Since it is my Friday off tomorrow and due to Foundation Day on Monday, I’ve ended up with a 4 day weekend again. Not that I’m complaining at all. Who can complain when they get a 4 day weekend, 4 day work week, followed by another 4 day work week.
Ahhh….This is the life.
Not that I don’t have much planned up my sleeve for the weekend. I’ve got lunch with the girls (and guy) tomorrow, shopping with the other girls and then cell group at night with everyone else. Then I’ve got to do my laundry tomorrow and Saturday, clean my room as part of my weekly upkeep schedule, and go to the markets (if nobody has gone). Then on Sunday morning, I’ve gotta pick my uncle and send my aunty, my uncle and my cousin to the airport. Its also Sam’s birthday on Sunday, but I’ll be so zonked out with the driving to the airport so early in the morning once again that I’ll be so tempted to sleep in.
In between all that I’ll be catching up on my beauty sleep (I’ve worked from 7am to 6pm today and I did an airport run last night with the baby screaming in the back seat. I still hear the echoes) and reading up on my psychology, psychiatry and disability readings. I’m not sure what the OT Board is doing about the professional development thing, but I’m keeping abreast with the issues and reading the journals that we get at the office. Can’t afford to fall behind with everything, cause I’d feel extremely unwise should I do that.
Anyways, since I know its boring to read a post with just words in it, here you go. Picture of me attempting to nerd. The glasses definitely help with the nerdy look 
I know. This is an unedited picture and I am acutely aware of having freckles and pimples. I think I should do a makeup post soon.
Till tomorrow’s post!
Previously I tested some products in relation to my allergies. I guess to understand the full extent of my allergies, I’d have to start right from the beginning.
See, I discovered in 2004 that I was allergic to rockmelon. I’d break out in hives by eating it. Then I realised I’d break out in hives by just touching the juice. So therefore I stayed away from rockmelon ever since. It’s not the most common allergy, but I guess you can be allergic to fruit.
So then sometime this year I found our that I was allergic to both red and white wine. I’m not bummed about the red, but I sure am bummed about being allergic to white wine. I do love my sweet whites.
I found this out when I drank white wine one night and went off to shower and started breaking out in rashes. I thought it was cause it was hot (this was in summer this year) and I was just sweaty. So I had wine again another night and again I showered and was itchy. Only then did my aunty put 2 and 2 together, that I might have an allergy to white wine. So we experimented again. I drank white wine and lo and behold I broke out in rashes.
Fine. I tried red wine and same result. Thing is, I’ve drank before and haven’t broken out in hives yet.
So one day we were at dinner at a Chinese restaurant and they typically serve fruit at the end of the meal. And the fruit would usually be rockmelon amongst other things. Thankfully since rockmelon was out of season, they swerved honey dew. So I, being confident, claimed that I’m not allergic to honey dew as I’ve eaten it before.
I came home and voila! I broke out in itches. I don’t know how or why either.
Fine, so another day I came home and had to go to cell group one night and I figured I’d shower first cause I won’t have time to shower after I come back. So off I went to shower and then I came out and happened to wear a low back shirt and I found that I had broken out in hives for no apparent reason. I have no idea why and I showed my aunty. I didn’t not have wine, rockmelon or honey dew any time recently. That was when we kinda figured it might be the shower gel I was using.
Lo and behold, I think it is. Up to this day I’m breaking out in rashes each time I shower. I’ve tried many products, Neutrogena, QV, Sorbelene, Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson’s to no avail. Sorbelene was the only one with any hope but it feels strange to be showering with body lotion.
This was when we figured it might be my shampoo &/or conditioner.
This is what I look like typically almost every night after a shower:
Forgive the Power Puff Girls shirt. I was in PJs
Quite frankly, I’ve given up trying to find products that work. Like my dad says, “Just eat (or in this case) use it till you’re desensitised”. I wonder how long that will take.
The desensitisation of wine is going to be a costly process 
As the title above says, there is another farewell. This time for another team member of mine. We went out to the Subi Hotel today after work and had a few goodbye drinks, or rather one drink for me since I’m tiny (I’m in denial) and had to drive home. Seeing that I can’t drink wine or champagne, I ended up with vodka, lime and soda. Must say, it probably will become my new favourite drink should I decide to go for drinks again. I did not break out in rashes/hives so that puts it on my “Good to Drink” list.
I digress.
I’m not at saying goodbye, but I guess life goes on and I just have to accept that reality.
The person leaving is a good team mate of mine, the first person (apart from the OTs) that I worked with while I was at Edge as a student. She was the person I worked with for my first work trial and my first job start. Her bubbly personality and willingness to help just made working such a breeze.
I can’t help but miss her little dance she does when she gets excited. I’m now picking up that dance
I’m going to miss the times we went “Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” in the car while taking corners.
Well, technology nowadays is pretty advanced so e-mails it is. Tasmania will be on my “Places to Visit” list next year, so don’t worry I’ll be there soon!
Just yesterday Gen, Michelle and I were at Myers in the city when I overheard a mother arguing with her daughter. I was picking out some tights as I’ve only got one tatty pair which is about to be thrown out and Myer was having a sale.
So I was happily going about picking out the cheapest pairs of tights (since it was buy 2 pairs and get 20% off, buy 3 pairs and get 30% off) when this mother and daughter were arguing about leggings. See there are basically two types of leggings, opaque and non-opaque. Opaque ones are the nearly solid ones where it looks like pants but is thinner than pants. Basically don’t wear a T-shirt with that as you’d be exposing yourself to the entire world. Non-opaque ones are even thinner and are meant to be worn with over size T-shirts or dresses that do not expose your crotch area to the world. Oh, and for all you guys reading, leggings are stockings without feet. Think a pair of think pants.
So back to the story. So the daughter was trying to convince the mother that the pair of leggings at Myers aren’t the ones to be worn for dancing as it was see-through. But the mother was telling the daughter “well this is opaque ones and it is the one you need for dancing”. The poor daughter tried to explain that with leggings there are leggings that are meant to be used for dancing and others that are just for fashion. But the mother was so stubborn that she refused to listen to what the daughter was saying instead she said, “this is the right one. You just don’t want to get these cause you want to go to the special dance shop and the the ones for twice the price”.
I was so tempted to walk up to them and tell the mother that her daughter was actually right. I was actually wearing the leggings which I used for dancing and I was sorely tempted to show the mother what the daughter was talking about. The mother got so angry she retorted to the daughter, “well what did we come to town for if these aren’t the tights? That’s it. We’re leaving”. And so the mother stormed off with the poor daughter trying to get the mother to look at the proper tights. After they left, I looked to the section that they were browsing and checked out the leggings there. Lo and behold if you look at the picture properly, the opaque leggings indeed show the model wearing the leggings and you can see the colour of the skin through the leggings. I felt so sorry for the girl, cause all she wants is a pair of leggings that would not cause her to flash her undies to everyone. Hell I was so close to telling the pair to go to Supre cause that’s where I got my pair of leggings from.
I guess why I’m retelling this is cause I couldn’t help but think how stubborn that mother is and how I’m thankful my parents aren’t like that but instead they’ll hear me out. I’m missing my family, but only another 7 months till they land in Perth
Oh, I must tell you another story. We had a J-Life Leader’s meeting out at PJ’s house in Aubin Grove on Saturday. To cut a long story short, I was driving Joe home and I missed the turning on Hackett Drive to his place so I took Bruce Street home. Then I see flashing lights, a cop car right in front. I was scared for no logical reason (cops and authority scare me) and kinda panicked and went at 40 km/h. Haha. Yes, I’m an aunty when cops are around. When they don’t look, I drive a tad faster. But anyways, so I dropped Joe home and came back down Bruce Street to go home and the cops were still there. I thought to myself, never mind just drive with both hands on the wheel (which I didn’t do the first time passing them till Joe pointed it out :P).
So the next morning I was driving down Broadway to get to church and there was another cop car the corner of my street and Broadway. I didn’t give it much thought at all. I recounted the experience to the Gen, Michelle, Evan and John while driving back from the city yesterday. One of them jokingly said, “who knows, it might be a sign cause you’re a ‘zhua-ster” (zhua-ster = someone who likes to tekan minyak. Tekan minyak = accelerate like mad or literally translated means press oil :P)
So then this morning, I was recounting to my aunty about how I saw so many cop cars in the past 2 days. She made a remark, “they need to raise revenue due to the downturn, they’re losing money”. I didn’t think much about it, but wasn’t even sure why I had brought up that subject with her. I went to work and coming home this evening, I was driving on Mounts Bay and going at 60km/h on my cruise control. I ended up following some really slow cars and having been on the road the whole day (my car has clocked 5000km already in 4 months! Yay!) I was keen to go home and have a shower. I was about to cut into the fast lane, but somehow I didn’t cause I didn’t feel like cutting. Driving up the usual speed camera location, I was glad I didn’t. There in broad daylight was the speed camera. Amazing how so many signs pointed me to drive slowly today. I’m still amazed actually.
After driving for 50km today, I think I need to be in the office tomorrow and catch up with my paperwork. I’ve got a long week ahead but its pay week, so I’m marginally happier this week
Well, if you are my Facebook friend you would have been following my updates about my allergies. On Friday, for no apparent reason after my shower I broke out in horrible rashes all over my back and my neck. That was when the question whether I might be allergic to my shower gel came up. I refused to believe it and kept using it. Come Saturday I still had mild rashes after showering. See, I’ve been using the shower gel for a while and I think it might have aggravated my other allergies.
Thus, I came up with the theory that I might be allergic to my shower gel. So on Sunday night, I switched shower gels. I used to use Johnson & Johnson’s Oat Milk & Almond Oil. So on Sunday after my other allergy to champagne surfaced (more about that soon), I decided to try the Palmolive Shower Gel I bought a while ago. some green colour bottle.
Same result, I broke out in hives albeit a bit milder.
So on Monday I tried Natural Instinct Shower Gel. Which proved a bit better, less rashes but still itchy. I refused to take anti histamines last night after the shower, so I’d just ride it out.
So tonight I’m trying out Neutrogena’s Soap. Let’s just see what happens. Fingers crossed.
EDIT: Looks like I’m still allergic to the hypoallergenic stuff. The way I see it there are only 3 options.
Option 1: Don’t shower. I doubt I’d have any friends after this.
Option 2: Just keep using the shower gels I have and live with the stupid itching. Its expensive to keep testing stuff out.
Option 3: Use talcum powder. Result would probably be similar to option 1.
So its kinda obvious I’m going to be picking option 2. Unless some kind soul wants to donate hypoallergenic shower gels/soaps for me to try out before I buy
Whoopdeedooooo!!!
Perth has voted no to daylight savings being implemented in Western Australia. Boy am I glad. No more driving home and getting sun burnt in the car. No more sleeping earlier and switching the air conditioner on just to cool the place down. Wheeee!!!
On another note, I’ve found out I’m also allergic to my current shower gel (Johnson & Johnson’s Nourishing Shower Gel with Oat Milk and Almond Oil) and also pink champagne. It seems like I’m developing more allergies as time goes by. I’ve taken almost half of the packet of antihistamines since I got them, which was about a month or two ago.
Came back from the birthday parties last night and was pooped. I’m waiting on pictures of the parties cause I didn’t have a camera. I tell you we camwhored like mad. Haha….I’ll get the pics and put them up soon. More about that some other time.
Since I’ve gone and taken lots and lots of movies and TV series off Sam, I’m going to be watching them for a while yet
So far it hasn’t been a good start to the week.
On Monday, one of my colleagues from the other department left.
Today, I found out that another of my team mate is leaving in 4 weeks time.
I think the facts have just hit me with full force right about an hour ago as I thought about my clients and what I had to do for work tomorrow. I’m not in the best of moods right now as she is one of my closer team mates. Don’t get me wrong, I love all of them to bits but she has been with me right from the day I started as a student and she is the first person I worked with at Edge. I’m going to miss her to bits! Thankfully there is e-mail and everything nowadays.
As I was in the shower just now, I couldn’t help but feel a bit down as I thought about everything. I must say I think I need so slow down and not think about the whole thing. I’m beginning to get a bit stressed with trying to balance so many things on my plate, with work, church and everything else in between. I think I need some time out, so I’m going to try and take it easy for the next week or so. I’ve got a jam packed 2 days at work, and then I’ve got the day off on Friday. Which is going to be used to sort out banking issues, migration documentation issues and purchasing of birthday presents. Then I’ve got youth service that night followed by 2 birthday parties on Saturday night and church service on Sunday. In between it all, I’m going to mess around with my borrowed camera (which takes amazing pictures!) and hopefully get more pictures up here.
So put it this way, I’m not in the best of moods now. I think I should go to sleep and stop thinking.
I just got an e-mail from Nuffnang that I’ve got free tickets to watch a movie. Woohoo!! More about it when I get home tonight. I’m on a first aid course atm so another 3 hours till I have Internet again Well I hope the Internet resets itself today.
EDIT: I just checked my e-mail again and realised it is a pre-release movie double pass for the movie My Year Without Sex.
Click HERE to watch the trailer of the movie. I must say, this is the first thing I’ve won from Nuffnang and I’m way excited! I almost never win anything and I’ve got double passes to watch the movie before its released to the public.
Looks like my next weekend is booked in to watch the movie now
Well, I haven’t been updating again due to Internet issues. We’ve exceeded our allowance for the month and it now runs on 64kbps, which is insanely slow and I can’t access my blog. Thus I’m on my mobile typing this (See David, my e71 is highly useful apart from my Blackberry).
Yes, I’ve got a Blackberry Bold for work and I’ve got plenty to blog about. Till 11th May when the Internet resets itselfs I shall be partially Internetless, bar the net on my phone.
Byeeeeeeee!
