Why? Because I breastfeed.

5. I've been married for 10 years. To the same man. ;)

6. I think I'm the most ungirly girl my hub's ever known and I sometimes wonder why he married me because I'm also the world's worst housekeeper.

7. And if the hub had to survive on my cooking daily, he'd definitely put on weight because he'd most likely have dinner outside FIRST before coming home and then pretend to pick at my unpalatable dishes. :(

8. I own a collection of about 150 Lord of the Rings Action Figures. They're all in mint condition (still in original packaging) and peeking out of my cramped bookshelves. If I had the space, I'd love to build a shrine somewhere in my home so that I can display them in their full glory.

9. I get a kick out of watching visitors' facial expressions when they ask about my LOTR collection and mistakenly assume my hub's the one who's into the toys: Yeah, I know it's more of a guy's thing.

10. Needless to say, my all-time favourite movie is Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Of the 3 movies, I enjoyed The Two Towers most.

11. My favourite LOTR movie character is Legolas, played by Orlando Bloom (when he was a nobody).

12. But the character I can most relate to is Éowyn, the Shield Maiden of Rohan. She utters the girl-power line "I am no man!" just before she slays the Witch-king of Angmar, also known as the Lord of the Nazgûl.

13. I've been interrupted 4 times while writing this: once by Wei who needed her calcium fix, once by Xian who refused to get dressed to go to school, and once by Wen who insisted that I brush her teeth. And then it was time for me to go to work!

14. I give my kids many crazy nicknames. Monsterina, Rascalrella and Terrorliza. Vampiria, Urina, Salivia. Gong-Gong, Bom-Boms, Pom-Pom etc. Collectively, they're known as Pootsies. Don't ask me why or how I came up with these silly names.

15. I used to be a sprint champ and won gold in both 100m and 200m in the National Track & Field Championships in 1996. That was before I became too fat to run competitively.

16. I represented my JC in Tennis but we weren't a strong team and never made it past the first round. I also played Tennis for the hall during my NUS days.

17. I love German Shepherds and have 2 of them at home now.

18. Small, "yelpy" dogs irritate me.

19. If I weren't a teacher/lecturer, I'd love to be a writer. Either way, I won't make much money.

20. I believe I'm one of the few people around who actually love their jobs. And I think I'm good at what I do too.

21. I hate to drive though I've got a license. Unfortunately, I've got to take a Refresher Course because I've to start chauffeuring the girls around. :(

22. My favourite food: it's a toss up between Uni (Sea Urchin) and Salmon Sashimi.

23. I'm an only child. Perhaps that's why I decided to have more kids.

24. I have a collection of 43 miniature Strawberry Shortcake dolls and 36 Smurfs, plus the fruit-themed houses (for the Strawberry Shortcake community) and mushroom houses (for the Smurfs). Had them since I was 8 years old but don't have space to display them now.

25. I'm a chocoholic. :)

The "D" word

I’ve finally done the deed. It’s something I’ve been putting off for years and each time someone suggested picking it up, I’d brush it aside with a truckload of excuses.

Why, I even offered to have more babies in exchange for not doing this! But now that I’ve more or less decided I’m done in the birthing department, I’ve run out of valid reasons.

Curious to know what I've been avoiding for the past 10 years?

Driving.

Ha.

I got my Class 3 Driving Licence in December 1997 and used to drive my Dad's company van during the weekends when I gave private tuition. Unfortunately I met with an accident (though I didn't suffer any broken bones) and after that traumatising experience, I steered away from driving completely.

In fact, the only driving I'm really capable of these days is driving the hub up the wall by my decision not to drive!

Honestly, I'm happy zipping about on buses, trains and cabs because the public transportation in Singapore is pretty efficient. I have no desire to own a car, much less drive one.

But now that the kids are older and have to be rushed from swimming, piano and enrichment lessons, it's hard to avoid my chauffeur responsibilities. And these days, the hub's got his hands full with work and the pet shop, and sometimes he has to re-arrange meetings and plans just so that he can ferry the kids up and down to their activities.

It dawned onto me during the weekends that it's time for me to face my ridiculous fears about manoeuvring a motor vehicle.

I checked out the various websites for Refresher Courses available and decided to sign up with Comfort DelGro Driving Centre as they had a Kovan Branch just outside my home.

And before I changed my mind, I quickly called the centre for enquires yesterday and they informed me that there were 2 last-minute cancellations which I could take over on Friday and Saturday. So immediately after work, I zoomed straight to the centre to register for the Refresher Course (a minimum of 2 lessons although I'm pretty sure I need more than that to feel safe on the roads).

There. I did it. All for the sake of the kids.

Now the real litmus test is on Friday when I actually get behind the wheel.

So not looking forward to it. :(

It's Feb already!

As I was going through Xian's homework yesterday, it suddenly hit me on my fat head that January's flown by.

A whole month has whizzed past. Within 3 blinks, and February's arrived!

Tell me this isn't happening. How is it possbile that the days and hours zip by without me noticing?

ARGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

This is just too insane. I'm rambling of course. Just taking a quick break before I go back to my marking.