Valen’s Vanity Square

Hubby has gone outstation for a night, so I’m staying over at my mom’s place, and get to play with my cute baby niece.

One thing that I’m worried about now is the water tap in my house kitchen sinks. The tap drips even we turn the knob so tightly. The dripping has been going for quite a while, sometimes slightly faster, sometimes slower.

Hubby hasn’t done anything about, and I have been too tired after work to nag him to do something about it.

Oh well, cheap taps are like that. I bet branded fixtures won’t be like that, haha! For instance, Franke sinks and faucets are known to be of good quality, and come with good designs.

But then, it may have nothing to do with the brand. May be it’s just certain parts and connections have gotten a bit loose. Whatever it is, we can only figure how to repair it tomorrow when hubby comes back from his meeting at Awana Kijal.

One advantage of being a health writer is that you’ll get to learn about different diseases. One disadvantage for being a health writer is that the more you got to know about all types of diseases, the more you think that the human body is so fragile!

While the majority of the public know what common illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, liver cancers, jaundice breast cancers and Alzheimer’s disease are, people seldom heard of disorders such as pancreatitis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis. I mean, do you even know what a pancreas is?

Most common illnesses we see today are closely associated with poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle, but there are also diseases that are occupation induced, such as malignant Mesothelioma, a form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. It is a occupational health hazard that can strike anyone who is working in factories dealing with asbestos without proper safety measures in place.

So, being a health writer can sometimes make you paranoid, because it seems that no matter what you do, how you eat, how you live, you are always exposed to a certain risk of hurting your health.

Therefore, always live life to the fullest, coz you’ll never know what’s gonna happen to you tomorrow!

Hubby and I are planning a short trip out of town next month some time around the National Day.

After considering a few places, we decided to revisit Penang, the island where we had stayed for 2 years. Looks like short holidays in Penang will be some sort of annual thingy for the rest of our life, since it’s like a second home to us. In fact, we went to Penang twice last year! One was hubby’s working trip, the other was to attend a friend’s wedding.

Usually I would be the want who make the hotel reservation online, after checking the room rates and reviews. It’s important to check hotel reviews before deciding which one to stay in, just like people who want to lose weight should read diet pill reviews before they know which product to use. I don’t want to end up in hotels that are poorly maintained, and worst, with spooky things going on….

But this time hubby is faster and smarter; he found an online hotel booking website that charges about 10% cheaper than the one I normally use. Okay, so hubby is getting more internet savvy these days. Haha!

Anyway, we have booked for three nights, a sea-view room, with the newly refurbished Flamingo By the Beach Hotel at Tanjung Bungah. Initially we planned to stay at Batu Ferringhi, but all the hotels along that beach are very expensive, except for the Hydro Majesty Hotel, but we had stayed there twice. Now we want to try a new hotel. So, Flamingo is it.

The first thing to do as soon as I arrive in the office tomorrow morning is to apply leave!

Car, car, car. Who should buy a car? Hubby or I?

The original plan was me getting a car so that I don’t have to rely on hubby to send me to work or in fact any where that I want to go.

Now, there is a possibility that hubby may join another company, and the new company doesn’t provide him with a company car. Well, this is not for certain yet, but it is very likely. Then hubby will have to get a new car. And we can’t possibly afford two cars at the same time. So, I have to put on hold my car buying plan.

Keeping a car is not easy, especially when it comes to the cost. You need to feed the car petrol, pamper it once in a while (servicing), pay for insurance and road tax. When using a company car, everything is taken care of. Hubby doesn’t have to allocate special funds for servicing or repairing the car. Even the petrol is covered.

But driving your own car is different. Every single little thing that costs money has to be taken into consideration, including the type of warranty provided when buying a new car. If you have a travel trailer, then you also really need to find out where you can get the best 5th wheel warranty deal.

Actually, I don’t mind being less mobile and having to depend on hubby to drive me around, but he just keeps reminding me that I need to drive so that in future I can send my kids to school. Well, we’ll talk about that when we have kids.

As soon as I entered my office building and walk up the stairs this morning, I smelled cigarette, all the way up to the second floor. Well, that’s from my boss. That’s where she puffs, her special corner.

Only until yesterday that I knew about the existence of a company staff conduct and office rules and guidelines kinda manual in the office. It’s printed out quite nicely in a booklet. One of the rules is very interesting. I can’t remember how the sentence goes exactly, but what it’s saying is that: the whole office building is a non-smoking premise, except for - the managing director’s room. Duh!

Weird things happen everyday, and odd rules are made to break rules. Haha!

Well, I’m sure my boss knows that smoking is not good for health, but old habits are hard to break, and nicotine is somehow addictive. May be I should tell her that there’s this thing called electronic cigarette, which can help people to quit smoking, or at least keep the harmless chemicals in cigarettes away while smoking.

But then, e-cigarettes are useless if the person doesn’t have the intention to quit, or doesn’t mind what nicotine is doing to his or her body and health.

Does this means that I actually don’t have the intention to lose weight, although I said I want to but my actions (not exercising regularly) tell the otherwise?

These days I make two cups of coffee at work every day. One cup in the morning, about one hour after I started work, and one in the afternoon, about one to two hours after lunch.

I don’t actually finish drinking the coffee every time, as the coffee gets cold fast (I’m sitting right under an air-conditioner), and drinking cold coffee upsets my stomach easily. Because of this, I think I’m not overdosed with caffeine, yet. Haha!

The coffee I drink is instant, 3-in-1 coffee. Somehow, my colleagues are also into drinking coffee every day. Well, we gotta keep ourselves awake at work!

However, one thing that I must watch out, that is calories. Premix coffee sachets are usually loaded with sugar. So, it can be quite fattening, I think. Luckily I now walk three flights of stairs, 4 times daily. At least I burn off some of the calories, otherwise even the best and safest diet pill can’t help me.

I still need to get up onto my elliptical machine if I want to lose a bit of weight. I need to slow down my weight gain rate, haha! I’ve not been using the elliptical machine lately. Okay, I’ll do it tomorrow night. Will 20 minutes be sufficient?

Oh dear, what is this HUGE zit doing on my chin? Had a sudden breakout of pimples last week due to my menses. Most of them have disappeared except for this annoying big one, still sitting comfortably on a very obvious spot of my face!

I don’t have tea tree oil or any blemish clearing cream on my dressing table. Jeez, just that I needed it most!

Not sure what can I do to make it disappear faster. Just hope that the moisturizers and creams that I’m currently using will not cause it to become worse or delay its healing. Wonder if I should look for a natural face cream that has acne clearing and calming properties.

My skin is not in its top form since I started working, mainly due to insufficient sleep, make-up, and frequent hot and spicy food, hehe. I foresee my beautician is going to be ‘amazed’ with the big zit on my chin when I go for facial this weekend.

Yeah, facial treatment has also been less frequent these days. No wonder my complexion is not as clear and glowing as before. Guess I have to get back to the fortnightly facial schedule instead of monthly. I’m already the oldest staff in my department, I don’t want to be the oldest looking though.

Splurge, splurge, splurge! That’s my theme for June. Haha!

‘Rewarded’ myself with a new mobile phone Samsung Monte, which actually isn’t my dream phone but still does an okay job. Well, I have to cut down the budget for my own mobile phone coz I gave hubby ‘half a mobile phone’ as his coming birthday present. And he gets the one I like - Nokia E72! Anyway, I have just entered an email contest run by a female magazine, and the winner will get a Nokia E72! I wish and pray that I will be the winner. Haha!

Besides a new phone, I bought a handbag and a pair of shoes from Aldo - expensive stuffs, but still very so much more cheaper than the popular designer brands. In addition, got some new tops from Treats.

I still need to get a few things, but will have to wait till the end of this month.

You see, that’s why health is so important. Because only when a person is healthy, he or she can afford to spend money on the things they like. Imagine, if you’re sick, your money will go to medical consultation and medications. If you have high cholesterol or high blood pressure, you’ll need to allocate an amount of money for your cholesterol treatment and hypertension medications every month. These medicines are not cheap like your vitamins and supplements.

So, moral of the lesson - I need to eat well, sleep well, exercise, lead a healthy lifestyle, so that I can continue to splurge and shop as much as I like without worrying about having to pay for medicine.