Burning calories

.Enough said.

Reminds me of all those pregnancy weight and stubborn fats I still have to shed!

Much ado about safety

This is how the streets of Bangkok seem to always be able to blow my mind:

What am I getting at, you ask? 

Well…this essentially is a very small soi of a rather busy street. Just like a typical Bangkok street, it is a soi where a few street vendors loom amidst walking pedestrians and moving traffic at about 50 km p/hour. It is also the soi in which I walk every day, at least 2x a day to send my daughter to school. The distance between me, the vendor on my left and the traffic on my right is probably just a couple of inches away.

The truth is, I hate walking along this soi in the day. There, halfway to Spud’s school, stood a vendor who thought that it probably is a good idea to set up stall right on the tiny footpath meant for pedestrians and in front of on-going traffic to sell his fried banana and tapioca balls. Not only that, I am sure that he probably also thought that it is a very good idea to place a wok, filled with extremely hot oil for deep frying. He hardly ever stopped frying, and unfortunately for pedestrians like me, there is no other way but to walk right in front of his mobile cart every single day. It is terrible to be walking there when some other moron decided that they were going to be parking their huge ass pick-up truck right next to the mobile cart with its butt jutting into the street, and especially when it rains!

I shudder every morning I walk there whilst I have Spud strapped to me. I shudder at the thought of any unfortunate accident that might happen to anyone trying to maneuver away from the moving traffic that tend to have no qualms cutting corners and act like they own the road. My heart palpitates each time I walk past his sizzling hot-oil filled wok. (Ok... I am also a paranoid freak when it comes to roads and moving traffic)

I’m sure that the fried banana man is a nice guy and all – he almost always never fail to flash me a smile and acknowledges Spud whenever we walk past him; but, really, his sheer disregard for public safety is appalling. 

And, because this is Thailand, there really is nothing much you can do about it but just grit your teeth and rant.

Here's a link I found sometime back on 12 Ways To Seriously Injure Yourself on a Bangkok Sidewalk. I think there certainly is room for plenty more examples!

Quote of the Day

Something I picked out from a Facebook posting...

...and I guess, sometimes, things will somehow just sort themselves out.

Discovering Gelish

A girly-girl I will never be, but every so often, I do appreciate a nicely coloured manicured and especially pedicured nails. 

The only gripe I have with having them painted is the fact that I hardly have the time to maintain them in their grandeur. I don’t have the time to get it re-done every other day, and most often than not, the colour on my nails will be ruined after a day or two post a mani-pedi session. Most times, while I will always remove the nail polish on my fingernails usually 2 days after applying a new coat, I tend to keep the colour on my toenails till they all looked rather grossed out. 

That being said, while I tend to keep my fingernails short and nail-polishless for practical reasons, I have to admit that I do have a certain degree of obsession in getting my toenails painted.

I heard about Gelish quite a while back, and after getting fed-up with all the chipping and the imminent lack-luster after applying a new coat for only a few days, I decided to give Gelish a shot.

And I love, love, love it! I love that the brand-new shine stays on even after several days of “roughing it out” with an open-toe footwear. 

Gelish is a new generation of nail polish, but with the key difference that they last for up to 3 weeks (!!!), with no smudges, chipping, or fading of the nails. I was pretty much sold because of that. (Ahem. I AM a laggard in this department and my apologies for sounding like a bimbo in the nail-polish world)

Apart from that, you cannot just use a regular nail polish remover when removing Gelish. In fact, the surface of the gel apparently needs to be buffed to rough it up, soak off the Gelish and then using a nail pusher tool to scrape it all clean. It takes about 15 minutes to remove the Gelish. 

With normal nail polish, it is usually painted with the base coat, and then the selected colour polish. Gelish is a UV nail gel that is applied in several steps, requiring a 36 watt UV or LED lamp to cure the gel.

While it is more expensive that your regular nail polish, I think the benefits do outweigh the costs, especially when I don’t have to keep repainting it every week. 

This is very unlike me, and I generally don't do reviews of girly stuff like this, but this one is certainly worth a mention in my opinion.

I’m currently obsessed with the shade of deep, dark red. At the risk of being a lousy feet model AND sounding like a resounding bimbo, I’m really loving my pretty-looking pair of feet in its high shine!

Wet! Wet! Wet!

It's raining...it's pouring...it's looking like it's flooding...

The weather continues to be wonky wet again as it has been raining non-stop in the evenings. The downpour was so massive that I could hardly see the car right in front of the cab I was in. With such lovely weather,  it is no surprise that there have been  major, major gridlock of the roads in Bangkok. Traffic has been so horrid that it has taken Silver Bullet almost four freaking hours to get home!

Here are some shots from around the neighbourhood just to show you how crazy-wonky it has been in the last few days. The sub-sois had been flooded, and whilst the expressway right behind our home looked so empty, that was likely because no traffic had been able to get through to the expressway as everywhere else was gridlocked.

I love the rain - but only when I am settled and comfy at home! These days, I don't particularly like the rain too much as it caused so much chaos and inconveniences when I still have a few more hours to go being in the office.When it gets too wet to walk, getting a taxi can be difficult. And, when I finally do get one, it will take ages to get home.

My going back home on time has become a real challenge. This whole raining thing has really been quite a pain in the ass. The traffic here is causing so much agony and disruptions to our daily lives that it is just absolutely insane.

Breast Feeding: Tips for Sore Nipples

Breast feeding is probably one of the hardest things I have done in my life. I remember the rough start I had with it when Spud came into this world. For something that seemed so natural, it never then occurred to me that it could be so hard.

Even after having some breast feeding experience with Spud, and despite having a hiatus of only 2 years since my last nursing session, I did not think that the second time round would be just as hard. But I was proven wrong. Breast feeding again did prove to be a challenge, albeit in a different way in its initial stages. 

The truth was, despite my experience with it, I had actually forgotten about the technique. I thought I knew what to do, but after about a week of having Squirt latching real strong on me, I started writhing in pain – a classic case of improper latching.

Every nursing session thereafter was a torture. My nipples were cracked and bleeding. The skin started to peel off and they were sore all the time. Every latch hurt excruciatingly – I had to close my eyes, held my breath and grit my teeth really, really hard each time Squirt latched. The pain was just debilitating. (Although Silver Bullet never fails to laugh whenever he saw the expression on my face each time Squirt latched on – he thought that it was just too funny)

My nipple soreness began after about 5 days of nursing. It took me a good two weeks of getting used to again. It peaked on the 7-12 days or so - I tear each time Squirt latched, and there was nothing I could do about the pain but to suck it up. 

It got so sore and painful with a burning sensation that I had to seek help to overcome the challenges. All in all, these were some of the tips I did different following  the advice of a lactation consultation to be able to pull through the initial difficulties in trying to establish a successful breast feeding:

Positioning:

Ensuring tummy-to-tummy positioning so that he does not have to turn his head to reach the breasts, while using my forearm to support his head and back. (I had clearly forgotten about this!)

Source: wikieducator

Breast shields:

A friend was kind enough to send over a pair of breast and nipple shields for me to combat the awful soreness. While the nipple shield was more of a hindrance for both baby and me (it was hard for him to extract the milk, and not very comfortable for me to use), the breast shield ensured that I keep the nipples dry so that it does not get stuck to the bra or breast pads. This proved really useful and really aided with the healing.   

Lanolin 

Soothes, heals and protected my sore, cracked nipples. Safe for babies.

Salt water

A very useful tip from the lactation consultant is to dilute some salt into warm water and dip the nipples in several times for a few days. As bizarre as that may sound, after doing this religiously for at least 3-5 days, I have to say that this did the trick to heal up my really cracked nipples real good.

 

And then, just like that, the pain all disappeared within days. I was pain-free when Squirt was slightly more than 2 weeks old.

Who would have thought breast feeding can be such a pain. Those moms who claimed that they did not experience such pain with breastfeeding were either lying or just plain lucky.

Breakfast conversation

The following conversation took place at our dining table just a couple of weeks ago when Silver Bullet was feeding Spud her breakfast:

Spud (she was a little under the weather, and was quite whiney): Papa no go to work...

Silver Bullet: Well, Papa HAS to go to work. Papa needs to make money. Otherwise, Papa has no money.

Spud: Nanny has money...!

Me: .......

Silver Bullet: Guess where Nanny gets her money from! 

OK. I have to admit that the whole thing was just freaking hilarious, and I could not help but laugh.

Ahh...kids do say the darnest thing. 

My UV Brolly

The weather has been a little more than wonky these days as we have been experiencing heavy rainfall and thunderstorms for days on end. It is now getting a little bit hard to be able to leave the office and get home in time before the assault of the rain. The rain seemed to be pouring at the most inconvenient time – such as when you are just about to leave the office building!

I did not have a brolly with me when that happened recently, and I found myself to be searching for one frantically just as I was about to make an exit out of the building. It was such a hassle to retrace my steps back to the office to ask my colleagues for one, so I ended up scouring the shops at the basement in search for one.

Fortunately for me, I found the one and only umbrella there was in a small shop - all for 200 freaking baht!  When I was about to pay for it, she smiled her megawatt smile with a parting shot of, “This (umbrella) is really good. It’s colourful and has got UV Protection.”

Faking a smile from ear to ear, I said thank you, but erm…no. I think I need it more for the pissing rain as oppose to needing UV protection in this weather...?

I wondered if she realized what the weather outside had been like. In fact, I am not sure if she realised that the reason for me buying a brolly was not because of some silly UVs protection while it was pouring. I walked away, rolling eyeballs to the back of my head. I wanted to poke her eyes with the pointy thing at the end of the brolly for selling me a very over-priced umbrella.

So here’s my 200 Baht colourful brolly with UV protection:

Not the prettiest brolly I have ever invested in a jiffy, and by the looks of it, I figured the shop keeper probably got the brolly as a premium for one of the products she was selling. Perhaps being the ever opportunist, I was not surprised that she’d rather be selling it to an idiot like me who desperately was needing a brolly at that time.

It must be her easiest sales pitch ever. Whatever it was, I am sure she had the last laugh with my 200 Baht.

Only in Thailand.

Weekend family bonding

Our weekend is not always a breeze, but once in a while, even though they all don't happen in one day, we do get the really odd occasion when everything seems all relaxed for the moment.

Starting a weekend morning lazing in bed

Some quality time with our feline friend in the day

Ending the weekend with well-behaved kids!

These were all impromptu and candid shots I found from about a month ago when things were fairly normal.

We had a rather rough weekend this week, but pictures like these make me smile. As dysfunctional as our family can sometimes be (thanks to the kids and my tendency of being rather high-strung), times like these DO happen. And when it happens, it makes having a family and parenting (almost!) all worth it.

We have only got each other and that our weekend family bonding time can (sometimes!) be quite endearing.