Barffie The Whine Connoisseur

So, today I extracted all 4 of my wisdom teeth. Initially, I was prepared to remove the bottom 2 that were giving me problems. During my routine dental checks a couple of months ago, the dentist told me they were decaying. So I thought, ah might as well… it’s time to remove them. So we took X-Rays of my teeth with a fancy machine that played music and we found that one of them was pressing against a nerve while the other one was growing horizontally and about to hit the last molar. It was weird seeing that.

We scheduled the surgery for today and the plan was to get it paid for by Medisave, since it was to be a surgical procedure. All was well and good, but I was quite nervous. I’ve never had a surgery done under local anesthesia… what’s more they were going to operate on my sensitive mouth and gums! I am usually calm about medical procedures, but this time I did feel a little frightened.

After consulting with the principal dental surgeon, he suggested that I remove all 4 teeth, because although the 2 upper teeth did not grow out of the gums, they were pressing against my molars… and that would eventually give me problems later on in life. It’s cheaper to remove all at one go, rather than spacing it out into 2 separate surgeries. What’s more, once I suffered through this recovery period, there would not be a “round 2″ in future. He was very confident of his skills and of course, he had plenty of experience with this procedure.

So I bit the bullet and said yes to removing all 4 wisdom teeth. The dental surgeon, quite a young fella… didn’t wear his scrubs when he spoke to me. I don’t know if he did put on a plastic apron or what, because my eyes were masked. Just felt a little strange, that’s all.

My heart pounded so hard as the team got themselves ready. They covered my eyes for good reason, I thought. They didn’t want to have a patient freak out on them halfway and run out screaming, I supposed. The blood and drills could curdle the blood of any brave person… I was wondering if physical restraints were needed for me.

The dentist slowly injected local anesthesia into my gums, always checking if I was feeling ok. There was pressure and some sharp sensation occasionally, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. I think my tiny mouth was straining to keep itself open and I was rather worried my lips will tear from all the handling.

The LA worked pretty quickly, numbing my entire mouth and cheeks. I can feel my throat getting dry as well. And then the dentist did some tests on the spots to be operated on… and then it was GO! He started on my upper right tooth it seemed.

The drilling was fine, just a little loud and the vibrations was a little unnerving… nothing really scary there. My lips were pried open and stretched in ways that felt a little uncomfortable, but I guess some dental work required some rough handling here and there. There was a part when the dentist had to apply a lot of pressure to crack and break the tooth, which he described as “a click”. Nope, definitely a crack there. The pressure he applied was rather strong and I thought my jaw was going to break or something. But no sharp pain there, not surprisingly.

I had to place my trust in modern medical technology right? The local anesthetic held up well so far. I had my hands gripped tight throughout the process.

So after the sutures and all, he told me 1 was done! But then he did some drilling again and all, which puzzled me a little. After he took a break of about 10 minutes or so, he started on my upper left tooth. I could tell this one was a little less complicated, but unfortunately I did feel some sensitivity at some point when he drilled into the tooth. So I held out my left hand to signal to him. I think he had to top up some more LA before continuing.

Then he told me, “See! Doing 4 is the same as doing 2. We’re done now!” Whaaaat? You mean you are done with all 4? How come I didn’t know that?! I thought after the 2nd one there was going to another 2 more… but no… they took off my eye mask and was guiding me to sit upright soon after. I guess that was THE pleasant surprise of the day.

So it was fast and somewhat painless. My mouth was still swollen and numb but that was to be expected. Another X-Ray was taken of my “after” teeth and I was good to go home. Jeffwee came to pick me up and he was somewhat amused at my swollen face. The dude had 2 of his wisdom teeth taken out under General Anesthesia many years back. Hmmpf. He said I was brave and was surprised I removed all 4 instead of just 2.

I’m thankful of my friend Justin who was working at the clinic and was very reassuring the whole time. He took good care of me and the paperwork needed… and I appreciated that. He was the one who recommended this dentist to me as he has been a long-time customer as well. I guess such recommendations and kind treatment could really help calm the nerves of a terrified patient.

The trip home was not uneventful though. There was a jam on the AYE and then my mouth filled quickly with a yucky mixture of drool and blood. I wasn’t too sure of what to do, but I swallowed once the amount was too much. I couldn’t feel it but I was bleeding from my mouth and nearly onto my t-shirt. The colour of the blood was pretty dark. Had to wipe like mad to prevent staining.

After getting home, I sat down on the bed for a couple of hours, making sure I didn’t lie down, as instructed. So I kept myself awake by surfing the net and trying to keep myself from drooling onto my bedsheets, but before long I felt really sleepy. I dug out my inflatable travel neck pillow to support my head while I dozed off in a sitting position.

The cats came to sit with me, but I suspect they wanted food more than to comfort me.

I woke up feeling really hungry and I could feel the anesthesia wearing off. My chin was numb with pins and needles and I had to keep checking if I’d drooled bloody drool anywhere. All was good. So I went to throw out the 2 pieces of soaked gauze… it was gross but for us girls, it’s nothing awful that we’ve not seen.

Then I was really starving. There wasn’t any food at home, I was ill prepared for this. In order to down the painkillers, I’ve got to have food. So I made some Quaker instant oats cereal drink to stave off the hunger pangs. Jeffwee won’t be back from work until 6pm or so, I’ve got to help myself, isn’t it?

Then I took some Ibuprofen as prescribed, but bleah, it’s still painful. But the hunger pangs felt worse than the pain in my jaws. I nearly threw up a few times, but fortunately for me the food stayed down. I guess it was a slight reaction from the wearing off of the anesthesia. I somewhat knew it would happen, this nausea. But it still felt like crap.

Jeffwee came home and made me porridge as the stall downstairs was closed. I wouldn’t be able to withstand all of these if it weren’t for him taking care of me. I slurped my porridge appreciatively and he went to play his game.

I took my medication… and 1300 words down. I am feeling much better. Less pain for now.

If you are not sick of this author rambling on and on about how she wants to go on a trip and money is short… you can continue reading.

—

After Europe, where’s it gonna be? My family is intending to head to either Hong Kong or Taipei at the end of 2012, but there’s some disagreement with the decision… so we’ll see.

Hong Kong has Disneyland which my sis wanted to bring her kiddies to, but for the adults… what else could we do apart from shopping? Perhaps we could do a day trip to Macau as the kiddies go to their amusement rides, or we could head to the outskirts of Hong Kong.

Taiwan is a lot more attractive to us adults, but there is not a lot the kiddies could enjoy. There are theme parks in Taiwan but they are not that type leh. What’s more, this is the best age for them to go… especially when my eldest niece goes above 16 years old, Disneyland might not appeal to her anymore. Then again, it has been a wish for us to head to southern Taiwan… so… what gives?

Then, it would be the decision of where do the both of us go after Europe? It’s gonna be another big trip. I am torn between US, Australia and Maldives. If we were to go US, it’d be New York and San Francisco. Maybe I’ll head to Indiana to look for a friend, or Florida. Or to Portland, Oregon… because I heard it’s a great city to live in. If we are headed to Australia, it’s gonna be Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road.

What do you think?

Mmmmmm…

Tonight at 10pm onwards we witnessed the lunar eclipse from our home. We went downstairs armed with some foldie chairs, snacks and binoculars and sat by the sprawling field to watch the event.

One day, I would like to see the Aurora Borealis with my own eyes. It has been listed on my “Do Before I Die” list for ages but I’m not sure if it’s even possible. Money is of the essence and I heard it also depends on luck if you will be able to see it.

FOREWORD: I HAVE FINISHED MY ASSIGNMENT OMG I CAN ENJOY THE WEEKEND ALREADY!!! I AM GOING TO GRADUATE OMG MUM ARE YOU PROUD OF ME???

—

I’ve just booked the last of the air tickets required on our EuroTrip… and a couple of lodging bookings more and I guess we are more or less on track and ready for the trip!

For some I may seem over-enthusiastic and kiasu, but to me, I love the pre-planning process and I really would prefer to book certain things earlier to take advantage of early bird prices. Budget airline flights are a good example. I have found myself on incredibly cheap flights due to advance booking and planning, so I guess I will still do my travels this way.

Moreover, anticipation is half the journey! It keeps me really pumped and excited for the next year. Although there’s going to be a global economy downturn, but with proper financial management… this trip should not be that taxing.

More than half the trip’s costs has been paid for, airfares and certain lodging via AirBnB. So by the time we hit Europe for real, we would only have to spend another 5-6k more. It’s a lot of money, but it’s going to add on to lifetime of experiences that should be enjoyed by a younger us.

Surprisingly, after thorough research and digging, flying within European countries with budget flights can be cheaper than taking the train rides. Eurail passes aren’t like what they were anymore, there’s too much restrictions and too many top ups for certain classes of seats. And they ain’t that cheap still! So we ended up flying a lot more than taking trains.

Here’s the itinerary in brief:
Singapore fly to Athens
Athens fly to Santorini
Santorini fly to Athens
Athens fly to Rome
Rome train to Tuscany
Tuscany train to Venice
Venice fly to Paris
Paris fly back to Singapore!

AHHHHH I CAN’T WAIT FOR THE TRIP!!! OMG!!!

It’s the last lap of the pursuit of that frigging degree. I am down to the last bit of the essay and… I can feel my sanity crumbling.

I’ve been inefficient at work and even forgetful of plans and stuff. I am usually very organised and in control of my schedules and… honestly I don’t like the way I am now. I hold my work ethics and project management capabilites to high regard… and this is not my standard ok.

But I have to carry on and write and write and… I don’t know where this rant is going.

So yes, I hope my nose won’t work up again tomorrow. It’s been a tough day plugging that leaky nose.

Our very first office Christmas tree!

I have never had a Christmas tree at home because my cats would probably kill it… so just now I was visiting a design house for some work-related stuff, I came across a dingy little shop selling Christmas trees for cheap.

So I asked my colleagues to contribute to the Christmas tree fund and… it was GO!

The other departments came to check out our tree and commented loudly… LOOKS LIKE THE BATTLE IS ON FOR ONE-UPPING EACH OTHER’S TREE!!! RAWWRRRR!!!

Mystique, our lop ear bunny

Mystique was 10 years old, we think. We kind of lost count. He had the bunnies for around 2 years before we got together and then moved to our new place. They were both females and together with the 2 Chinchillas – Mao Mao and Tian Tian, I would consider them the first pets I had in my life.

One of our very old videos, before we had cats. SweetPie was annoying Mystique and the video ended with some humping action. They were both females and SweetPie was just showing dominance…

Mystique being her shy self.

As I type this, we are cleaning out the remaining bunny stuff… the cages, the feeding bottles, the pack of hay and pellets to donate to an animal shelter… it’s the end of an era of bunnies for us. The sole survivor of these 4 is the Chinchilla, Tian Tian. She must be lonely… =\

The bunnies lived really long lives and I am glad Mystique didn’t suffer like how SweetPie did. The latter was force fed several times a day and had to go through daily injections due to a bad abscess in her jaw.

Our bunnies SweetPie and Mystique…

Moving them to our new place in 2005. They were waiting for their ride by the roadside.

We will be headed out to a secret location to bury Mystique later on. Rest well now, our beloved bunny.

Addendum at 6:35pm:
After waiting out the rain at a bus stop for an hour, we finally found a nice, tranquil spot for Mystique to lay to rest. Goodnight now.

I’ve been in an alcoholic phase. You know, that phase in life when numbing the pain was the order of the day. So I went to party with the sole intention of getting pissed drunk… not drunk enough to pass out in the streets in a puddle of my own vomit, but enough to go home to sleep off the giddy intoxication.

There were moments of horror, like the time when I did too much Johnny Walker in a night and ended up throwing up the remains of my guts at the sidewalk. Once, I lost track of time and the next thing I knew, found my head in the toilet bowl of Zouk, as my lovely friends held up my hair in the cubicle, taking great care of me. I spent the rest of the night bawling away at the front entrance while still barfing bile. I was so embarrassed I never went out clubbing with them again.

Then there was the period of time when drinking booze was only limited to company events with free-flow booze. I’d stopped clubbing at that point in time. Jeffwee always came to pick me up to send me home, as a giddy drunk girl from some place filled with giddy drunk coworkers.

I started nursing 1 or 2 teeny cocktails the whole night long, usually Lychee Martinis. But even these days are over.

Back then, it was hard liquor. Pretentious Chivas mixes, lousy whiskey on the rocks, vile vodka housepours, choking tequila shots and all that harder stuff. I’ve never liked beer though. Tastes like vomit. Why would anybody drink vomit, I wonder? I thought cough medicine was bad enough.

Nowadays, I am discovering the joys of lame fruit beers which taste like fizzy soft drinks. And lame wines that are sweet and light on the palette and hefty on the intoxicating effects. But it’s all good. I like my booze like that. Cheaply obtained, enjoyed at home without caring about my dressing and at my convenience.

From top left:
Malibu Coconut Rum, Frangelico Hazelnut Liquor, Cointreau Orange Liquor, Baileys Irish Cream.
Torrevilla’s “Blood of Judas”, Lindemans Pecheresse Fruit Beer, Moet & Chandon Rose Champagne, Jacob’s Creek Chardonnay
Absolut Vodka in assorted flavours

Niceeeee.

Wow. Looks like it’s proposal season again. Congrats to those managed to successfully pulled off your proposal plans!

But speaking of proposals… I didn’t have one. I didn’t expect one and he didn’t plan for one. But I wonder how it’ll feel like though. To be surprised like that.

We were that kind of couple that went, “Hey let’s go get a flat!”… and before we knew it, we were married… and wow – it has been 6 years since we got hitched.

That said, I’ve got to be honest though. While a big, expensive proposal is fun and memorable, I think the money should be spent on the rest of your life together. I am just that sort of person who dislike receiving flowers and stuff, so yeah… I rather spend that money on home decor or something.

Or a trip. That would be super nice. I want to go on a trip. Very nearly booked air tickets to Langkawi that other day. Ho ho ho.

So for those of you who love stuff like that… good for you. But maybe that would be sour grapes speaking here. I don’t know.

He asked me this as we were weaving through traffic to a wedding this morning.

I shrugged and said, “I do. Not sure about other women…” I’d just spent an hour curling my long hair in preparation for my Blair Waldorf look. In my mind, I secretly recalled the hatching of the concept just about a couple months back.

It first started with a dress I bought on ASOS. I found it via a search for “Peter Pan collar”, because well… I love Peter Pan collars. They remind me of my primary school uniform. I hated it back then, but I now find them oh so cute. They have since changed the uniform into something hideous.

But I digress.

That was about 3 months ago, as I went through a crazy dress-buying phase. I kept the dress for an appropriate occasion to wear. Probably a lunch wedding.

So there were 2 weddings coming up, one’s a lunch and one’s a dinner. It was a no-brainer. So what hair do I wear for such dresses? I wore an updo for the dinner – something glam for night, coupled with scary smokey eyes. For the lunch – it was time to let my hair down… and with that preppy collared dress, I’d need preppy hair to match.

I’ve never liked Gossip Girl, found it frivolous and pointless. But I could never take my eyes off Blair Waldorf’s style. Headbands! Big fluffy curls! Cute girly dresses!

Perhaps it was turning 30 that turned me into someone who wants to be a schoolgirl again. Oh, dreams.

So I bought 3 headbands from a cheapo shop with a surprisingly pretty range of headbands that didn’t look that cheapo to choose from. They were selling 3 for $5. So grabbed them I did.

Then I needed the curls. My naturally wavy hair just wasn’t vavavoom curly enough. So I had to get myself a pair of curling tongs. Couldn’t bear to plonk money down on one (I’m cheapo, remember?) so I borrowed one from my colleague. I singed my fingers a few times and tangled my hair in the curling iron a few times. I also lost a bit of hair. *clutches desperately at broken hair*

Long story short… here’s my hair. It wasn’t as big and fluffy as hers, but I guess with a pair of fatter curling tongs I might be able to achieve better effects.

My waist-length hair was hidden behind… but you can see the collar from here (not exactly Peter Pan, but school-girly enough… And yes, there was a nasty cleavage that I am not sharing.

Here’s a fuller version… I didn’t take a photo of the back. Damn.

So yeah. I did plan quite far ahead, because it’s nice to put on make up and costume for loads of photo-taking opportunities! Hur hur hur. I liked the outcome and so did he. And so did my friends at the wedding.

Good effort, I supposed!