His name is Lawry and he's a handsome, white pony at RDA, but he really looks daft with that hood on, doesn't he?

Lawry might looks cute but he's a tad grumpy and tends to bite. Esp when u place your hand on his neck... he just doesnt like it.

What i've learnt about horses...

[1] When horses snort, do try to stay clear, or else you'll be covered with horse mucus. Pray that you are wearing an old t-shirt.

[2] Horses do bite and they are not like those cute little ponys from the cartoon "My little ponys". They can be grumpy, kick or stomp their hooves to show their displeasure.

[3] DO NOT STAND behind a horse at all times. Once again, they do kick.

[4] Horses can shed TONS and i mean TONS of hair/fur. There are many times I wish that im wearing a mask when im grooming them.

Ahh... the joy of having dogs is when you can dress them up in silly costumes for Halloween and they will still love you for it. Cats, just dont quite have that kinda love nor patience for these costumes.

These pictures totally made my day!

Isn't that a pair of, really cool red shoes?? Check out the feathers!

I've alwas had a thing for red... then some Fashion Guru told me that one has to be tall to wear red well... Like Julia in Pretty Women when she went for her opera.

Hmmm... I'm not exactly tall. Just barely average height. Haiz, I can't wear red well then.

But.... I can still wear red shoes!!!

As for the other 2 pictures, just feel like posting them... to celebrate my love for the color red.

These dolls seem very scary to me, they are like the bride and groom version of voodoo dolls... YeeeeeeK!

Saw these dolls at a wedding website and they arent selling cheap, I tell you! Gives me the goosebumps. and I can so totally imagine my enemies sticking needles into a version-of-me doll.

No dolls for me.

Marley and Me

After reading this book, I wish I have a dog.

Nope, I don’t think I can handle a dog such as Marley. I’ll most probably kill him when he destroys the sofa for the 3rd time or eats my 50th pair of shoes.

But for all dog lovers, this book is a must-read. It’s such a touching story and best of all, this story sounds really REAL. (Although I wouldn’t be surprised if parts of it are made-up for entertainment value)

Nonetheless, I truly enjoyed myself and the book also reminded me of my dog, Puggy.
I had Puggy when I was a little girl, and being too young (like 5 yrs old), I couldn’t take good care of her and my mum simply couldn’t handle 3 young kids AND a dog. Thus, Puggy had to be given way.

I only had Puggy for only less than 2 yrs but I remembered that she was my best friend and we had so much fun at the beach, riding in my mum’s car, our moments when we shared our food (she basically ate everything that I hated). She was such a comical dog and I remembered many moments when my mum and I would just laugh at her for all the silly things that she had done.

Puggy was eventually given away to a neighbor, and I remembered missing her very badly and would run over to the neighbor’s place when ever I could until that neighbor moved away and I never see Puggy again.

I still think of Puggy once a while and I sincerely wished that she had a good life and died as a happy dog.

Above are some pictures from Cameron Highlands. Decided to escape with E to somewhere cool and nice for a short getaway and Cameron Highlands come to my mind immediately. Since I haven’t been there before, thought that a short 3 days 2 nights will do me some good.

Weather was really indeed cool, in fact, temperature dropped to about 13 dc at nights. During the day, it was really pleasant at a comfortable 20 dc as well…

Nothing super exciting to do at Cameron Highlands, except visiting strawberry farms, eat tons of strawberries, eat tons of fresh sweet corn (really sweet!), and look at veggies (and eat them too).

All in all, it was a really pleasant holiday. Except for the treacherous, agonizing, 8-freaking hours bus ride from Singapore.

That sucks

Some other pixs from our pre-wedding series. Above shots havent been edited by our photographer yet... so, these are as raw as they get. ;P More pictures are available in my Facebook account, so friends, do check them out!

As the date draws nearer, I'm getting more excited... not that I'm in a hurry to be Mrs. Tan. But I'm just curious how our actual day photos will turn out... ...

I'm so glad that I have a photographer whom I can count on. To me, he's as good as it gets.

Wisdom tooth saga

It has been almost 3 weeks since I extracted my right, lower wisdom tooth and… … … my gum around that area still hurt?!?!

Geez. This wound is really taking a LONG time to heal. Well, it doesn’t help that my wisdom tooth was actually FUSED to my lower, right jaw bone. And thus, the dentist had to drill into my jaw bone to release the tooth.

From the pix above, the blackish part of the tooth is actually the bits from my jaw bone. By the way, the pain was so bad during the extraction that I thought I would faint.

Now, I’m so obsessed with dental hygiene that I kinda rinse my mouth with Listerine at least 6 times a day and brush my teeth like 4 times a day…

I just wana be pain-free again. ;(

That's one of my pre-wedding shots. Love it.... ... ...

Conclusion: Both JW and I simply couldnt do those "lovey-dovey" shots, we either burst out laughing while trying to look loving, or we would end up looking as if we were trying to beat each other up instead of loving.

I felt that I was taking pictures with my best friend. Yup, he's my best friend.

Saw these tiffin tins in The Museum shop of the National Museum… thought that they looked really pretty. But the price tags aren’t…

Bet I can find cheaper ones from Chinatown! But what can I do with these pretty tiffin tins?

1) Use them to store salt, sugar, pepper….?? But I will then need a retro theme for my kitchen?
2) Use them as “Ang Pao” box for my wedding? But the theme of my wedding isn’t Oriental…
3) Use them as tiffin tins! Hrm… not that I pack food from home either…

End of story. No use for these tiffin tins. Argh….

Museum Day 9 Aug 2008

9 Aug is our Motherland’s National Day, and on this day, quite a number of places of interest actually offer FREE admission.

Yup. FREE. FYI: usual admission to Museums is about 8 -10 bucks per adult.

So, I dragged JW along to the Singapore Art Museum (SAM) for a quick dose of art. Wanted to take a look at Xu Bei Hong’s works, then I realized that I mistook his pieces as Feng Zheng Jie’s works. Feng is a modern art Artist, currently still alive and his signature pieces are usually faces of women painted in very bold and bright colors, such as pink face, with green hair and with the eye balls far apart.

Unfortunately, I missed the exhibition. DANG! I thought Xu Bei Hong was the artist who painted those devilish-looking girls! (1st picture above)

Anyway, it was still very enjoyable viewing Xu Bei Hong’s works (2nd pix). Well… Xu is already dead, but also a Chinese artist and his style was more towards the Chinese style of painting (water colors on scrolls), but his later works were really interesting as he stayed in India for a period of time and he painted Indians in Chinese’s “water-color” style. How often do you see Indians in Chinese watercolors? Not often at all loh….

The rest of the exhibits were pretty crappy though. Singapore really needs to feature more quality art works… and maybe more Southeast Asian artists, instead of some really try-too-hard-modern pieces from weirdo Singaporeans.

Well, won’t complain too much since it was FREE.

So, within an hour, we were done with SAM, we then took a quick walk to The National Museum instead. Also took the opportunity to check out Novus’s newly renovated dinning room, where we will be holding our wedding dinner later this year.

The dinning room turned out much better than expected! *phew* In fact, it was really nicely done up, so we don’t even have to spend much on décor or flowers… Yeay!

Anyway, back to the newly renovated National Museum, it was definitely more enjoyable. The exhibits were quite interactive and I think it can be really interesting for children from the age of 7 – 12. However, I missed out on the main exhibit, “The Singapore History” gallery as the queue was like SUPER long. So, too bad. FREE admission, so cannot complain.

After a mind boggling afternoon at museums… we headed for MengKee Seafood for dinner to celebrate National Day! Haha… another lousy excuse to pig out and once again, the crab beehoon was TO-DIE-FOR!

If I were to really get a tattoo…

I’ll get a tiger! Yeah… not some cute little Hello Kitty, but a fierce, mean tiger. In fact, I liked my fake tattoo so much that I almost didn’t want to wash it off! But I don’t think my boss will appreciate my fake tattoo as much though… …

Anyway, doubt I’ll ever get a real tattoo… too chicken to endure the pain. In any case, there are always fake ones to satisfy my longing for some prints. Heh…

Wedding bands…

Both JW and I have been looking around for our wedding bands for quite sometime… and to date, nothing really caught our eyes except rings from Tiffany…

Haiz, why must it be Tiffany? Why can’t it be Soo Kee or Goldheart or some other shops that wouldn’t burn a hold in our pockets?

I have to admit that Tiffany’s design is really unique and intricate. And now, I finally understand the reason why and how Tiffany can get away with such ridiculous pricing. Previously, I’ve always thought that it was all marketing of the little blue box with the white ribbon.

But after looking through the whole catalog of rings… Tiffany really sets a class of its own. After making a few phone calls to shops that customize/design rings, the designers also commented that complicated designs from “established brands” are very difficult to replicate and even if that were to be possible, it will cost as just much anyway.

As we didn’t want to get the normal looking wedding bands and were looking for something a bit different and fashionable. Tiffany’s rings are by far, the most interesting.

Yeah… everyone was saying that we should get a “classic” design but seriously, all the classic designs are damn boring. We really like the “mesh” design from Tiffany, aka the Signature series. In fact, the rings are really cool as they are actually stretchable (yet still made of white gold!), and that makes the ring really comfortable to wear, as compared to a solid piece. However, not all rings from the Somerset Series are stretchable, as usual, only the higher-end pieces are stretchable. Haiz…

To splurge or not to splurge…? Now, that’s the question. Gotta spend sometime to chew on it.

This is so cool!

Fuah, ok… I’m the suaku here. But I just realized that my new phone (I just got it this afternoon!), Sony-Ericsson C902 (with a 5 mg pix camera) allows me to post photos (taken by the cam-phone) directly to my blog!!!

HOW COOL IS THAT???

I love my new phone. And with its 5 meg pix cam, I don’t have to tug around my lousy, pathetic 3.2 mega pix camera anymore!

Woohoo!

So, the picture below shows the view from my desk in office. Heh… not too bad isn’t it? Technically, I can even catch some action from the F1 night-race. Just that…. the action will be real tiny though.

View from my window

From my new cam-cellphone!

Stag night… Pui!

JW (future hubby) has a group of friends, who wanted to send off his end-of-bachelor-days in a fanfare, volunteered an all-expense-paid trip to Taipei sometime in Nov, about a month before our wedding.

I am most certainly very, very, very UNHAPPY about it. So… in order to make myself feel better, I told JW that he has to pay me $XXX to “buy” the permission from me to go. Knowing that JW is a miser, I gave an exorbitant amount and, of course, upon hearing the quoted figure, JW told his friends to cancel the trip.

And there, I thought “Yay! My plan worked!”

But…. This bunch of slimy friends of his, are very, very smart… Now, they are looking all innocent and sweet and said that they would organize a trip to Taipei in early August instead of Nov, and No… this is NOT a stag night, just a eating-and-shopping trip for the guys to bond…

Yah right. MY ASS.

Same bunch of friends, same destination, still a fully-sponsored trip for JW, just that it’s being brought forward!

So now, JW has no excuse to reject his friends’ goodwill and have decided to go, regardless whether I am pissed or not.

On one hand, I know that if he were not to go… most probably he would lose all respect from his friends. On the other hand, I know that they will go and fool around in nightclubs and KTVs, surrounded by Taiwanese hot babes. Bloody hell… if only they are going to India, or somewhere like that. But no… it has to be TAIPEI.
O well, my only consolation, I get to keep my XXX amount of money. Haiz… not as if I needed it…

Singapore Dragon Boat Festival 2008 (28 Jun – 29 Jun)

After my session with the kids at the children’s home, I rushed down to Bedok Reservoir to support JW (hubby-to-be) on his virgin Dragon Boat Competition!

Heh, and my eyes had a good time “feasting” on these tanned and hunky dragon boaters! In fact, JW’s booth was just next to boaters from NewUrbanMale… fuah, these men were definitely the most stylish, muscular, hunky boaters of the lot! But unfortunately, they are the “happy” people, if you get what I mean…

Anyway, I really enjoyed the festival. The atmosphere was great, everyone was so fit, dark and … healthy-looking! Not only the men, but the girls were looking good too!

Many of them brought their dogs along and I had fun going around, petting and playing with other people’s dogs.

The races were exciting and it was just very relaxing to sit on the grass, looking at people having fun, the weather was breezy and sunny… all in all, a great experience!

Too bad that I just cannot stand to be in the sun for extended period, or else, I'll definitely consider to join one of the clubs to be a dragon boater! I'm just too vain to be one... I want to stay fair and freckle-free!

Chen Su Lan Children’s Home

Sat: 28 Jun 2008 (9am to 1 pm)

Attended a “birthday party” at 930 am (Yes, 930 freaking A.M) at Chen Su Lan Children’s home, located at Serangoon Garden and it was the most meaningful birthday party that I have ever attended.

Kel is the bday boy and this time round, he wanted to do something really special and meaningful, so he called up the children’s home and offered to organize games, “tuition session” and a Happy Meal Feast (with Kung Fu Panda toys) for the kids from 9 am to 1 pm.

Usually the kids get to go home during the weekends, but that’s provided that they have a “home” to go back to. If both of their parents, say are in jail, in rehab, or not in any capacity to take care of children, the kids will stay at the children’s home for an extended period of time…

It was really heart-breaking to see some of them… some of them are so young, only 6 yrs old. Some of them were really noisy with little attention span, some were so quiet and withdrawn, but a big proportion were just curious kids who really appreciated our presence, the Happy Meals, the toys and “goodie bags” that the Bday boy, Kel had prepared for them.

Each kid received a soft toy and a pencil case with pencils, pens, little toys, erasers and other little stationary. One of my favorite boys was so excited to finally own something of his own (instead of sharing with other children), that he kept shouting at me, jumping up and down, “Chatz (Sis), See! See! I have my own pen! See, I have my own pencil box!” He looked so happy and excited and kept touching his soft toy and pencil case.

I, on the other hand, was trying really very hard not to tear in front of him… …

Currently, I’m considering whether I wana be a long-term volunteer of this children’s home. Wanted to offer to give free tuition on Saturdays BUT the caregiver said that tuitions are only given during the weekdays and weekends are for the children to rest and play. Hmmm… thinking maybe I can offer to teach hip hop or salsa if the kids are willing to learn…

To cake or not to cake?

Ok. That is THE BIG question.

So many people have asked where we would be getting the cake for our wedding.

And I was like “cake? What cake?”

Well, for sure there will NOT be a fake cake with a silly slot for the knife.

At first we’re thinking of not getting a cake at all for both luncheon and dinner… because these are just extra cost and the guests don’t usually eat the cake (even if it’s real) anyway! The usual complaint is that they are too stuffed to eat any more cake.

So… then why order a cake if nobody is going to eat it?

Well, then people will say that it is the TRADITION to cut the wedding cake together as a newly wed couple. Ah. Some stupid Ang Moh tradition, I guess.

So, I come up with an idea of buying 2 round cheeses, stack them up, tie some ribbon and maybe put some fresh flowers as decoration… and Viola, Wedding “cheese” cake! This will be more suitable for the dinner since there will be tons of wines around and people can chew on the cheese if in event they aren’t full, which might be probable since HTB and I aren’t the sort to feed you till you stuffed to death. But it is a 6-course dinner after all… so people, please pace yourself!

As for the luncheon, I like the idea of serving cupcakes, with white and mint-green icing will be nice! Gotta find a baker to quote me a price!

This is the "feel" I wana create for the evening dinner. Very glam, very sensual, with a touch of class and old-world charm. The colour theme will be Burgundy red, white and noir (aka black)...

Just have to be careful that the effect doesnt turn out to be "ah Pek"...

My original plan was to add a little of mystery by giving away feathery masks as wedding favours, hoping that the guests will wear them. But then again, after some serious thoughts, other than MY crazy friends, I doubt any of huuby-to-be's friends will entertain me at all loh. Those boring old farts... ...

In anycase, I'll go looking around for glamerous, feathery masks and see how much does each cost... ...

I just hope this doesnt turn out to be a nightmare. Firstly, the private dinning hall that we have booked at Novus, was still under renovation when we checked in April, although the event planner of Novus previously said that the renovation should be done by MARCH.

So currently, I still have no idea how the private hall will look like... except for the blue print that was being shown to me in Feb. *cross fingers*

And I can only start planning for the decor aftr the completion of the renovation. Hopefully I can enough time for that...

I hope I can pull this off!

This is it.... the new "it" bag. After its debut in Sex And The City... almost every girl that I know wants to have it!

It's just sooo cute. OMG... now I wish I am loaded.

NO, wait... I wish my hubby-to-be is loaded.

Such a fairy-tale.. I mean, which boss in the world will buy her assistant a LV bag??? Which one? Which one?

Hmmm. I wana go LV later today and just check out the bag "live".

Finally, it’s over…

Yup, I’m finally done with my exam. Despite the fact that I really studied like crazy… I still have a sinking feeling that I am going to fail this Level 2 paper.

O well. Just gotta suck it up and retake the god-damm paper next June.

Meanwhile, I’m just going to enjoy my new found freedom for the next 7 months… so many things to do!

1) Plan my wedding, gotta get things going again! Gotta re-size my engagement ring, find a pair of wedding bands, get a florist, settle the invitation cards, decide on my sisters and brothers’ outfit, get my mum a new dress … … … etc.

2) Read up more about my condition. There are some books on alternative treatment on scoliosis and I really wana check them out.

3) Re-design my future hubby’s room. Since the property market hasn’t really crashed yet, we will be camping with the in-laws till we can afford to buy our new place in say…. Novena or something. Ha.

Woohoo. Life without exam is great!

Eh.. George (since you’re like the only person reading my blog), wana meet up for dinner anytime soon??

I havent caught the movie yet but I'll definitely will do so after my exam. I still remember the days when I watched SATC dvds back-to-back-to-back-to-back during the cold, cold winters in New York. Those 4 girls were my best friends during that period of time... ... ... Geez, that was like 5 years ago already.

So, finally Carrie is getting married to Mr. Big. *rolled eyes* To be frank, I cant stand Big... he's just such an ass... a charming, disgustingly-rich ass though.

I've always thought that Carrie looks like a man. Seriously, just take a look at her face. Yah, she has great shoes, beautiful clothes but but but but she really looks like a man! Even in her wedding gown!

Dont get me wrong, I love Carrie and the other 3 girls, the fashion, the clothes and shoes. It's such a girly-girl show and all men should watch it to understand females a little better.

But Sarah Jessica Parker simply looks like a man.

I felt left out...

SunDown Marathon - 31 May 2008. Saw the pictures, read about the event and felt absolutely left-out.

There's just no way that I'll ever participate in one...

That's how human beings are, only when it is taken away from you, then you'll treasure it. How many of us have marvelled at the mere fact that the ability to run freely without pain, is one the best joys in the world?

I can't run but I can walk.

I'm going to start walking today.

Check your Cod Liver Oil

How many of you take Cod Liver Oil as a supplement? If you do, please note the amount of Vit A and Vit D stated as per capsule or teaspoon.

I’ve been taking Cod Liver Oil for more than a year to improve on my immunity as well as, other health benefits such as better skin, hair (especially if you are prone to dry skin and hair), and also to lubricate the joints.

But to my horror, I just got to realize that MANY brands of cod liver oil that are easily available in supermarkets and pharmacies actually contain synthetic Vit A and Vit D and the proportion of Vit D is usually only 10% of Vit A, which means that:

[1] You can overdose on Vit A, especially since Vit A is fat soluble, ie: your body will retain the extra Vit A in your fat and overtime, can cause Vit A toxicity. It will take months for your body to flush out the vitamin A.

[2] Your body will react negatively to the chronic intake of Vitamin A.

And that was what happened to me. I’ve been getting rashes for the past 4 weeks and the doctors didn’t know exactly what was causing the rash and it didn’t help that I have eczema as well. So all I had was some anti-itch medication and calamine lotion, and to be fair, those did help.

Sick and tired of the itch (and the back pain!) and with a nagging feeling that it is most probably due to my diet, I did some research on the net and noticed that my symptoms were pretty close to overreaction of cod liver oil or specifically, vitamin A.

So, I stopped my daily intake of 6 capsules of cod liver oil and…

VIOLA. NO RASH for 2 days.

Might be a coincidence… so, I’ll continue to observe my body for the next few weeks to determine that my rash is actually caused by cod liver oil.

So, everyone out there… please take note of the supplements that you are taking, especially Cod Liver Oil and Fish Oil. Some brands actually contain synthetic vitamins and that can be harmful to your body instead!

Feeling very unsexy

Due to the backpain, I’ve been literally REDUCE to wearing flats to work and to everywhere else.

Ugh.

So unglam and unsexy.

Seriously, I cannot imagine how anyone can wear these ugly flats. Even though some of the flats are cute, little ballet pumps BUT they are cute, ie: ugly but adorable.

Wait. Slippers dont count ok. I mean, girls wearing flat shoes to work, or say for a dinner function or say for a date, or say ... ...

I miss my heels. Heels can make a girl feel powerful, sexy and of course, TALL. Not forgetting the perkier butt, perception of longer legs and overall, a slimmer and more elegent silhouette.

And with the added height, there’s added confidence and thus, one will feel powerful, sexy and the virtuous cycle goes on… … It doesn't have to be like 3.5 or 4 inch heels, even just a 2.5 inch slim heels can make a lot of difference and also kinder on your feet as well.

O well, health comes first. Just gotta be ugly, unsexy and unglam for the few months or so.

Some happy things

Ok, gotta blog some happy things, or else my life will just revolves around backpain, exam, backpain, therapy and more backpain.

Depressing.

So, gotta cheer myself up by looking at some pretty things and plan a little bit for my up and coming wedding.

So, about 2 weeks back, one of my bridesmaids emailed me pictures of a dress that she thought would be a good bridesmaid dress. Very sweet of her, usually many bridesmaids will just wait for the bride to decide on the style and stuff, but heh, my bridesmaids are very “on”.

Just the past weekend, another bridesmaid sms-ed me a message, asking how was my preparation for the wedding and whether do I need any help.

Very touched lah, girls. Thanks for all the concern!

Everything is more or less settled, and I’ve kinda decided on what I’ll like my bridesmaid to wear for the luncheon and solemnization.

As shown above, I'll like my bridesmaids to wear a two piece attire instead of a dress.

Of course the skirt will be green; I’m thinking of getting a green printed fabric and get the girls to design each of their skirt. It can be A-line, Pencil, Bubble, Pencil with a high slit by the side, flowy… … etc. Basically, I’ll like each bridesmaid to wear something slightly different and also to present each of their own style.

As for the top, no hard and fast rule, will request the girls to wear something white or pearly or cream. Once again, the style can be a Tube (as like in the picture above), or a Off-shoulder, or a Strappy or a Cutie-cap sleeve. As long as the top will match with the skirt and with the sash around the high waist. I’m happy.

Hmmm, o yah. SHOES. All grils will have to wear white or cream strappy heels. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem right?

OK, gotta start looking for the fabric once the exam is over!

Ok, decided to make some changes to my blog. It’s about time anyway…

Past few days haven’t been all that good. My back muscles have been hurting again… although it’s more of a kind of dull ache. Also been going for my therapy sessions rather regularly, in addition to the stretching that I’ve been doing at home.

So, apparently, my condition is rather serious. So much so that the orthopedic surgeon suggested that I should go for surgery. It’s not something urgent but if I ever want a straighter spine, my only way out is to go under the knife. Well, according to him anyway.

To me, surgery should be the last resort, if I can stabilize my curvature through exercise, therapy and yoga, isn’t that a better solution than to stick a metal piece into my spine and I could never, ever bend that section of my spine again?

So, I’m going to give myself 2 years… where I’ll totally devote my time to healing myself through stretching exercises, low impact sports like swimming, walking and biking, as well as regular therapy if required.

If all those don’t work, then go for surgery loh. At least by then my back muscles will be in a better shape, more supple and flexible. That will allow the surgeon to pull my spine straighter anyway.

Haiz. Life is kinda depressing quite now.

I miss running…
I miss putting on my sport shoes, head off early in the morning to run when most of the people are still asleep.
I miss sweating it out and hearing me breathe.
I even miss the pain of stitch although I used to curse and swear whenever I encounter stitch pain whenever I’m running.
I miss the fresh, crisp air of MacRitchie.
I miss seeing fellow runners, struggling and always pushing themselves to run faster.
I miss the feeling achievement and accomplishment whenever I finished a long run.

I’ll give anything to run again.

Last few days were really bad, especially in the mornings as the back muscles are usually dead stiff in the morning and practically EVERY SINGLE MOVEMENT hurts.

Collected my x-ray results yesterday and they weren’t pretty. Sigh. My curvature had indeed worsened and it will continue to do so. Couldn’t help but to feel sorry for myself and the “why me?” syndrome started all over again…

O well, gotta get my act together.

At least it’s not health threatening (YET!) and I’ve decided to seek treatment from a Chiropractor called, Mr. Kevin Lau who specializes in scoliosis correction. The treatment is going to cost me a bomb but what to do? Health = priceless. I gotta give it a try right? What do I have to lose except X amount of money that is equivalent of a 2-3 weeks of holiday in Europe. But if the treatment is indeed effective, I walk away with a healthier spine that I get to keep for the rest of my life!

I’ll only get to see an orthopedic surgeon next week and can finally get to listen to a specialist’s opinion. Although I already have an idea what he’s most probably going to say…

Doctors and surgeons will usually say that scoliosis has no cure except surgery, so to them, chiropractors are just like the “ang moh” version of Tui-Na. ie: ineffective.

However, I am not keen to go under the knife at all and in fact, in my current situation, it is not necessary at all… but in 10 to 20 yrs time, if I just let my back deteriorate, I’ll start looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame in my 40s or so and in that situation, I will most probably have no choice but to go through surgery to feel and look better.

However, Mr. Kevin Lau indicated that with intensive therapies and corrective exercises, one can actually improves one’s scoliosis curvature or, at the very least stop it from worsening.

So, I guess I’ll have to devote a big part of my life (at least for the next 6 mths) to combat against the worsening of the curvature and it’s going to part of me for the very rest of my life.

Thankfully after 1 session with my sinseh in the morning and the chiropractor in the afternoon, I am feeling MUCH better already. No more insane pain and for once in many days, I can kinda walk normally without pain.

Although I will not be able to run for the next 1 to 2 years….(most probably, but wana confirm with the orthopedic surgeon next week). But I can still participate in non-impact sports like swimming and cycling. And if my back muscles become supple and strong in time to come, I can still run, but of course, not a marathon… but a 10 km perhaps? So, I can still do a triathlon!

Yeah! *cheer up already*

So once my back doesn’t hurt anymore. Gotta go for therapy at least 3 to 4 times a week for the next 3-6 months. Intends to swim at least twice a week, do stretching everyday and stationary cycling twice a week.

At times like these, being healthy and pain-free are the greatest gifts in life. I must always remember that and works towards that. I hope all my friends will do likewise.

Pain management

Labour Day weekend didn’t work out well for me…

I took the Friday off to stay at home to study for my up-and-coming CFA Level 2 exam on 8 June, and somehow with a combination of bad posture, bad chair (chair with a soft cushion seat is bad for backs!) and bad luck, I ended up with a HORRIBLE backache on Saturday and for the rest of the week, I bet… …

Sigh.

I actually woke up at 7 am on Saturday, wanted to do a 7 km run and while I was putting on my sports gear, I noticed something funky was going on with my back. And before I could proceed out of the front door, the dull ache became increasing painful and while I was about to step into the lift, I had a really sharp pain shooting from my lower back, all the way to the INSIDE of my hip, I knew something was wrong.

I couldn’t believe it. How could I suffer from such a backache just from sitting on a bad chair?!!?

The pain was just getting worse and worse, until I really had difficulties walking and decided to pay Sinseh a visit AGAIN.

This is the 2nd time that I am suffering from a lower back pain w/n 6 months. The last backache was from a yoga session in Dec07, and luckily I managed to recover in about 2 weeks and that wasn’t as painful as this current episode.

Actually, I do have a confession to make; I suffer from a condition called Scoliosis, which basically means that I have a curve spine. So, one side of my hip is higher, while one side of my shoulder is lower. I got this condition ever since I was a teenager and have more or less come to terms with it. It wasn’t serious enough to go for surgery and so far, it hasn’t really given me any problem except a bad episode of a minor slipped disc in 2003 (but I fully recovered from that) and occasions of minor aches now and then.

But as I increase on my intensity of running and training, it seems to me that really BAD backaches seem to be recurring. And I am really uncomfortable with that.

Sigh. I’m going to see a doctor later to get a referral to see a specialist in Orthopedic. Cant help being a bit depressed right now, as I am really looking forward to doing a full marathon at the end of the year. I wouldn’t be surprise if the doctor were to tell me that I should quit running and try lower impact sports like swimming.

So, to all those people with beautiful, straight and healthy spines, please appreciate and take good care of your backs. You have no idea how much I wish that I can have a straight spine.

Ok, gotta talk about something else other than the wedding. Even I am sick of myself talking about the wedding. Ha.

Due to my exam in June, I’ve been slacking in my running schedule. The original plan is to run on both Saturdays and Sundays, where I’ll do a short run of about 5 km (under 30 mins if possible) and a longer one of about 8-10 km. During the weekdays, my target is to gym 3 times per week where I’ll do spinning class on Mondays, run 5 km on Weds and another 3 km on Fridays.

So far, I’ve only been 25% successful. During the weekends, either I woke up late, or bad weather, or headache/flu or just lazy. As for the weekdays, sometimes I just feel too tired/lazy/hungry to hit the gym during lunch hour.

Hnmf. Not good.

On a separate note, I’ve recently signed up for the SAFRA Bay Run 2008, which will take place in August. Yup, that’s the one where I’ll run the Sheares Bridge for the very 1st time! Yeah, my virgin Sheares Bridge run.

Will also use that to determine whether I will be in good shape to run a full marathon in Dec this year. Looking at my training schedule… cant help feeling a bit intimidated.

My target is to run 21 km in 2hr 20 mins, and hopefully to do a full marathon in 4 hrs 40 mins.

Geez, really gotta buck up! I don’t wana die as a marathon virgin!

Ok, I am turning into a green monster. More pictures of The Majestic Restaurant. I simply love the decor... In fact, I am having so much fun coming up with ideas to decorate the place. But then again, the whole place is already very well done-up. So, I cant go OTT...
Hmmm, need to settle on a florist soon!

Pink David... Heh, I like. He even has tiny pink flowers "tattooed" all over his body.

Too bad that I cant catch his feet in the picture as well. For those who are interested, Pinkie is currently staying at the National Museum and he will be here till Dec08. I bet he'll definitely appreciates if you pop by to say "Hi"!

I don't know about you, but personally I think he's much hotter than his white cousin posing in Florence.