Dry

I hate coughing more than a blocked nose. I can still sleep with a blocked nose. Just cover my nose with a blanket and let the warmed air relaxed and clear my passage way. However, with coughing, you end up waking up with a cough or trying to sleep with a cough. Its such a terrible feeling. The worst kind of cough is the dry cough. You just keep coughing your lungs out and you can't stop. Nothing comes out, which means its practically no use. Coughing with phlegm is just the body own way to remove the excess infected phlegm out of your system. So dry cough is nuisance to my own sanity. I feel like biting everyone heads off.

Cough syrup taste terrible. That so called mixed fruit flavour is very nasty to me. I got who loves the taste of cough syrup. Ergh.... A friend of mind recommended me to a home remedy which consist of half of calamanzi lime and a table spoon of pure honey. They taste great! The tartness of the lime is soften by the smooth sweet honey and that gooey honey texture and smell gets cut by the lime. Its means both ingredient work incredibly well with each other. There have been many researches done of the effectiveness of lime and honey, together or separately against many types of bacteria. Since I am having a sore throat as well, the honey and calamanzi lime combination should aid in healing the throat.

At least I don't have to get my tonsils remove like my sister did. Her tonsils were disgusting before, filled with holes and tears, because it was so badly infected. After she got them taken out, she never fall as sick as she did before. Hopefully my tonsils are just irritated for a while.....

Not There Yet

Have you ever experienced a time when you are about to fall sick, but you managed to defer it for sometime. That is exactly what I feel is happening now. I feel like I am about to get a cold, but I took an antihistamine and Panadol. Sure enough, the cold and fever never appeared. However, my throat felt a bit coarse and it did not help that I decided to go karaoke and sang "Lagu Untuk Mu" by Meet Uncle Hussein, which consist entirely of falsetto when sang with my voice. In addition, I did not get enough sleep because I decided a weekday is the perfect day to stay up late. I still took the antihistamine, the panadol and some vitamins to curb the cold. My throat is killing me, so I end up takig honey and calamanzi lime to sooth my throat. I threw in a few sugarfree Fisherman's Friend and keep my self hydrated. I even gargle with mouthwash in hoping it would kill the bacteria invading my throat right now.

Supposedly its working, but right now I fee like I am about to get sick, but I am not, which kinda suck. I mean no point of getting an MC, apparently I still look healthy to the doctor that was assign to me, I had beg for an MC. Its makes me irritated to even ask one.

I hate drinking lots of water before sleeping because I would end up waking up to the pain of wanting to go the bathroom. Its definitely a dream breaker. Hopefully this whole sickness thing will go away

On the positive note, my nose is not stuffy. YAY!!

The Smell

My nose is probably the only thing that works properly, even though the passage way is blocked (that is why I sound nasally and sometimes snore while I am awake), the sense of smell never fails me.

Everything has their own odour, smell, aroma, or stench. Sometimes its indescribable. Can you describe the smell of rain, the aroma of rendang, the odour of the stink bug or the stench of those who does not shower. All of these scents will leave a long lasting impression on me, will trigger the memories that associated with it.

The stench of today is the stench of a defrosted freezer that was left unattended all weekend. So the room that accommodate the freezer now smell like death. Death to me smells like a 10 year old carcass that is slowly decomposing in the freezer.

I feel I need a shower now and these clothes need to be hand washed using a lot of detergent, so that it won't contaminated other clothes and will come out smelling fresh and clean.

Connections

My Internet connection degrades each coming year. It gotten worse with the new broadband gateway. I am not sure if its the broadband gateway's fault or just my lap top needs formatting. There is so many junk and crap in here, that this laptop needs a clean sweep to remove everything. Not to mention, this laptop gets hot to the point that resting my palm on it is uncomfortable. I wonder if those metal based netbook cooler would work better, since metal will absorb the heat from the laptop and the built in fan will cool it down.

If only Unifi would come to my neighborhood. I am sure it will, but it will take them a long time I bet. It took TM a while to connect Streamyx broadband to our row of linked houses. Even before Streamyx broadband existed, the fastest connection that we were able to get on our 56kb modem was only 28kb, regardless of what type of computer or laptop that we used. Unifi is great, since you can get up to 20mb per second connection to your house. AWESOME.

To put it in perspective, the fastest Streamyx connection we could buy is 4mb, and the speed never touches 4mb ever. My house uses a 1mb connection, and its pretty slow at times. Those who uses only 512kb or worst 384kb had it worst that ours.

A cousin of mine said "well its better than nothing at all". She is right, but damn infrastructure is not building up as fast as people are getting wired. Sure there are many wireless broadband available, however there is a limit cap on the amount of you can use, once you go over the limit, your connection is stopped since you already used the allocated amount that you paid. Streamyx seem to have unlimited access, although the fine print said, if a particular customer downloads a lot of things (torrent, P2P) they slow down the Internet connection.

My house will sometime have 6 people connected to the Internet at the same time, so Broadband limits are a big no no.

Ah well, here is hope for a better broadband connection in the future..

Ritual

Everyone of us has a particular ritual they do each night.

My ideal ritual is taking my shower which includes brushing my teeth, shampooing my hair, soaping my body and washing my face with a cleanser before Maghrib. Than clean feeling one gets after a shower is very... well... clean.

Then have dinner, then just watch TV and then go to bed at 11pm.

Yeah, that is pretty much ideal for me

Usually it ends up, me on the laptop (as if I don't spend on it enough in the lab) till Maghrib, then pray, then take a shower, fight with my sister on what channel to watch (the bitch refuse to give control of the TV, which is getting ridiculous as we get older), then have an inner conflict whether to go to gym or not and then ate something salty or savoury for a snack. All the while, still haven't bath.

I might decide to surf the net some more, play video games, or go out to Tesco. I will or might go to the gym or stay up watching something on YouTube..

Don't forget, I must at least open the Thesis folder or at least read something academic at night.

Ergh.. it feels hectic even thought there is not much to do.

Crazy..... or just plain poor time management

Hunger

Why do some people just don't get hungry at all. Yeah that kinda over exaggerating, but actually there are some people who seem never to be hungry. They feel full all the time. That's not so bad, there are people who are hungry all the time, eats all the time and still are just skins and bones. ARGGGHH. That is even more irritated. Besides these people are runway/catwalk models anyway, so that means they represent less than 1% of the world.

I am hungry constantly, however hunger seemed to be suppressed during Ramadhan, which resulted 1kg per week of weight loss. Fasting + Tarawikh Prayers at night = Good weight loss. However it only works, if you don't stuff your face during breaking fast, continue eating through out the night or had buffet all Ramadhan.

Hunger is even more projected after exercise, like 10 fold of the usual hunger. If I do eat, what happens, is you replaced all the calories that you just burn. The human body just loves to keep feeding itself.

I am not that obsessed with my weight. If I were, I would lost a lot of weight. According to the Body Mass Index (BMI), I am supposed to be weighing 50kg. WTF.. That is like skins and bones ONLY. Not only you can probably see my abs, but my ribs, pelvis and probably some internal organs as well.

I love salty food, I would choose salty and savory over sweetness, but sour food have a special place in my heart. To eat or not eat. To have will power or not have will power. Will I wake up at 2am for a snack, or worst, not be able to sleep until 2am and get up and make a full course meal at 2am.

NO.. a banana is not filling, neither a packet of Maggi nor a glass of milk. WTF are you people thinking of those thing being filling. Then you should all be eating that only each day, and never have to complain about your weight.

Ergh.. fooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood

Minute

Schools back again, that means traffic jam also, however, I leave home before the traffic jam starts and leave the lab after the traffic jam ends... hmmmm

I am trying to keep Syawal weight gain, from... well gaining.

Running out of money.. again!.. Argh..

Will actually be selling the Mercedes now. no I mean seriously. Since he agreed to the 13k price tag.

Thesis, thesis. freak muthfuka thesis...

ANTM new season is great!

Ford Fiesta is really nice, but I really want the Kia Soul..

Farmville and Frontier is left alone, yet again...

Finally felt secure and confident on getting a Neo, but who knows, he might change his mind yet again, besides, still haven't spoken to him at all.

Sent the Samsung camera for its last trip to the repair centre. Its last chance, before its kept in the junk drawer.

I think I need the junk drawer for space to put my clothes in....

The Rubber Band Effect

The Rubber band Effect. Tie a weight to a rubber band, then watch it as the weight pull it back down. Cut the weight off, and rubber band snaps up right to your face. Yes, that is my analogy on how the weight loss of Ramadhan and the feast of Syawal acts. Maybe some of you have more will power than others and just plainly refuse anything coconut based during raya (what are you ah, Mat Salleh is it) or you have incredibly high metabolism to burn everything off or you have that type of body that failed to gain or loose weight (or your scale is stuck or broken).

I am not that concerned or am I. These low rise slim fit Billabong jeans, feels incredibly fit today. The scale tells me the same thing as my mind did. The weight gain will only come, about a week after the feast.

Should I cry? Nope. Worry? Not at all. I will accept this as being normal. Regardless of whatever the reasons of people give when they gain weight, the cause of it, is because you eat more calories than you are able to burn it off. Unless you have a medical letter from a specialist saying that you have thyroid problem.

So just do it, fasting again, not eating after 7, no fast food, no rice, lift weights, run on the treadmill, jog in the park, drink replacement meals in a glass or go to a slimming centre. What ever that is that you do that works for you to control your weight. Just do it.

More important of all, is to be happy and comfortable with yourself.

Accidents Happens

Accidents increased tremendously during any public holiday's in Malaysia, but peaked during Chinese New Year and Hari Raya because the public holiday is longer and more people are on the road.

However the picture above was taken at the gold course in UPM during the fasting month. Its quite baffling how the Mercedes got into this predicament. The driver was driving on grass, not on the paved road, not even on the paved golf cart road. To the left of the car is actually the paved road. I just don't understand how could they missed it? A thief joy riding? A drunken golfer? Who knows....

Jaws Wide Open

The way this hood of the car opens, looks like a big jaw, no? Its just another maintenance service for the car. We need around 6 litres of lubricant for this. This is right after the car air conditioner was fixed. Now the gas is leaking.. yet again.. so sad... It pains me to sell this car, not because this car means a lot to me (so many things happened with this car), its just irritating because my dad sabotages the sale, by selling the car at a high price, putting to much emotion and past experience of the car to the buyer and making ludicrous guarantee (no problems in 6 months after you buy this car). So painful indeed....

Rasa Lah Kuih Kuih Ku

I can't weive ketupat, I can't stir dodol, I can't make rendang, I can't roast lemang but I can make raya biscuits. Although chocolate chip almond is a modern cookie, I can still make semperit and pineapple tart. I am learning to make kuih Siput and kuih Gunting though. So, the Malay preparation of Hari Raya, is not lost in me. Beside, I think 80% of the Raya biscuits that are sold on the market, are repulsive. Gimme homemade biscuits, slightly disfigured, anytime over those perfect pretty Raya biscuits.

One Minute Of Distraction, 4 lives lost

This is a public service announcement video aim at young drivers on the dangers of texting and driving at the same time. This very graphic videos shows just less than one minute of distraction on the road, could cost you the lives of others. I seen most videos on traffic accidents, but this and a video by Simple Plan called "Untitled" probably gives the best impact to me.