Valen’s Vanity Square

The ‘cracking’ sound that comes from my left knee when I walk up the stairs or make any movement that bends my knee, such as doing the cycling exercise lying on bed, is getting more louder these days.

I’m afraid that I might have to start seeking joint pain relief treatment few months down the road!

Imagine, I have to walk up three flights of stairs to my office every morning, then another three down and three up during lunch time, and last three when I leave the office in the evening. All together 12 flights of stairs! Good for losing weight, but not good for my knees.

I already have a problematic knee, now this supposedly good exercise is adding more burden to it! While the knee pain is just occasional and mild, I’m worried that my knee tissues will get worn and torn very fast.:(

May be I should start looking around for a chiropractitioner. A Chinese traditional medicine doctor once told me that my hips are ‘out of alignment’ (don’t know how to better describe that). It’s not a life-threatening condition, but it will cause problems like knee pain and back pain as I get older.

I used to get better after the doctor did some alignment type of massage for me (I think that’s what chiropractitioners do) - no cracking sound from the knee, no pain when I climbed the stairs. After a while, somehow, the problem came back again.

I think I have to solve the root to the problem - my hips, otherwise I won’t be able to get rid of my knee problem for good. *Sigh*

Weekend is over, tomorrow’s Monday and it will be time to go back to work again.

Every Sunday night, I feel like as if I was saying goodbye to a lover; I would be missing him, thinking of him, desiring him for the next 5 days before I get to see him and embrace him again. Haha!

Oh well, that’s life. Just have to accept the fact that we all have to work in order to make ends meet and to survive.

Not much for me to complain about actually, as I am already more fortunate than most working people are. I have a husband to send me to work everyday (unless he’s not in town), someone who is willing to cook for me even after work, never complain about me not sweeping the floor for one whole month.

And at home at night, I can spend all the time I like surfing the net or watching TV. I know that there are many working adults out there who study part-timely, spending their evening hours attending classes or doing writing assignments. All for the sake of a better future.

But people nowadays are much fortunate in the sense that some courses are available online when attending a traditional classroom lesson is not possible.

For example, in US, medical assisting school offer online study programs for those who want to learn the knowledge and skills to become a medical assistant, but are not able to physically attend classes conducted by the school.

Educational programs such as this can help a lot of people really. More people will have the opportunity to get educated and acquire skills to develop their dream career.

I hope the tertiary institutions in our country would offer something like that in the future, because it indirectly help parents save a lot - children don’t have to travel to school, students need not leave home to live in another town, thus avoiding additional expenses such as rental and petrol.

My neighbor, two houses away on the right, got married yesterday. We knew about it because the bridal car parked just outside our gate and blocked our way when we came home from outside yesterday.

The party they had last night, I guessed, was their so called wedding banquet. It was a catered buffet dinner, relatively simple if compared to the conventional banquet most people have, usually held in hotels or renown restaurants.

Did they have a garden party then? Of course not. The ‘garden’ of a typical double-storey linked house in our country is usually occupied by two cars. That’s it. No more space. Don’t even imagine there would be a corner to place a nice set of wooden outdoor furniture.

If there’s no garden, where did they have their at-home buffet style banquet then? On the road of course. Haha! Buffet counters, tables and chairs are all placed on the road. A big canopy shelter was built across the road right up to the gate of the opposite house. Luckily that house is still vacant.

Can we do that and not complained by the neighbors? Don’t worry, that’s how things work in Malaysia. You do it, I do it, everybody does it. It’s about sharing space.

Did you know that today (29 May) is World Digestive Health Day? Don’t worry if you don’t know. It’s a relatively ‘young’ world health campaign. This global campaign has just been around for only 6 years. The first one initiated in 2004, by an organization called the World Gastroenterology Organisation.

The health campaign was initiated because there is a need to increase the awareness about the importance of our digestive health (ie the health from your mouth right to your anus).

If you think that it’s okay to feel nausea, bloated or suffer from constipation or diarrhoea all the time, you are so dead wrong. While these symptoms don’t usually cause any harm when they are mild and happen occasionally. But if they happen frequently, that means something in your body is not right. Your stomach, or perhaps your intestines are not working as they should.

To take care of our digestive system is not that difficult. It’s about adopting healthy practices when it comes to eating and the lifestyles we’re living. We all know pretty much everything about healthy eating and the importance of exercise, right? But how many of us really put good habits into practice?

I do understand why it is not so easy to practice in reality. Say we all know the benefits of eating organic foods, but locally such produce are much expensive than the normal produce. Somehow quality food products are always more expensive than the rest.

But then, we are talking about our health here. It’s not about buying the cheapest car insurance that will give us the minimal protection required, it’s about giving our health the maximum protection we can afford.

So, for the sake of our good health, start paying attention to your digestive system, and be prepared to spend for quality food?

ff

Hubby finally bought a painting that is big enough to cover up the front window downstairs. Why cover it up? Well, that’s what our Feng Shui Master told us to.

The place where the window is now, was used to be the wooden door. Since we are not supposed to use that door as our main entrance, we made it into a window. Now, we can’t even use it as a window, meaning it has to be kept closed all the time.

Best is to seal it up of course, but we don’t want to complicate things (and certainly don’t want the construction part), so the way to go around it is to buy a painting and hang there permanently. Haha!

Now, the next step is to frame up the painting. There goes hubby’s money. Well, he has allocated budget for this purpose anyway. Even though there are a couple of home electronics items that we plan to buy, such as a plasma TV, but nothing is more important than our house’s Feng Shui.

Since when we became so superstitious….

Hubby was complaining how his company has not been sending him to attend industry-related short courses over the past 2 years, and that deprived him of the opportunity (free one) to upgrade himself or add some more self-value.

That remind me if I should also look out for short-term courses or programs that are related to writing, as that will be more applicable to my current job. I definitely won’t be taking up a full degree program such as MBA.

Speaking of MBA, which hubby completed and got his degree several years ago, I think our local tertiary educational system has made it easy for anyone who wants to further their studies in MBA. Students need not take special tests to qualify to enroll into the course; everything is based on the results of their first degree or relevant working experience.

Whereas in the US or other English-speaking countries, a standardized test called the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) is used to test the mathematics and English levels of the applicants, and thereby measure their aptitude to succeed academically in the graduate business studies, before they are admitted into the program. There are several sections to test the applicant’s verbal, mathematical, and analytical writing skills.

Scary? Well, it doesn’t have to be. There are actually gmat prep courses that provide trainings and practices to prepare one for the test. Online courses are available, but one has to compare to see which one suits the needs better in terms of cost and duration. The program provider’s credibility and track results should also be taken into consideration.

If you are interested to know more about a gmat prep course, the Knewton gmat prep course is one of those available online.

I was so bored at work today. Not that I didn’t have work to do. It’s just that the internet line was super duper slow, and that prevented me from doing some research online to help me get my article done.

On the other side, my colleagues were also very busy preparing for a special event this weekend. They even had to go for lunch at a later time.

I couldn’t wait for them as I was so darn hungry; I went to pack lunch alone. Because of the superbly slow-moving internet and I couldn’t do anything for my assignment, I also left the office earlier than the rest of my colleagues in the evening.

Well, the office door is open all the time, I can leave any time I want, as long as I have done my work, or at least completed what I need to do. Or, when there’s nothing else I can do! There is no exit alarm to alert everyone of my leaving, so I didn’t have to worry about my boss being ‘informed’ of my departure and start to see my as a lazy staff. Haha!

Had dinner outside and came home late, but luckily still manage to catch my favorite drama Ghost Whisperer.

I last saw Ghost Whisperer 3 weeks ago, when Melinda just found out that she’s pregnant. I missed the show for 2 weeks, and today her baby bump had gotten so big! Time can pass by so slowly or fly so quickly in TV….

Anyway, Melinda’s still pretty as ever, with her nice stylish outfits, and she’s even on heels, walking fast (almost skipping), breaking into people’s property, seeing ghost of a little girl with no face. So creepy~

Jeez, how could a pregnant woman stand all of those? I wonder if she’s taking her prenatal vitamins. She definitely needed enhanced pregnancy nutrition to deal with her ordeals. If I were her, pregnant and handling all sorts of ghosts, I wouldn’t be sure if I could take my pregnancy to full term. I could have collapsed being frightened by spooky spirits and angry ghosts.

I’m glad that I’m just a normal woman. The only ghost I see is my husband - the lazy ghost. Haha!

It has been two weeks since I last saw my now going to be 3-month old niece. I wonder if she now smiles more often or chuckles a bit. She has been such a grumpy-looking little baby girl, always frowning. Haha! (Better not let my sister know that I said this about her baby. :P)

I didn’t visit her during the weekend because I was not fully recovered from my flu yet (still am not!). Don’t want to spread the disease to a cute vulnerable creature, as her immune system is still not fully developed yet. But I believe she is quite strong since my sister breastfeeds her. She may have some mild skin rashes, but not the usual baby eczema I’ve seen before in other babies (usually on their face).

Eczema can be a sign that one is prone to develop allergy later in life. It can be a great discomfort to the baby (the itchiness) as well as the mother. Breastfeed is the best way to help a child lessen his or her risk of getting allergic diseases later. Mothers should try to breastfeed their baby exclusively for 6 months, meaning not even feeding her baby with plain water. Complementary food should only be started at 6 months. Introducing solid foods too early has been associated with increased allergy risk.

Wow, I’m not a mother yet, but I knew so much about breastfeeding already.