6 years

This merry month marks two special occasions for our family. My mom's birthday on the 30th.

And our wedding anniversary today, the 15th.

6 years now.

We have this agreement that whenever my sister is in town, I would stay with her at the condo. It would save us from daily commutes to and from our apartment in QC.

This sort of understanding is one of the reasons I attribute for our strong marriage.

He truly comprehends that I need to be by my sister's side when she visits. More so now that her health is in jeopardy.

My trust, respect and love for my husband grows a thousand fold not only today but every single day even though we might not always be physically together!

Sugar, iron and wood are the symbols for the 6th wedding anniversary. 

As we enter our 6th year of wedded bliss, may we continue to be "sweet" to each other by putting the "wooden" Cross in the center of our marriage. With the aim that the love, respect and trust we share will be as strong as  "iron". 

Happy Anniversay Hon!

Confined spaces

Today my sister was scheduled to fly back to her workplace after 10 days of R & R.

But.

Drastic change of plans.

Because you see she was hospitalised for 5 days at St. Luke's Hospital, in their QC branch.

Flashback - She arrived early morning of Labor Day, May 1, 2014. But by that time frame, she had been battling a severe case of gastroenteritis for five days already. Painful abdominal spasms, vomiting, unable to keep her food down, and she also had nightly high grade fevers.

When she arrived at the airport, she was so pale and exhausted from the flight but was so happy to be home with us, her family.

During the weekend, she got worse with her fever reaching 40 degrees, she had chills and was in so much unbearable pain.

So on May 5, Monday morning we rushed her to the hospital. Her doctor deemed it necessary to confine her and keep her under close monitoring. 

She spent a total of 4 nights and 5 days with several antibiotics fed to her intravenously. Her fever was on and off and I spent every waking hour of those days attending to her every need as she was too weak to fend for herself.

One night, I got the scare of my life as the nurse came in to take her temperature. Her body temperature had dropped to 35 degrees!!! She experienced hypothermia and was literally freezing!

I wrapped her under two blankets, lowered the aircon unit and kept rubbing her all over as she began shivering violently. All this time, I kept talking to her and told her to stay awake!  I was fearful that she might fall asleep, lose consciousness and not wake up. I really panicked but managed to stay calm and focused on getting her body temp back to normal.

Thankfully it did ... after an hour!

Well after her confinement, the doctors found out that aside from the abdominal flu, she has several cysts in her uterus and also a few myomas had developed again despite the fact that she had them removed in 2011 in Singapore. 

She might need another major operation to address this issue which is now causing her to bleed beyond the normal days of the monthly period.

She is resting now, still very weak and has to return to the hospital on May 19 and 20 for further tests and consultations.

Although she is having all these health issues I am glad she was able to make it home and is recuperating here so we can take care of her.

I am also grateful that her boss is considerate enough to extend her leave and is giving her all the time she needs to make a full recovery here or until the time the doctors deem it is ok for her to travel.

The road for her full recovery is still a long way to go and it worries me that there is a possibility that the cysts might be malignant.

But I want to stay on the positive path and keep praying with all my might for some good news to emerge from this latest health crisis my poor sister has to endure.

Escape

Time to escape and re-bond with my sister as she recharges her batteries here in her home sweet home.

It is about time too as I miss her terribly.

Keep cool everyone as it seems summer is showing us no mercy!

It keeps pelting us with the harsh rays of the sun.

Gawd ... it is hot!!!

Positive Thinking

Although March is one of the longest months of the year with 31 days, it flew by so fast. 

I was saddled by mostly negative vibes. The death of a beloved aunt, the common colds that would recur every after week, computer woes which basically means I am pretty much offline for the simple reason that my PC conked out

I am still paying off my credit card dues so even if I am itching to purchase a replacement, I need to exercise maximum restraint.

Thankfully I have my smartphone so I have access to my emails albeit on a limited basis. 

But all of these setups are surely nothing compared to the full blast onslaught of the intense summer heat. 

Temperatures hit the 35 degrees Celsius mark today and I swear it felt like I was back in the arid desert of Dubai all over again. Yet unlike in Dubai where our apartment had centralized airconditioning, our tiny two storey flat here in Project 8 feels like you live in a furnace!

I don't thrive in hot temperatures. I get all sweaty, really cranky and believe me you don't want to be in my company in this deplorable state of perspiration.

I try to think positive and imagine I am all bundled up in some chilly environment but lately it has not been working in my favor. Not when I am enveloped by a thick layer of sweat that seriously is giving me headaches.

I am surprised I managed to even compose this post entry (using the tiny keyboard of my smartphone, at that!) but seeing how much I have neglected this blog just further adds up to my anxiety.

Golly gee!!!

Lent

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. It signifies the start of the Lenten season which culminates with the celebration of Easter.  This year Easter falls on April 20, 2014.

But I am getting way ahead.  

Aside from strictly observing the no meat on Fridays rule, I have not come up with a valid 'sacrifice' to offer for the 40 days of Lent.

This brings me to an observation. For me, growing up in the Catholic faith and having been educated in Catholic schools run by nuns, the meat-less Fridays of Lent was strictly enforced by my parents.

So I didn't know any better and up to this day, I still follow this 'rule'.  I always thought it was a tradition that was observed by all Catholics, worldwide.  It wasn't until I came back home for good in 2001 to our mostly Catholic nation, that I noticed some parishioners don't adhere to this tradition.

In my younger days, I used to be quite upset about seeing people eat meat on Lent Fridays.  At first I thought perhaps they were of a different faith. Until I saw the person who was seated beside me in Church having lunch at a KFC outlet. Heh!

Now I am more tolerant as I accept the fact that they may eat meat on Fridays but it still doesn't make them any less Catholic than me.  They were perhaps reared differently from my upbringing.

Luckily, I married someone who also adheres to this no meat on Lenten Fridays rule. In fact, I remember it was one of the very first questions I interrogated him on when we first started dating almost 7 years ago.  It turns out my fears where unjustified as he is much more 'holier' than I imagined so we are a good match! =)

Coffee, please!

It was quite chilly when we were in HK so after we strolled our feet off, we would find a decent coffee shop to warm ourselves up.  Well to rest our tired feet as well.

But the problem is everyone had exactly the same idea so seats were limited or not available. Most of the cafes were full and since there were 5 of us, it was always so difficult to find vacant seats. 

So what we did was to go for coffee at a later hour say around past 5 or even past 5:30 pm. Usual orders are cups of coffee along with some slices of cake.  I also got addicted to macarons, the French variety. So colorful and quite flavorful in just one bite.

I overdosed on coffee and sweets because days after I returned from our trip, I had trouble sleeping and I need to get my blood sugar checked as I'm sure it is way too high now.

 

 

 

D is in the house!

Ok alright, I didn't mean to abandon this blog.

You see my sister made a last minute decision to spend the Chinese New Year holidays here with us.

So for over a week, we had great bonding moments filled with laughter shared over great food.

It was also my parents' 46th wedding anniversary so we had double reason to celebrate.

Just be merry and have fun together as a family.

 

 

 

Yes, my parents have been married for 46 years now.

 

This means I am turning forty six in October.

 

But this isn't about me.

 

It is about a couple who are still quite content with each other.

 

There have been ups and (very few) downs.

 

Every time I ask them what is their secret.

 

The key words that keeps coming up are tolerance and acceptance.

So that's something to keep in mind, this coming V day.

I should be more tolerant whenever I tend to focus on the flaws of my hubby.

I should accept him for what he is and who he is, as a person and as my partner for life.

Amen!

Macau after Dark

It was our last night in Macau so we decided to explore the massive Venetian Macao complex.  After we 'deposited' the parents at the Casino, we went off for our photo shoot.

 

It was time to go outdoors, braving the chilly air to explore the Winter Wonderland of The Venetian Macao.