This is going to be an eccentric post, so please bear with me.

This year’s Chinese New Year falls on the same day as Valentine’s Day (February 14) Do I give a hoot about the former? No. The latter? Yes Anyways, I’ll be working the whole weekend…I prefer it that way. The only nice thing about Chinese New Year is that I get to take a break from my teaching, so that’s definitely a plus point (this is one of our major Malaysian holidays, Miss Miller, and yes I do work)

It was very nice of my music school administrator to give me this New Year hamper (or basket, for my American friends) There’s a variety of stuff inside, including edibles and dunno what else, LOL. And yes, I’ll open it later. The picture was taken as usual with my Canon PowerShot SX120 IS; I just love this camera, the colors are so vibrant.

I’ve written two new posts for My Musical Life, my other blog. Please have a look.

I’ve watched Avatar twice…once by myself and once with my Mom. Since the tickets only cost $1.80 per adult, why not? I thought Mom would doze off halfway thru the movie but my word, she was glued to the screen! She said it was a good flick. Rumors are flying about the Internet that James Cameron will make a sequel. Of course I’m not going to hold my breath (it took him 7 years before Terminator 2 hit the screens)

Unlike all the other citizens here, I am not a fan of Chinese movies. In fact I absolutely despise them with a vengeance, especially the Cantonese soaps and serials—yuck! Give me NCIS, Fringe, CSI, Criminal Minds, and Bones any time—these are my favorite TV shows.

Music? My current fave is Katherine Jenkins, the Welsh singer. Beautiful voice, and her latest album Believe is pure magic. My favorite songs there are Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry, Richard Marx’ Fear of Falling, and Queen’s Who wants to live forever. Buy this album, it’s superb.

Unfortunately I’ve had to cut down on my swimming—the doc said I was overdoing it, can you imagine that? So I now swim maybe about 3 or 4 times a week, 16 laps maximum. And I’m supposed to eat more protein, so all you chickens had better watch out. My glucose levels have actually decreased, which is good since my Mom’s diabetic. My cholesterol level has dropped from 5.8 (2 years ago) to 5.4 now. I’ll be guzzling the oatmeal for sometime yet!

I still give thanks to God for everything that I have, especially my health and my eyes—it’s been months since my cataract operation last year and I still can’t get over the fact that I wake up each morning and can see clearly when I open my eyes!

I’ve been having ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, besides oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches. Bananas are my favorite fruit because they’re good for…oh well never mind (don’t blech, Miss M) And Tudor Gold dark chocolate is simply wonderful, full of antioxidants and it does elevate my happiness levels.

There are challenges coming up for me this year—I don’t like them, but I have to face them. Might as well get them over with.

Penang’s weather is awful at this time of the year. Hot, with very little rain, and pollutants make my nose itchy and sore—ugh!

For you lovebirds out there, yes Love does make the world go round. My favorite quote for now is this one: “You don’t love a woman because she is beautiful. She is beautiful because you love her.” Happy Valentine’s Day.

Told you this would be a quirky post.

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I can’t believe that more than one and a half years have passed since my last blood test. My mom had been nagging me lately about having one done, but I’ve always procrastinated, until last Wednesday when I had some free time. So I made a bargain with myself—I’d go for that blood test, and then reward myself by going to watch Avatar afterwards. It was an awesome movie, coming from James Cameron (seems the man can’t do anything wrong) and I thoroughly enjoyed it, even forgetting the fact that it was 2 hours 40 minutes long. The only weak link was James Horner’s prosaic soundtrack—he’s written good ones in the past (just listen to Titanic) but this one was tired and appeared more like a rehash of what he had written before. Cameron should have enlisted John Williams to compose the music for Avatar. That would have been stupendous.

Anyways, back to my blood tests. The good doc said he’d call me when he got the results but you know me, I get so edgy and impatient. So I called him up yesterday afternoon; my heart was pounding because he did appear to be a tad worried about my loss of weight—my mom is diabetic after all, so that got me all worked up too. It was a great relief when he said over the phone that all my results were normal, thank God.

I’ve been told to cut back on my swims (wah!) Apparently I’ve been overdoing it, what with the 30 laps and swimming five to six times a week. Now I’m doing just 16 laps and plan to swim a maximum of four times a week (I’ll still continue with my morning walks)

I’ve also been told to increase my protein intake, so if you have any suggestions feel free to drop me a comment. Now where’s that chicken?

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Yup, that’s the title of a Pet Shop Boy’s song (and very nice it is too) and that’s precisely what I did today—I just slipped into a state of vegetation. Well I still had to log on the Net (this is like oxygen to me), I folded my clothes (but did absolutely no ironing—I am not permitting that sordid torture on myself today), I did my usual morning walk and swim, cooked the rice and leftovers…but aside from that, did nothing else. And I don’t feel a single strand of guilt coursing through my veins. Nope, in fact I feel good, hee hee.

The only bit of work I did was thinking (only thinking, mind you) about moving or consolidating my website into a brand new blog. Nothing concrete yet, just throwing some ideas back and forth; thinking, thinking. This was a day where my mind just flatly refused to do anything much. It always happens like that to me on Mondays, and the reason is because on Sundays I do some intense teaching. Don’t believe me? Go ask the victims, LOL I mean my students. Lest anybody thinks that teaching piano is kid’s stuff, it is most definitely not!! Perhaps I’ll expound about this further in my new blog.

Typing this out on my Dell laptop as usual Love Windows 7, it’s working great so far. Maybe I’ll upgrade my desktop after the New Year…OK, that’s enough work on this blog post, let me go bore myself—only 4 more hours before Monday ends and then it’s back to a normal state for me.

P/S Just stumbled on this article in realage.com: Happy and Healthy: Go Ahead, Goof Off Today. I feel even better now!

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September 26, 2009 saw me turning 49, and Mike (my boss) was so kind as to let me stay a night at the E & O—there is really no other hotel like this fine establishment. The moment you walk into the hotel and soak up the ambience, you know you’re in for a treat. Oh and before I forget, a big thank you to all of you who sent me birthday wishes via Twitter, Facebook, email, Windows Live Messenger, etc. It’s very much appreciated.

So it was that I checked myself in on Saturday afternoon, and was given Room 303. This is one of the deluxe sea view rooms. I have a wonderful view of the sea, sunrise and sunsets, and also the swimming pool.

Here’s the way to my room on the third floor (the present wing has only 3 floors, so the elevators are fast)

Room 303 was simply glorious. There was a living room with the usual amenities—TV, coffee and tea provided, a kettle, broadband access (but I don’t have a laptop yet, wah!), iron and ironing board, a personal safe, etc. Two very comfortable twin beds (see the following pictures) of course I only slept in one, lol. The bathroom was big, with a long bath, shower, and twin basins. All in all, very nice (now if only I had a laptop, wah!)

Of course I swam in the pool, which is great for laps because of its rectangular shape. I managed 24 laps on my birthday and 20 laps the next day; no mean feat, because it’s about 60 feet across. I then went to play the piano as usual on my birthday night, and everybody including the boss was wishing me happy birthday—it was absolutely wonderful. Someone even got me a Baileys, lol. I decided to return to my room during a break, and what do you know, these two butlers showed up at my door.

My two good friends, Loong (left) and Adam presented me with some lovely birthday cheesecake and belted out Happy Birthday to me (jeez, they sing very well). Not only that, they took pictures and presented me with a personal birthday card (I was absolutely flabbergasted)

I thanked both of these fine staff and put the cheesecake into the fridge as I already had my dinner earlier and was totally stuffed up. A nice fitting end to the evening!

The next day I had my morning call at 7:30 a.m. and not long after that, went down to the pool for my swim. It was early, there were no other guests, so I did 20 laps. That got me all hungry (as usual) so after a shower and making myself look decent I went to Sarkie’s Corner for the buffet breakfast at around 9:15 a.m. The spreads were amazing, so here are some pictures for posterity. Needless to say I was a real piggy…

After this huge breakfast, I just went back to my room and chilled, doing some reading, watching some cable TV, and taking some self-portraits (I brought my trusty tripod along). Here are some of them.

Pretty soon it came time to check out. Ah well, never mind, I’ll see this “grand old dame” again the next weekend, and the next… A big thank you to Mike and all the staff for making my stay an enjoyable and memorable one!

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This morning I went for my last appointment with my ophthalmologist, and had a shock when I found all the clinics in the hospital closed. Then I was informed that they had all moved to the new wing of the hospital—man, it’s much bigger than the old wing and navigating my way to it was like walking in a labyrinth. Anyway I managed to find the eye doc’s office, Room 527, got to make a note of that.

So he checked both my eyes, and was pleased that my left eye displayed no more redness, it was normal and that was when I asked him a bit softly when I could resume my swimming. He replied, “Immediately.” Woot!! Returning home, I quickly changed into my swimming trunks and then I was plunging into the water. And OMG, it was fantastic! I thought I’d be tired out after not swimming for three months, but I was surprised to find myself going on and on, with only short pauses. Before long I had clocked 30 laps, my usual amount before the cataract operations. I love it when my body releases endorphins into the system, LOL.

It is with great happiness that I’m closing my Second Sight posts with this final one.

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Let me get this out of the way first—I like holidays. Who doesn’t? However, I dislike it when they end, because that means getting back to work again; who was it who said everything has a beginning and an ending. And so it was with the recent Chinese New Year holidays—it was a five-day break for me, but what a heavenly break! To be plain lazy for five days, though I still did my laps in the pool.

Maybe it was pure coincidence, but I felt a little sick yesterday—it was like the flu bugs attacking me at a time when I was most vulnerable. Took an actifed tablet last night an hour before going to bed (this cold medication causes drowsiness, so it was appropriate for me to take it just before bedtime) and felt better this morning. Went for a swim to release more endorphins.

It is Sunday, February 1, as I write this. Tomorrow it’s back to the normal routine. Won’t think too much of these post-holiday blues, so hopefully they’ll leave me and go bug somebody else.

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I’ve been suffering ever since they closed the apartment swimming pool for repairs more than two months ago. I went for morning walks, but really, swimming is what I like to do for exercise. The pool reopened a few days ago, but there were too many people swimming in it, this morning however, I went down and there wasn’t anyone around. Sat on the edge for a while dipping my legs into the water (icy cold, surprisingly) for a minute or two. Took a deep breath, and plunged in. And what a glorious feeling!

I could feel my serotonin and endorphin levels increasing. Experts have said that when you’re feeling depressed, try some exercise that you like. It boosts the levels of those two compounds in our bodies, giving us a feel-good sensation. Much better than taking a depression drug. Serotonin is a chemical that helps maintain a “happy feeling,” and seems to help keep our moods under control by helping with sleep, calming anxiety, and relieving depression.

With high endorphin levels, we feel less pain and fewer negative effects of stress. Endorphins have been suggested as modulators of the so-called “runner’s high” that athletes achieve with prolonged exercise. Thanks to medicinenet.com.

Yeah, it’s a fact, swimming makes me happy. I was intrigued by a quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus:

“You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.”

Hmm…yes, you can’t step into the same waters twice. But you can step into it once.

And that’s fine with me!

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