Blow-dryer Career

I think I can start a 2nd career as a blow-dryer. We went riding on Friday morning with my swanky new bike. Alas got caught in a torrential downpour. And since I didn't have any bike cleaning stuff at home, I could only wipe it and blow-dry with a hairdryer. I've no idea if I'll spoil any parts of the bike with the hot air.... But it was super cool seeing beads of water droplets scurrying out in all directions from underneath the nuts and bolts and all nooks and crannies. And you learn to press every part that's movable, every joint, and aim the hairdryer at it. Ha. And then suay suay, the next day, there was another downpour, and my precious in the balcony kenna a washing on its front. Again. Out comes the hairdryer. Repeat the whole cycle.

I'm getting quite adept with the hairdryer. Geez, I mean I use the thing on my head like twice a year. And now I'm fully utilizing it, twice 2 days in a roll on the bike. Oh man..... I'm dedicating that hairdryer to the precious. So I learnt I needed to buy cleaning solutions and cheem stuff that all the guys seem knowledgeable abt, but which are greek to women.... For which I had a hard time visualizing how to use them on the bike.

Today I rode to Tuas & Sentosa. By the time I got home it was 10pm. Time to groom the bike once more. With the correct tools this time. Thank goodness I had presence of mind to clean it in the corridor (uh, not a recommended place, but beats inside the house). Proudly, like what the shop owner demo, I aimed that degreaser spray straight at the cassettes & chain. The solvent smelt of orange citrus. My my, even bikes have perfume! Eau de-greaseur! Haha.... Must have done it right, cos black gooey stuff promptly sputtered out & dripped all over the place. It was both a sense of achievement, mixed with drats-i've-greased-the-corridor dread. Next to clean was the chain. 2x toothbrushes held bristles to bristles, and run the chain through them. Sounds simple. Wait til one of the brushes is from an SQ flight. Already cannot make it on my teeth, totally cannot make it on the chains. The brush broke!! After a couple of chain-spins, the bristles all became detached (think of an old broom that sheds 'hair' as you sweep), and the 1inch brush section split into two. And created more mess on the already dirty floor. Buy oral-B next time. The 2nd brush I used. It's tested even to withstand tough chains! So anyhow after that I had absolutely no idea if the chains were clean or not, they still left black marks on my fingers when I touched. But I know I've successfully ruined a nice clean bucket, cos it's now got a rim of grease where the dirty water level was. Plus 1x broken brush, 1x blackened Oral-B.

The precious temporarily (definition = my mum's tolerance) stays in the living room, away from the climate elements, until I get a giant groundsheet to cover it. Thought I'd lean the bike against something & put newspapers beneath the wheels to keep the floor clean. Um, I forgot about laws of friction. The papers kept sliding out against the floor, and the whole bike wouldn't lean upright. Darn. Forced to use the triangle stand. Wrestled with the thing for 7min before prying it open & attaching to bike. Sense of accomplishment #2. By which time it was 45min past, and in terrible need of a nice shower & food for myself. And haven't blow-dry yet!

I concluded that if each time I ride, I need 15min before the ride to pump tires, lubricate the chains, and 45min after to hose and clean the bike.... Whew! (I don't even take that long to clean up myself!)... The ride had better be much longer than 1hr to justify all that cleaning time!

PS
- who now understands why men suffers from obsessive polishing & waxing of cars, but not their bods....

(pps: i don't even clean my climbing gear as thoroughly.....)

A Last Climb

This is for my climbing team-mates from the Singapore Women's Everest Team.

A Last Climb

As the trip draws close,
My apprehension grows.
This could be it,
The last climb, I fear.

A journey this far,
It seeps into your life.
Every aspect touched.
All senses engulfed.

But not a tinge of regret,
Should curtains be drawn.
If scenes could replay,
I would wish the same cast.

A path less trodden,
A life more lived.

Thank you,
For walking it together.

Nerve-wrecking Dentist

Oh my good golly! I swear I'll be religious abt brushing, and visit the dentist regularly, and taste of minty Darlie all the time. If you read my last instalment, I had to go fix this crown over a molar. But alas there was this nerve infection and it became a root canal treatment instead. To the lucky all of you who don't know what that is, it's basically a process to remove the dying or infected nerves in the tooth, before crowning it. It was an interesting idea of a nerveless tooth. Oh blammy.

The anesthetic jabs around the tooth didn't work, and between holding my breath and trying not to die from asphyxia, and trying to catch THE expert's cheem lingo abt acidic pH from infection inside the tooth is much lower... jazz like that I cldn't hear above all the gassy sounds... ok well, then THE expert took a look, and decided to give 6 jabs in total (!!), 2 of which went directly INTO the nerve zone. It brought new appreciation for the phrase "to hit a raw nerve". Thereafter there were lots of scrapping sounds apparently from fine needles clearing out the nerves.

Ok, the visit was absolutely educational, cos all along I thought nerves were this lines that ran beneath the tooth. So I had this visual image of drilling through the tooth and snipping the nerve. But haha, then I was told nerves were actually in the middle of a tooth. Amidst the equipment sounds, THE expert said something about "rocks stones" in the nerve, which I later found out were calcium deposits as part of some bodily self-defense mechanism. And oh, bet you didn't know that nerve can have pus? It was absolutely bordering on gross yuckiness.

THE expert announced those discoveries with some tinge of pride and amusement like a school boy in a lab, while the patient was just dying in the chair. Yucks! Right, I shan't gross people out further. Back to days of mush and porridge diet. I'm now the #1 loyal fan of 3-in-1 cereals and instant mashed potatoes. Sigh....

Sensitve Dentist

On a melting-hot bright sunny Sunday afternoon, the sort of day when one should be out there getting toasted on the beaches of Sentosa, I had to make a dreaded trip to the equally-dreaded dentist. There was this nagging tooth throb that I thought I should nip before my next climb or else be jabbed with painkillers in the cold mountains. So I bravely made an appointment with THE tooth expert, who took a quick look and said he'd need to do something about the tooth, and that I'd two options - to jab a local anesthetic, or bear with it. I asked if it'd be painful, he assured me it'd only be "sensitive". I took the jab nonetheless. And was I glad. Even after the numbness set in in half the mouth, I could feel him boring down on the tooth, and was so tense my back was off the consultation chair. I might as well have been at gym doing abs workout. Imagine what "sensitive" would have felt like! Thank goodness for the invention of anesthetics. Halellujah. I couldn't help wondering if they told pregnant women the same thing about feeling "sensitive".

So THE expert had to remove the fillings to check the beneath. Turned out I'd bitten on something so hard that penetrated the fillings (which are supposedly to last you for 30yrs!), and cracked the tooth and touched the nerve. Ouch x3. And that could have happened within the last 3-9mths, which could have been anything. Anyway, he refilled it with some temporary stuff, and said I'd need to fit a metal crown over it to prevent splitting the crack further. And meticulously went through all the options, one of which was to just wait til it totally split and extract the tooth. But then an old man doing that with a whole row of missing teeth could fix in dentures, whereas young lady like me would have a gaping hole... Wow! It was sales pitch at its most subtle! I was auto-pilot from then on, from asking questions to fixing appt. Haha.... Ok, no more gory details. On a porridge and little-chewing diet for the next few days. Thought of doing a detox while I'm at it, but then I just couldn't resist those choc cakes and meat.... *Grin* I guess I'll just bear with that "sensitive" feeling, THE good expert would have been proud of me. *LOL*

The Tipping Scales

The Tipping Scales

The scales have tipped!
Finally they beeped
An annoymous 2-kilos
Jostling to say hellos

In frenzy mode the brain retrace
Possible culprits for the case
Muscle mass the mind consoles
Helps in reaching summit goals

The pants differ, it spills over!
Prata, choc-chips take cover
Midnight suppers I confess
Sweet indulgences for this mess

As the dessert crevasse beckons
And self-rescue will weakens
Retail therapy's worth a fling
Out I went to buy a purple sling

The scales have tipped!
I don't care if they don't dip
The next Oreo won't ring a bell
For in Nepal, I'll bid farewell....

It Only Gets Better

It Only Gets Better

I thought I was strong
But I was wrong
When I look in your face
My defenses melt

I thought I was upset
But not for long
When I stare in your eyes
My anger quells

The tenderness in your face
And love in your eyes
Will thaw my icy mask
And hush the raging gale

I close my eyes and yield
In your reassuring whispers
And shielding hugs
I surrender

It only gets better…

Lost Love

Lost Love

With a heavy heart, I pen this
For hopes and dreams that never be
Les-Mis in London I’ll miss
Love and concern I’ll never know
Bitter-sweet memories banished
Locked forever in the depths of heart

A short selection of songs for you
A reminder of better times that passed
Self-explanatory you’d understand
Hear the words in the last two songs
Conveying my deepest thoughts
Springing tears to eyes each time

I hope things will turn out well
I know I’ve lost and hurt a lot
A love who taught me what life is
A pillar of strength when things are down
I’d gladly give up everything
For those special moments once again