Posted by Bev Joeman-Budin on August 26, 2009 at 1:33 am <~~ that's the date of my last post and I had actually forgotten my blog existed; until someone mentioned chicken pox the other day and *ting!* I scourged around my email for the p/w to my blog!

Sighsss… so much has happened, it's now approaching mid-April 2011. The Coal fight, the trips to Sinakut, deaths in the family, weddings, births (<3), fights, make-ups, broken hearts, rising confidence, and most recently: ectopic pregnancy :'(( .. wow! that's, like, a LOT!

My achievement, personally, is to finally enrol myself for the EMBA (Executive MBA) program at my beloved UITM Sabah. I'm proud, and I fiercely say so, to be a YS-ITM/ITM graduate. I dunno what actually happened but the level of English has deteriorated in UITM… yes, other places AND at my college TOO but that's just it: Where did the system go wrong?

Well, back to the present day.. we are all utmostly & overwhelmingly EXCITED about the family trip to UK.. It's a long overdue family trip for Dad & his children. My other half is not going however, due to the circumstances of the situation.
Best of all, I shall finally step on the holy ground of ANFIELD! *SCREAMMMSSS*

*Fingers crossed* We hope EVERYTHING will be fine til we go and come back. Need the whole jingbanglot to be safe & healthy!! Amen.

will be back.. mind's still overworked; the Enron write up not quite done yet but on the bright side, EMBA's breaking up for the long sem break! wooHoooOoooo!!! We will resume in Sept 2011. Happy happy joy joy! Precious weekends with the kids & friends <3

bah, k la.. take 5 for now!

I’ll be back.

and urmmm.. this may be late in coming but never too late:

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Nana, the first-born, was inflicted by this vicious virus on 10 October, followed by Aidan on the 11th, and stil yours truly has not caught it.

We took Nana to Dr Kheng, next to Coffeebean Damai, and Dr had a good medicine to administer which will speed up pox appearance-drying-going process… Acylovir.. get if from your doctor if you have the spoxes..  It’s Nana’s 8th day and she’s on her way to recovery already.. Aidan: hmm.. a bit longer maybe because his baby fingers and mind won’t agree to ‘Do Not Scratch’ order from mummy.

and here we go again, boiling dried bittergourd leaves, honeysuckle and watnots; calamine lotion; neem leaves… ~sighs~

my main consolation is that i don’t have to worry about my kids having chicken pox anymore, forever. Thank you Lord =) and that they have it now and nowhere near Christmas, UPSR-PMR-SPM-Exams, Weddings, etc etc etc (yul bryner’s style).

Oh well.. now, my worry, as Dr Pang said, is ME getting the spox and that it might attack my lungs: Pneumonia; or my brain: Meningitis.. both situation might be critical and ICU-possible, if not tended to.  keeping my fingers crossed: so far, i’m as healthy as a horse, so i hope i will weather the storm.

Trinitea on the other hand, is gaily ‘free’… she can go anywhere now without fear of the spoxes; while her two siblings are recuperating.  She’s the one with the ‘passport’ now. LOL.

Chicken pox passport.. it makes me laugh gladly.

FYI, she caught the chicken pox virus from her nursery and was extremely agitated when we wouldn’t allow her to scratch herself silly.

I’ve not had the pox -yet- am still waiting for it to happen but apparently i’m as healthy as a horse (as big too!) and the virus just won’t come near me.

i slept with her, bathed her, rubbed calamine all over her sweet little face and body and even cleaned her scabs. still i didn’t get it. Aidan too.. as healthy as his mum(?)  i  hope i didn’t speak too soon because a colleague who got better from the same viral infection about a month back told me that her children had it one after another. Uh-OH, i thought, that means it could happen to us at home too..

Back to Trinitea, i’m proud of her because altho’ she did scratch when she thinks i’m not watching but the treatment (bathing in the herbal water and putting calamine all over) was okay for her.  The only time she gave into her ‘momok’ and cried her eyes out was when everyone went out (to KK etc) without her.  She 3y/o mind couldn’t comprehend WHY she cannot go out.

She cried and screamed, “mummy, take away the momok (refering to the pox marks on her body)! tell momok to go away…”  it was all i had not to break down in tears as well, looking at her suffering like that.  Told her i couldn’t do anything much except to hold her and put calamine where it itched.

Lucky my bro-in-law was down and told me that neem (vappela) leaves will help to sooth the itch by swishing some leaves on the skin and to put some on the bed so it’ll ‘scratch’ her naturally.  i know of the neem leaves’ herbal properties so it was okay to use this method.

Another thing, my sisters who’ve had the pox advised me NOT to bathe Trinitea until the pox appeared on her palms and soles.  sorry sis, i didn’t take your advices.  i bathed Trinitea in dried daun-peria and minyak kayu putih leaves, twice a day for a week. 

She is now healing properly and no, the poxes didn’t appear on her palms and soles.  Imagine if i had waited and waited for them to appear.  Kalau 2 minggu don’t appear, 2 minggu la Trinitea tidak mandi!  A retired health department officer who’s now my colleague told me that the poxes won’t necessarily appear on the palms and soles. It differs from one individual to another. ~Sighs~  Another friend whose daughter has had it said that the poxes appeared on her daughter’s buttocks and palms first.  So you see.. it’s up to the individual’s body resistance.

Just like being pregnant and giving birth.  Every pregnancy is different (ya, i know ~sama juga~) so is every child birth… i should know, i gave birth 3xs (naturally).  The pain is the same, the output is the same but still it’s different in every way.

Anyway.. this is another feather in my motherhood cap.  1st experience to deal with this viral infection directly. Also the helpless feeling of not being able to magic the pox away =(

Next time anyone has the poxes – 1. see the Dr immediately to get the antibiotics, piriton and fever med; 2. invest in at least 1 week’s worth of dried daun peria (available in many chinese herbal shops) + daun minyak kayu putih (buy from Gaya St) & bathe faithfully too. 3. invest in Cetaphil- a non-soap based cleaner. 

The way i look at it, early intervention, modern medicine and a bit of old wives tale is magic potion for your chicken pox!

After every herbal bathe, as i drain the water away, Trinitea will say, “Thank you ubat water for making me better.” and everytime a pox scab falls off or she ‘plucks’ it off, she’ll put it on the table and say, “Go away spox and don’t come and make me sick again”.

The beauty of a child’s innocence. Amen!

that’s what i’ll say about the standard of service provided by the food vendors at our Tg Aru beach..

Scene 1:

We sat at a big table for 4 adults and 5 kids. A guy with a cap from stall No. 39 came to take our orders.  The fan above us was off so my very, VERY, pregnant sis asked him:

Sis:  Itu kipas tidak kena ‘on’, mau tunggu kami order dari kau baru kau pasang tu kipas ka?

Guy: Ya (emotion-less-ly)

Bro-in-law: Halo, you boleh pergi kasi pasang tu kipas ka, saya punya bini sarat mengandung nih, dia kepanasan. (It was rather warm as there was little wind passing thru the food court)

Guy: ~blur~

Sis: Ko pigi pasang dulu tu kipas baru kami order. (by this time, poor very VERY pregnant sis was sweating like a horse!)

Guy walks off (for about 10 mins) and came back with a ~blur~ face.

Guy: Rusak tu kipas.

DUH!!!

Scene 2 (when i said Boo above, it was meant for guy-with-cap.)

Ancient looking Ah-Ma came a-hobbling asking if we wanted to order from her stall No. 40.  She gestured to her ‘stall’ and we saw an equally ancient looking Ah-Pa doing all the cooking..

Me: Auntie, kasi nasi goreng ikan-masin sama ayam satu.

Auntie: OK

The food came and it was good, albeit lack of salt, but that’s prob bec there’s oredy salted fish in the dish.. oh well.. i enjoyed the food..

NB: Go to Stall No. 40 if u want authentic Chinese-cooking.. and i’m not just talking about the dish XD

Back to Scene 1

Alan: Boy! tu Avocado Juice mau tunggu lagi pigi petik tu buah ka?

Guy: Oh sorry boss! (rushes off.  mebbe he takut alan bantai him bec alan does look like the Mafioso. . sorry dear =) hehehe )

Guy eventually came back with the Avocado Juice.

Bro in law: Mintak nasi goreng kg satu..

Guy goes off to the oposite direction of his stall..returns with a plate of white rice (??) and started to cook! Gosh! Dia la ambi order makan, dia la ambi order minum, dia juga yang masak the orders.. ini barulah sendirian berhad.

His food came, it was nice but his attitude sucks – so it cancels the kesedapan of the food.

Scene 3

at the fruit vendors

i overheard this conversation:

Customer: ini keropok apa ni?

Seller (dubious looking Bajau lady): keropok apa? tidak tau apa nama dia tu!

~shhhheeeeeeeeeesh man!!~

sighs.. it’ll probably be a long while til i return to this place.

My colleagues & I ‘sibuk-sibuk’ pass the hat around to work on a small budget to decorate our new Masterskill office in Likas. The result is: amazing teamwork, small budget and a more Hari Raya-feel to the atmosphere.

But as i told my colleagues, i’m all geared up for Xmas already! hehehe..

I like my new college, my colleagues and the even the stress! Kidding on the last bit.. stress is good as it gets the job done on time. Biasa-lah.. where got office environment no stress-oh, kan?

so, hari raya.. what does it do for us? in the midst of political turmoil & inevitable “September 16 D-Day”, we in Sabah are just as united as ever.. as tho we are unaffected by the events in the West.  We are affected but we don’t let it infiltrate our unity =). As one thinking politician (oxymoron, no?) said: “We don’t need the Race Act in Sarawak”, i hasten to add: and in Sabah too. Indak payah la tu, because here in Sabah it’s all “okeh ba kalu kau!”

HAHAHA…

I’d never thought it’ll all boil down to this.. heheheh. opening a blogsite for me is like having another child.. need to maintain, to sustain and to nurture.. well, i’ll do just that =)

i am also a teacher but i want to be allowed to make mistakes, to learn and to have more resilience and the latest g-men catchphrase: to have good governance. whatever that means. ~smirks~

right now, i’m in the midst of the isa-detention-release mode. looking forward to the release of  all others who are still being supressed “in there”.. at this point of time, i’m shy to admit i’m a malaysian. if anything: i’m a sabahan.. ~lol~

and i love coffee.. i haven’t had my first cup of the day so this 1st blog is just a blurry excerpt of what’s going on thru my head right now. sighs. i need my coffee.

will be back to blog again.

i’m still grinning at my 3y/o’s ability to sing jonas brothers’ song..