HOTA

Hi friends,

Have you heard of HOTA? Of course not. I've probably heard of HOTA except I've conveniently forgotten it. HOTA or the Human Organ Transplant Act came into effect in 1987. It is an opt-out system to allow for kidney, liver, heart and cornea in the event of a brain death. I remember back then I felt really yucky about having my organs removed after death but I was too lazy to do the paperwork for opting out of donating my organs. I have to say it was a good call on the part of the committee to come up with an opt-out system. Thanks to it, lazy people automatically become organ donors.

Having forgotten I am an organ donor, I was rudely reminded of it recently when a mail came for my son. He's turning 21 next year (so fast!) and I guess HOTA was in a hurry to reel in one more potential donor. I felt it is my duty as a mom to educate my son about HOTA. So I read through the booklet that came in the mail and I bravely broached the topic of organ donation with son. Surprisingly he couldn't care less. I think he said 'whatever'. So once he turns 21, he becomes an organ donor. Later when I recalled how I broached the subject with son, I realised I forgot to mention he would be saving lives.

I don't know if hubs is an organ donor. When I asked him, he said he had no idea. Knowing him, he probably didn't do the paperwork either. There is one big disadvantage to opting out but I doubt it's something people think about: you receive lower priority on the waiting list should you require an organ.

Not every death results in organ recovery. It has to be a brain death and it must occur in a hospital. The organs need to be suitable and of course there must be suitable recipients.

I read through the history of HOTA and realised that Muslims were excluded at first for religious reasons. In 2004, non-accidental deaths were included. In 2008, HOTA was amended to include Muslims. In 2009, the age limit of 60 was removed.

Interestingly, HOTA using the opt-out system to consent to organ donation did not lead to an increase in organ transplants. With a low opt-out rate, you would think it's a success story. In fact organ transplant has remained low for the past 10 years. 58 transplants were carried out in 2015 compared to 69 in 2006. I read this article that says presumed consent is the issue as the HOTA database does not differentiate between those who did not opt out and those who chose to be a donor. For doctors who are in a position to harvest organs, it becomes an ethical as well as emotive issue.

Last month there was a story in the papers about a heart donor's parents who met with the organ recipient to listen to her heartbeat. To be honest, I was quite emotional when I read the story. After I learnt more about it, I wondered how with donors/recipients info being confidential the recipient manage to "connect the dots" to track down the donor's parents? I also thought about how I would want things if I were in their position. (touch wood) I think this might surprise you but if anyone in my family donated an organ, (again touch wood) I really, really don't want the recipient to track me down. Similarly, should I donate my organs, I don't want the recipients to show up in front of my family. That's too weird.

Donate your books

Let me ask you a question. Are you like me, incapable of walking past a bookshop or pop-up book stall without buying anything? I thought so. Oh remember I made a resolution not to buy any more books? Ha ha. What utter rubbish.

I already own a lot of books. Some still wrapped in plastic! I think I'm a compulsive book buyer. Despite the current digital age we live in, I'm never into digital books. I enjoy the feel of a book.

Unfortunately, I don't live in a large apartment. Space is precious. Right now I have books lying everywhere. Just two weeks ago, I simply couldn't resist the awfully awfully low price of new books at a pop up - 50 cents to $5. Are you kidding me? I dragged hubs there and came home with 7 or 8 books. Most are still wrapped in plastic.

So the only sensible thing to do is to get rid of some of my old books. In the past I tried giving them away. But you know what? People don't always want your old stuff. Then I sold some to the karang guni man (recycling). He gave me like $1.50 for a huge bag of books. Later he confided that he doesn't care for books and he treats them as trash. So what's he saying? He was doing me a favour? I didn't like the idea that the karang guni man was trashing my books so I decided to find better homes for them.

Woodlands Regional Library

I go to the library quite often and I notice there is a Book Exchange Corner at some of the libraries. What you do is you leave the books you want to donate which are hopefully in good condition on the shelves and anyone can take the book. Seriously, no conditions. I myself have found a number of good reads. Strangely the Book Exchange Corner is not available at every library. Just at the following locations:
Ang Mo Kio, Woodlands Regional, Bedok, Geylang Easy, Marine Parade, Tampines Regional, Bukit Merah, Jurong Regional, Jurong West, Queenstown, Bishan, Central and Toa Payoh.

Once I was at Central library and I saw two men grab EVERY book from the shelves. I get the feeling they did not take the books to read. The Book Exchange Corner can only work if people take what they need and not grab the books to sell.

Another thing is at Woodlands Regional library, I often see sales brochure or religious pamphlets. I'm not talking about one or two pieces but a whole stack. I think that is so rude. Sometimes I get so irritated by the behaviour of locals.

 I left these books at Woodlands Regional library. I hope they find the right audience.

Jurong Regional Library

At Jurong Regional library, the space for the Book Exchange is smaller but so much more civilized. Maybe it's because the shelf is very close to the security guard?

Near Ng Teng Fong Hospital

Anyway I've discovered two other places where I can donate my books - Dignity Mama Stall. Dignity Mama Stall sells pre-loved books and the stall is run by youth with special needs and their moms help to provide guidance and co-work with them.

There are 3 drop off locations - NUH Medical Centre, Dignity Kitchen and Ng Teng Fong Hospital. You can get the address here.

I go to NUH Medical Centre almost weekly for acupuncture so it's convenient for me to drop off my books. The other location, Ng Teng Fong Hospital is also quite close to my home and seriously, my family goes to that area a lot. So bit by bit, I will slowly move my older books to Dignity Mama. Which will give me room for more new books.

Snake!

In my previous post, I wrote a long detailed story of how I ended up getting vaccinated against Shingles. Do you know that us Chinese call Shingles, snake? When I was young, I remembered someone in my village contracting snake. I forgot who it was, probably one of my relatives. It sounded very scary and for quite a long time, I feared that I would contract the snake disease. I wished someone had educated me then!

Why is Shingles called snake disease? There is a myth that the ring of Shingles (which resembles a snake) will cause death to the victim when the head meets the tail; possibly by suffocation? The way to avoid death is to prevent the snake's head from meeting the tail. Some traditional sinseh use incense/joss-stick to burn the snake's eye to blind it. Others use a needle. I believe in modern Singapore, there are still people who seek traditional treatment for Shingles. Others might want to play safe and get both a doctor's and a sinseh's treatment.

For me, I cannot imagine allowing myself to be burned by incense/joss-stick.

Still on the subject of snakes. Have you eaten snakes? In Singapore, it's quite common to eat snake. Actually, I don't mean it literally. In Singlish, to eat snake means to skive. I have skived plenty of times in my life. Speaking of eating snakes literally, I can't even.

Tomorrow I'll show you a book necklace I made today.

The Year of the Monkey

Folks,

Today (Sunday) is the last day of the Year of the Goat. From Monday 8th Feb 2016 to 27th Jan 2017, it will be the Year of the Monkey. Anyone born in the Year of the Monkey?

In Singapore, Chinese New Year is a two-day public holiday from 8th to 9th Feb. The celebration really starts today on the eve when we have our reunion dinner. (Yes, there's going to be mahjong too.) This reunion dinner is pretty big deal. If you have family, you're bound to be obligated to attend it. My family has our reunion dinner at my MIL's. The first two years I was married, I would make it a point to have reunion lunch with my mother followed by reunion dinner at my MIL's. Then I had kids and my mother sold her flat... Hubs and I, we're not traditional. If it were up to us, we would have no idea what to prepare for a reunion dinner. I would probably cook something we usually eat instead of the auspicious food.

This year I almost forgot to buy Mandarin oranges. We need these when we go visiting during Chinese New Year. The supermarket was super crowded yesterday and while I was queueing up, I realised I had forgotten to get 4 mandarin oranges. I didn't want to give up my place in the queue so I decided I would forget about mandarin oranges this year. Certainly the elders would have something to say when we show up visiting empty handed but the queue was INSANE. Later in the day, I became aware I needed seamless panty which I did not own but needed desperately for Monday. (it's too long a story to tell) The lack of seamless panty gnawed at me and eventually I braved the crowd again. This time I travelled to a larger shopping mall and I struck gold the first place I went to. 3 seamless panties for $18! Having settled my most pressing problem, I turned my attention back to  mandarin oranges. I peeked into the supermarket to see how crowded it was. It wasn't too bad. Mandarin oranges were going for a song. 8 for $2.99!

Another task I have is to get the ang pows (red packet) ready. When we go visiting, we have to give unmarried kids or grown ups ang pows. Our kids receive ang pows in return. Hub's job is to get the new notes. Usually hubs has to go queue up at the bank to get new notes. It's a real hassle. This year, the community club near our home has special cash machines dispensing new notes. One day last week, hubs came back from his run and handed me a bunch of new $2 notes. He had specifically worked in the community club into his running route. I put the new notes in my cabinet. Last night, I took them out to stuff them into the ang pows. Guess what? The new notes still have hub's sweat and grime from his run. I tried wiping away the sweat but there was a lot. A lot!  Some of the notes were stuck together! Finally I gave up. My son helped me stuff the cash in the envelopes. I hope the recipients of the ang pows won't notice the stickiness and beads of sweat.

What I am most apprehensive about is food. As I will be eating at other people's homes, eating food I usually don't eat, I may end up getting sick. I hope my stomach will be obedient and not explode. I will stay positive and not stress over it. Honestly, if I could go through Chinese New Year without a single headache, I will consider it a success.

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! I wish you a prosperous Year of the Monkey.

Unsafe to complain about sewing on the train

Dear readers,

Most of us are sewers here, aren't we? I have a question. Do you sew when you are taking public transport, say train or bus? If you answer yes, have you ever thought about how it might affect terrify the other passengers?

Well, this week, I read this letter of complaint in a newspaper forum by a train passenger in Singapore. You can read her letter here. I have also reproduced it below:

Ms Tan Lay Hoon was on the train and encountered this....

"Recently, I came across a young woman working on a piece of cross-stitch embroidery inside an SMRT train.

She sat forward with a gap between her and the back of her seat, perhaps to facilitate the flow of her needlework movements.

The embroidery floss running through the needle was about 45cm long."

Sensing the danger posed by the ever moving needle, Ms Tan decided to do something about it.

"I suggested to the woman that it could be dangerous to sew inside the confines of a moving MRT train. She replied that she had been sewing while riding in MRT trains for a long time and returned to her task. There were commuters seated on both sides of her."

Sewing is not a safe activity

"While the train was relatively empty during the off-peak hour, sewing is not a safe activity to pursue inside a train that is travelling.

At times, MRT trains lurch when moving or halting. If the woman is pulling the needle in an upward movement and is caught unexpectedly by a sudden staggering of the train, an involuntary jerk of the hand holding the needle may cause the needle to jab at a fellow commuter sitting or standing close by."

If the needle impales an eye
"There will be very serious consequences if the needle impales an eye or other body part of a nearby commuter who could not move away in time. How can the injured commuter seek recourse?

If the SMRT's regulations do not permit sewing inside MRT trains in operation, what is the appropriate action that a concerned fellow commuter can take in such a situation?"

Ms Tan ended her letter by asking:
"By the way, what circumstances warrant an activation of the emergency communication button?"

Yes, apparently Ms Tan felt so threatened by the wayward needle, she considered activating the EMERGENCY button.

I feel for Ms Tan. I really do because the Internet is cruel.
This is an example of a response to her complaint:

I saw a guy swaying to music once. And I thought this was very dangerous. The trains lurch sometimes and if he sways in the direction of the lurch he could be propelled forward into another commuter who would then be rammed into one of the poles, breaking his neck, or back, or even cracking his skull. If he misses the pole, he might find himself propelled out the window, causing other commuters to fall out the window with him.

There are lots more similar responses. However, there has been no response from SMRT to Ms Tan's complaint. I look forward to what SMRT has to say.

I have a confession to make. Back in the days when I was selling at craft markets, I often left sewing the gap in the lining last. As a result, I ended up with a bunch of bags and pouches with hand sewing needed to close the gaps. To make full use of my time on the train, sometimes an hour long, I would sew on the train. And I use pretty sharp needles. I remember I would get stares by other women whenever I did my sewing. But no one told me to stop sewing.

By the way, I sew in a safe way. You see, when I was 7 and started learning to sew in school, my teacher who probably feared having her eyes impaled by clumsy 7 year-olds taught me and my classmates that the ONLY way to pull the needle is with a downward motion. That way, the needle will never accidentally poke someone in the eye or other body parts. After I finished school, I was 19 or so, I went to this school to learn to draft and construct clothing. The first thing the teacher taught me was also to pull the needle in a downward motion.

So if you have been pulling your needle upward, like the cross-stitcher on Ms Tan's train, you may possibly prick someone in the eye or other body parts. And you don't have to be on a train to hurt someone with a needle. Remember. We are sewers/sewists, not terrorists.

Pocari Sweat Run 2015

This morning, hubs and I woke up at 5am. Yep, we signed up for a run and it's one of those runs which involved closing of roads so it was very early. Hubs was doing the 10km run while I opted for the 5km run. His flagoff was 6:30am while mine was 7am. The starting point of the run was somewhere near the Sports Hub which is in Kallang, somewhere in the south eastern part of Singapore.

Last year I had the ambition to participate in a 10km run and was building up my stamina and fitness. But along the way, I gave up. One of my excuses was my medical issues kept surfacing. The real reason is I found it too hard. I managed to run 7km once but I felt so tired afterwards. It felt so pointless to go after this goal. So I decided once and for all, 5km is my limit. I think it's a wise decision.

This year, I was very sluggish and barely made any effort to run. I always managed to find a reason why I could not go for a run. The result? My fitness and energy is at an all time low. Not to mention the massive weight gain. Last week, hubs reminded me to train for the Porari run. Fortunately, hubs is quite naggy and managed to nag me into going for 2 training runs. Both times, I felt like death visited me.

Before I knew it, the day of the run arrived.

This is what our faces look like after a 3 hour sleep and waking up at 5am.

Hubs wanted to be at the back of the pack. So we hung around until most of the 10km runners had left. Also, he was wondering if he needed to poop.

The organisers lost control of the crowd. Many 5km runners ran together with the 10km runners. Despite lots of appeals, majority of the 5km runners refused to wait for their flagoff. I guess it's not a competitive run for 5km, so the runners didn't care. Of course I waited for the flagoff. I figure why go to all the trouble and ruin the run by not waiting a couple of minutes.

For this run, I did a few things differently. Firstly, see the towel around my neck? That's a cooling towel. I don't know how it's different. It's like a regular towel except it's very light. Hubs bought it for me. I'm not sure why he thought it would be a good idea but it was! I used it to wipe my face and neck 3 times during the run and I felt so refreshed afterwards that I had renewed energy to run. I also had a fanny pack around my waist. It's the light weight kind for travelling and with that, I need not carry anything on my hands. This was the smartest thing I did. With my hands free, I ran better and I did not have any shoulder pain afterwards. Can you imagine? I've suffered shoulder pains every single time I ran in the past and it was all due to holding something in my hand. I'm so stupid.

The last thing I did different was I wore a pair of very light running shoes with absolutely no cushioning. I had already tested them out twice and despite the lack of cushioning, my feet are fine. I think these shoes may not be a good idea for longer runs. Oh, we had to wear the time thingy on our shoes. I didn't like that at all. I wonder why we couldn't wear a wrist band or anklet or have it on our bib.

Hub's route was more scenic. He ran past Singapore Flyer, Marina Bay Sands (the building on the left), Gardens by the Bay and Marina Barrage.

Mine? I ran past a smelly canal that smelled like a thousand farts. Also, a highway then we U-turned back. I noticed at the U-turn, some of the 10km runners did not separate from the 5km runners to go on their route. Instead, they U-turned with the 5km runners. I wonder why they do that. Was it a mistake? Or maybe they only care about collecting the Finisher T-shirt.

I was very surprised to receive a finisher tee-shirt and a medal. In addition, I was given a banana and one bottle of pocari sweat. Pocari sweat has no fizz which I like and it doesn't taste sweet which is even better. I felt very good after the run. Did not feel tired at all.

Hubs on the other hand said "he was broken". He was thirsty, dripping with sweat and very, very tired.

I don't know my official timing for the run. I forgot to look at the clock when I crossed the finishing line. But I used MapMyRun app and it recorded 42:47 mins.

Would you believe I have another run coming up?

The 3 hour 10 Min Queue

Folks,

One thing about me and hubs. We don't queue. Okay, maybe 20 minutes tops but it can't be for something frivilous like food or toy or free newspaper. Second thing about us. We don't queue in the sun for hours. Especially for me. Being prone to migraine and headaches, standing under the sun is a no-no.

We had read in news reports that the public could pay their respect to Mr Lee Kuan Yew, whose body is lying in state in the Parliament House from Wednesday to Saturday. There was a overwhelming response on Wednesday and there were reports that some people waited for 8 hours. I told myself 8 hours was not something I could do. I mean I'm no spring chicken anymore. I do 1 hour of cardiomix and I need to sleep for 3 hours to regain my energy.

Thursday noon hubs announced he wanted to go and queue. He had read some updates that the waiting time had been greatly reduced. I thought he had gone completely mad because hubs literally never queues. Then I heard myself saying, "I'll go with you." And that was that. No turning back. Well, actually, there were many opportunities for turning back.

We took the train to city hall and saw a sign that indicated where we should go. There were loads of people. You pretty much get pushed along. We exit the train station right in front of Capitol building, next to the church and the first thing we saw was this little girl holding a sign, "Queue starts here". Hubs immediately jumped right in and I joined him.

Queuing with us was a group of navy boys and the little girl who had the most difficult job of controlling the queue was asking if the navy boys were sent to help her manage the crowd. As she was speaking to the boys, people continued to join the queue and honestly there wasn't much floor space for her to play with. There was construction and a bus-stop in the way and at most she could form two loops of queue. Pretty soon, I expected the people in the station would not be able to exit the station anymore. The boys told her they were in the queue to pay their respects to Lee Kuan Yew and the girl sadly walked to the end of the queue to carry on with her heavy responsibility. Poor thing. I really felt sorry for her.

I had read in the updates that the queue starts in The Padang. (field) That the queue starts at city hall meant only one thing. There was a massive queue in front of us. We were not even close to the padang.

Here we are still looking fresh. It's been 5 mins in the queue. Then I noticed one couple left the queue. Already? I started to feel afraid.

I looked at the people we were standing closest to. I thought it was important to recognise them. The navy boys were easy to spot.

These ladies as well. There was an old guy with a killer umbrella and I mean capable of inflicting injury. (he left after 1.5 hours) There was a bunch of young guys in front and I grew to like them because they have a kick ass huge umbrella which I benefited from.  Plus a female execute in her office jacket. It took a lot of willpower not to tell her to "take off your jacket lady."

At this point, I want to show you the map of where we are heading. See the blue dotted line? That's my queue. But as I experienced it, this is a very simplified map. See, we started at City Hall and made a huge loop before we even entered the padang where the start of the blue dotted line is.

Swissotel, The Stamford.

Close to Recreation Club

Once we went past the war memorial, we used the Esplanade underpass to cross the road. At some point, we went past some toilets but neither of us needed to go. The queue was very orderly. Everyone tried to keep up and somehow we always stayed with the people I recognised. Along the route, there were many, many officers standing by, to direct or to answer queries. So far our goal was to reach The Padang.

It took us exactly 45min to enter The Padang. Volunteers were handing out cakes, sweets, water and umbrellas.

I took the cake from this volunteer just in case. Hubs and I kind of came not so prepared. We brought our own water but that was it. No wet ones, no large hats, no sun block, no food.

The cake turned out to be from BreadTalk which had pulled a tribute bun to Lee Kuan Yew from sale after negative feedback. It was a bun with a bad pun. I read that the bad pun bun contained coconut so eating it would give me a 5 day migraine.

This is The Padang. It's a huge field with a magnificent view of the central business district. It is also not sheltered. Well, there were small tents erected throughout but take a look at the heat. Take a good look. I took this photo at 3pm. The sun was blistering hot. It was dazzling bright. Occasionally I thought I lost my vision. Hubs was drenched. I was slowly dying.

And I wore black. Well, a lot of people wore black. Waiting in The Padang was the hardest part. Mainly because of the heat. The queue barely moved. Also we had no idea how long the queue was and where our queue was heading. We noticed that in the padang, there were two queues. Our queue and another one very close to ours but separated by the barricades. Hubs and I started talking crazy. Hubs speculated that we would leave the padang, loop somewhere and come back to the padang to join the other queue. That got me really depressed because the other queue was massive and seemed ever larger than my queue. Still, I was determined to carry on queuing. I was committed.

Then hubs told me he needed to go to the toilet bad. Usually that meant explosive diarrhea. I asked him specifically what he needed to do at the toilet. When he said he needed to pee on account of all the water we had been drinking, I told him to hang on because I was confident there would be another toilet along the way. Anyway, we were deep in the queue and leaving would be logistically hard. Plus I wasn't going to give up for a pee. Maybe if he had fainted.

And someone did faint attended to by hub's navy friend. When the woman was carried out in the stretcher, I immediately heard the people around me speculating that the woman hadn't taken enough water. I was careful to sip water constantly.

At 4:10pm, we left the padang. We had been in the padang for 1hour 10 min. Much to hub's relief, there were toilets along the way. We walked along quite fast, all the while wondering if we were going to loop back to the padang.

Once we hit the Singapore river, we knew we would not go back to the padang. I was so relieved and at the same time very confused. Clearly the people in the other queue had been in the padang for a much longer time than us. I wondered if they were in the priority queue which would make no sense.

Finally we reached the white tent. There were many air coolers so it wasn't hot anymore. Also there were television sets along the way to keep us entertained.

An officer handed out cards for us to write something and there were boxes for us to put the cards in. Some people in the queue brought flowers and the soldiers standing guard asked to take the flowers away. I'm guessing you can't bring flowers into Parliament House.

A lady tried to return her "loaned" umbrella to an officer but he told her to keep it. Then I noticed that there were places for you to return the umbrellas.

We walked past some scanners which I assume scan for body temperature. The organisers really thought of everything! I guess Singapore will never forget SARS. But the scanners weren't in use.

See the numbers on the fixtures? These are to scan our bags. We had to put our phones and bags on a basket like in the airport. I was also asked if I had a laptop or ipad. I didn't and I wondered what would happen if I had one.

Once we were cleared to leave the white tent, the queue moved really fast. Here we were right outside the Parliament House. Suddenly everyone started taking photos.

Once we entered Parliament House, we had to stop taking photos. I noticed there were two queues. My queue was the main queue. There was another entrance where officers let in a few people from the priority queue.

This photo (cna) is a good indication of what we saw. You get a few seconds to do your thing - say your prayer, bow and then you have to move along. There were a few people who were quite stubborn and stayed a bit longer. Honestly with the massive crowd still waiting in the queue, it was the right thing to do to make everyone hurry along. 

via

It took us 3 hours 10 minutes in total. I'm really glad I went. I guess only Lee Kuan Yew could motivate me to stand under the hot sun for 3 hours 10 minutes.

Generally the mood of the people we queued with was upbeat. Everyone had one purpose. Well, two purposes. First to reach the padang. Second to reach Parliament House. No one scuffled. No one complained. Everyone just tried to bear with the heat and passed the time with conversations. The queuing was surprisingly not impossible.

After we left Parliament House, we saw the extremely long priority queue which was barely moving. I felt really sorry for the people especially the handicapped and moms with babies. I think the priority queue has far too many people. (This evening I read that a new express queue has been created for the handicapped and people with prams.)

Today even more people have joined the queue. I read that the waiting time was 10 hours. People are advised not to join the queue. I think hubs and I were very lucky we went yesterday. I mean compared to 10 hours, 3 hours 10 minutes is nothing. Oh, I never got sick yesterday. No migraine, no headache. How about that?

You can read hub's version here.

Passing of Mr Lee Kuan Yew

Friends,

Mr Lee Kuan Yew, 91, the first Prime Minister of Singapore died on Monday 23rd March 2015, 3:18am. He had been warded at the Singapore General Hospital for severe pneumonia since Feb 5. There will be a 7 day mourning from Monday to Sunday.

Mr Lee was the prime minister of independent Singapore from 1965 to 1990. His eldest son is now the current prime minister.

If you've never heard of Lee Kuan Yew, what I can tell you are these: He was a great man. Much feared, but respected. He helped make Singapore what it is today. He also loved his wife very much.

I first heard of Lee Kuan Yew in 1972. We were living in a kampong (village) and my mother told me she had to make a decision about who to vote for - PAP or Barisan Socialis. Lee Kuan Yew headed the PAP while Barisan Socialis was formed by left-wing ex-members of PAP. Back then, politicians had to go in their pick-ups/lorries with their loudspeaker to get to the voters. My mother went to have a look when the politicians arrived. I was too young to understand what was going on. But I could see how excited my mother was. I don't remember who my mother voted for. She probably followed whatever my aunt did. Anyway, PAP won the 1972 election. In fact, PAP has been the ruling party of Singapore since 1959.

Lee Kuan Yew favoured English as the working language in Singapore and that is why Singapore schools use English as the medium of instruction. He also made bilingualism compulsory in schools which made people like me suffer. I had very hard feelings towards bilingualism policy for a long time due to my inadequate command of Chinese. But over the years, the bilingualism policy has been tweaked to be kinder especially in tertiary education entry criteria so I am over it.

Rest in peace, Mr Lee. May you meet your wife in the afterlife.

Gong xi fa cai Happy Year of the Goat

Folks,

On 18th Feb 2015 which is today, the last day of the Year of the Horse, I woke up at 2am in the morning knowing something was very wrong. My body was hot and felt weird in several places. Also, I could stop scratching the area below my left arm. I turned on the light, removed my t-shirt and started examining my body more closely. I seemed to have red patches all over. I asked hubs to take a look and he said I have hives.

The first thing I did was to take a cold shower. The cold water worked as long as it was on me. The minute I got out of the shower, the itch was incredible. I decided to do an inventory of my hives. I noticed that the left side of my face was reddish and slightly swollen. Both my hands were burning, swollen and red hot; the left hand far worse than the right. I had large streaks of red patches running across my stomach and both sides of my body. Even my right eye lid itched and the base of my head as well. My right thigh was a mess and both my feet were starting to look angry. Amazingly, my back was completely spared. My skin felt raw so I applied QV cream all over the problem areas. I noticed I had two bites - one on my thigh and one below my left arm. They looked like mosquito bites.

I remember announcing to hubs at some point that I may possibly have to skip Chinese New Year.

I took an antihistamine and the box said only one tablet a day. This meant if the medication didn't work, I was screwed. This is the first time I have an attack of hives and it is truly a terrifying experience. Hubs has a history with hives and he had told me before a cold pack works best for itching. I spent the next hour pressing the cold pack on my itchy skin. It prevented me from scratching myself.

Around 4am, I noticed the redness was subsiding. My skin still itched but the redness was less scary. My hands previously swollen, puffy and red looked a lot more normal. I guess the antihistamine worked. By 6am, most of the redness had disappeared. I still felt some remnant itch and my body still tingled but I was more sleepy than anything else.

Anyway, I started thinking about what could have triggered my hives and since I've never suffered from hives before, I don't really know what could be the cause. Only two things stood out. Before I went to bed, I had cleaned the balcony, washed the kitchen floor, washed the laundry area and the kitchen bathroom. Yes, it's quite out of character. The other thing that could have caused the reaction are the mosquito (or insect) bites. I've been bitten by mosquitos and insects countless times so I doubt it. You know what this means?

I'M ALLERGIC TO HOUSEWORK!

I knew all these years I had a very good reason to shun housework. My body was protecting itself.

It is 11pm as I write this. My skin still has memories of itchiness. But I no longer look like a burn victim and I don't have to scratch anymore.

We've had our reunion dinner at my MIL. This is an important meal to start off the Chinese New Year celebrations. One of the items on the menu is the salad which we toss in the air for good fortunes. After all that messiness, we eat the salad.

Some people play mahjong too. I'm not good at the game. My kids are better than me. Yes, we play with real money.

Tomorrow we will do our visiting if I don't wake up with hives again. Just in case, tonight I'm taking another antihistamine. I am sharing some pics and stuff at Instagram. Over there, I'm also known as projectsbyjane.

Here's wishing everyone a Happy and Prosperous Year of the Goat. May you have health, wealth and success.

For some goat puns, check out hubs' blog post here.

May The Goat Be With You