Category: Silly Me

Yesterday, my dentist’s assistance called if I wished to have a routine checkup. Impressed by the proactiveness of my dentist, I promptly agreed to a 9.30am appointment. The truth is, I am still traumatised by my “routine” extraction of my wisdom tooth back in 2003 that took like an hour till Doctor Goh was exhausted and about to call in another dentist as an emergency.

Four years have passed and the clinic now equips with a large LCD TV that shows the X-Ray results instantly. The patient records are stored in a server and the good doctor now has a tablet PC with him. After all the greetings and long-time-no-see, I told him that I currently do not have a dental benefit. So, need not to say, all the cosmetic and non-essential procedures are out. He asked if I have seen other dentists and I told him that I have not. He took a closer look at the X-Ray results and said: Good news! No cavity. Just polishing and scrapping. I almost leaped in joy and screamed: Yay!

The polishing has a salty aftertaste. The scrapping though, I felt like time has frozen. Before the start of scrapping, Doctor Goh has already warned me that this could be “sensitive”. Working from the inner side of my teeth at the lower jaw – right to left, then the outer side, and then the same for my upper jaw, I had an image of a download progress bar right on top of my head. After a 12.5% completion, Doctor Goh announced that he has to up the power of the scrapper to 10 and asked me to protest if the pain was too much (like I could with all the tubes inside my mouth). “Uh-oh, this is going to hurt,” I thought to myself and true enough, the “download progress bar” moved a bit faster but the pain was barely bearable. From time to time, the good doctor asked if I was okay and I bet he couldn’t see the tears behind the shade that I was asked to wear. When he scrapped the inner side of my upper jaw, I felt drops of hot blood dripped onto my tongue. What a gruesome sight. No wonder the nurse did not look too happy.

I have no idea how much blood I have shed during the procedure, right after the procedure, and even now. I met up with Mark for lunch and I couldn’t even chew the meat inside the porridge. Just before I left the operation room, Doctor Goh looked at me proudly and said that not many patients can withstand that level of pain. I looked at him with my teary eyes and said: sure, it was like a good massage. Then he gave me some good advice. If I am to see him more often, the scrapping will not be that traumatising.

Uh-huh …

I divide munchies for a living. No kidding. My partner-in-crime, she volunteered to get the job done but wait – how difficulty can that be right? I grabbed four shopping bags of candies and mini-chocolate bars in excess of S$100 home and started dividing them into four piles of munchies.

I riped the first bag of munchies up with such an enthusiasm and energy and in awe, I saw all the candies tossed into the air flying in different directions. Bad start. Not only that, I saw bits and pieces of chocolates and what not landed onto my floor together with an ant. Oh My God! My floor! Alright, I quickly pulled out my newspapers and continue the division. (Note: I don’t eat munchies in real life, my wife Cynthia does.)

Being the obsessive compulsive me, I made sure each pile has the exact number of munchies plus or minus one. Each pile is for 70 people’s one day consumption next week. After packing them up into four carrier bags, I frowned. Between now and next week, how am I to keep them safe from my munchies monster aka (a) my wife and my house pets aka (b) the ants?!

I mean, look at what does one bag of munchies mean? Cynthia will go mad seeing that and could finish them in a weekend! Well, since she is still in Bandung. Let me worry about that later.

But the ants! They are like everywhere! My toothbrush, my LCD monitor, my CDs, my floor …

So I pulled out the oven tray, filled it up with water, rested a plate on top on the steamer stand, and have my four days worth of munchies so unreachable by the ants. I would seriously be amazed if my house pets aka the ants can find a way in.

**** AFTER 10 minutes of posting the article ****

Alright, my friends told me that it is kind of hard to see from the picture how much munchies are there in one pile because it was all piled up. So I spread them out and took another picture. My friend asked where are Hershey’s Cookies & Cream … and I went … eh. She asked for Kit Kat’s funky flavours … and again, I went … eh. She asked how many munchies in one pile. Oh well, I did a count …

As shown in the picture above, there is an estimation of 240 munchies for 70 adults in one day.

I met my favourite doctor this morning again. How are you, he asked me. Well I am HERE! was my reply. After some brief examination, I looked at him in puzzlement and his wise reply was – the virus has spread (oh no?!) and it is still lingering. He delivered the news with such a happy face that I really couldn’t read his mind.

I am going to give you something to clear the phlegm, he said. And then he asked, with a frown, if I want some lozenges. Of course I need! Give me more! Give me many! You sure, he inquired. Duh?!

Finally, he told me that he would give me some cough pills. No, no, no! Give me cough mixture! The one that knocks me off to bed! Not sure he felt taken aback by my challenging of his authority, he reinterated that the cough pills are good for me. They won’t knock me off to bed.

When I collected my pills and my well deserved medical certificate, I stared at the cough pills label in disbelieve. It said: May Caused Drowsiness.

Duh!

******* TWELVE HOURS LATER *******

Alright, these cough pills are potent. They knocked the living crap out of me and sent me straight to bed. Side effects including headaches and wanting to puke. I think I would live with the cough itself and have more lozenges.

Related Entry: My Doctor Prescribed Nanotechnology Enabled Medicine For My Jaw

I am still not well … you see, the “eyes” are for my throat and the “mouth” is for my nose. I still got upset by Friday’s headline news (see blog of previous day) and today, I have written a song called “Not the Lesser of Two Evils”.

Now, take a look at my lozenges … the label said: suck 1 lozenges 4 times a day and do not exceed 12 within 24 hours. The problem is, I NEED more than 1 lozenges every 4 hours. Aarrgh!

This morning walking from the carpark to my workplace, I had a strong urge to buy a cup of coffee from Coffee Bean. Just before I stepped into the cafe, I remembered that my wallet was very low in cash. After digging up all the coins and notes from my wallet and coin purse, all I had was $2.90. That was not enough to buy a cup of coffee! 40 cents short! I was kind of very disappointed and feeling kind of down.

Then I looked into my wallet compartment where I have not been using ever since I have a coin purse and found exactly 40 cents! I was overjoy while amused by such a coincidence.

When I looked at the price list and realised that a small cup of coffee costs $2.90 instead. Again, that was exactly what I had found in the first place! Spooky!

The morale of the story, if any, is that when you realised that you are falling short of what is required, it doesn’t mean that you cannot achieve what you are hoping for in the first place. A small miracle may come by or think out of the box and get out of the daily routine may help (my routine was to buy a regular size cup of coffee all the time that costs $3.30).

Part II of the blog is about paying $17 for a movie that my wife and I did not watch. We had dinner with one of our friends at Marche – a restaurant that was about 5 mins away from the cinema. Either we got carried away by the conversation and or there were so many people on the street. By the time we reached the cinema, we were late. After hearing the usher telling us to go straight ahead, we dashed into one of the theater and to my surprise, our seats F5-6 were taken. Strangely, G5-6 was empty. Was my memory playing a game with me? Didn’t matter, the show has started and we just sat at G5-6.

In less than 10 mins, a couple arrived at our seats and I gathered it was time to give up our seats. We got up wanted to bust the F5-6 couple off their seats when I spoted another couple seat just two rows back. Nevermind, just as good.

It was when we were 20 mins into the show when my wife told me that this was a German movie and not a French one. Oops! Shall we leave I asked her. No point leaving she replied.

Half an hour into the show, another couple showed up and time for us to give up our seats again. The audience must have wondered why we kept hopping from one seat to another. I scanned the dark theater and found another couple seat. And we got to stay all the way till the end.

We wanted to watch a light-hearted French movie ended up watching a heavy-hearted German movie that began with a Jewish funeral and filled with Nazi vs. Jews storyline. Surprisingly, I do enjoy the movie. Having lived in Paris for more than half a year, I should have known that the language was not French, right?

I flipped through the newspaper when we got home and realised that the name of the movie is called “Rosenstrasse“.

It must be another divine intervention that I have had such a hard time with Yamaha. Read on then you will know.

Ever since I bought the 12-String Yamaha electric acoustic guitar, the battery indicator does not seem to work. The LED light just does not light up at all. My common sense tells me that when my battery is full (by the way, in order to power the pre-amp, I need a 9V battery), the LED light should be bright red. Frustrated, couple of weeks ago, I visited the Yamaha shop that I bought the guitar from at Thomson Plaza and asked the sales person why it is so. He said my guitar is not the only one! Some of the new ones coming in also have the same problem. He suggested that I shall live with it as it does not affect the sound quality.

Live with it and I shall not! I asked where I can send my guitar for repair and the sales guy asked me to visit the main branch at Plaza Singapura.

Today, I brought the guitar all the way to Plaza Singapura only to realise that first, the shop only opens at noon, second, technicians are not in these 2 days, third, they don’t have spare parts inside the store, fourth, Yamaha technicians at the store can only do minor repair (like what??), and fifth, call the service center at the HQ for real repair.

So I did and realised that the entire HQ will not pick up phone calls during lunch hour. How big is the HQ anyway?

I called after 1pm and the not too friendly person from the other side of the phone first asked me to go back to the store where I bought the guitar … Hello? the store I bought the guitar asked to go to Plaza Singapura, Plaza Singapura asked me to call the service center, and the service center asked me to return to the store I bought the guitar. These Yamaha folks either don’t work together or they really work “together”.

Anyway, I asked them how long it takes to fix a guitar. Her reply was 2 weeks. Two weeks? I must have screamed. Then I asked her if I could make an appointment to cut short the waiting time and she told me bluntly: no! She must have sensed my tension and she suggested that I shall bring my guitar down for her technicians to estimate the time for repair. Great I said, can I come down now I asked. No she said, there is no technician around she replied.

Amazing. It is just amazing.

Feeling not so good, I visited the guitar shops at the Bras Basar Complex. In search for my electric classical, I intended to do. That is when I have discovered something interested about electric acoustic guitar.

One of the acoustic guitar I picked up has a button to check if the battery is still healthy or not. I pressed the button and the LED lights up. The brighter it is, the healthier is the battery. As I was walking out of the shop, I was both amused by the innovativeness and by the practicality of such a device. Why practical? The light cannot be lit up all the time during play time because it consumes energy.

I rushed back to my car to check if I have missed a button somewhere. Perhaps the volume dial is “pressable”? No, no such button. Too bad. I pulled out the owners manual and it read:

“… When the battery is running low, the LED will light up. Please change battery as soon as possible when that happens …”

Dah … I stupid (because there is nothing wrong with my guitar) … and I still hate Yamaha.