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Busted Nail

12 Oct

Three months ago, I slammed the bathroom door into my finger. Ouch. It hurt to high heaven and back. But thank goodness, it was one of those public bathroom wooden door that was not so heavy like the bathroom doors at home. Still… the pain was excruciating.

The finger bruised instantly at the proximal nail fold/eponychium/cuticle/lunula area. In layman terms, at the area between the flesh and the start of the nail of the fourth finger of the right hand.

Amazingly, the bruise stayed with the nail and it has been very fascinating then to see it moving outwards as the nail grew. I should have taken a picture of the accident back then in July. But then again, when one was tipsy and in pain at the time of the incident, taking a picture was the last thing on the mind.

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Taken a week apart, 3rd Oct (L) & 11th Oct (R)

 

 

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Pretty Colors

11 Oct

Hubby’s air plants have bloomed and the colors are so so pretty. I guess staying under the shaded Frangipani tree has really done wonders for them, protected from the onslaught of direct sunlight and rain.

I should go out to the garden more often to admire and appreciate all the greens and colors, weather permitting of course as rainy season has started.

 

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We Have to Be Patient

9 Oct

The habanero plant has grown but it’s fruiting very slowly. Last week, we had only two precious chilli to show, plucked a day apart, compared to the last harvest. Currently, there’s a bunch growing and we are hoping the rain won’t affect their growth as rainy season has kicked in. Keeping our fingers crossed.

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How many chillies can you see on the plant?

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My Nike Just Can’t Do It

8 Oct

The phrase “Golf is one painful and mental game” that I have been repeatedly saying has now become my favorite phrase when writing about golf. There’s always a story to it.

My game over the weekend was so contrasting in the results from the previous weekend – disastrous in other words, is the latest incident linking to the phrase. It was just pain this time and was literal with the Nike FitSole shoes that I wore.

I had a huge painful blister on my left pinky toe and almost developed another on the right pinky toe!

For the record, the waterproof shoes are actually quite comfortable being very padded, cushy and wide. So I cannot comprehend why there was friction at the edges inside to cause both feet to hurt and I ended up like that after 18 holes. And this is the first time this happened, the blister that is.

I conclude there’s always, always something that will go wrong despite the perfect weather, the good company, my good iron shots and pain-free right tennis elbow. The left wrist hurt initially but the painkiller took care of it. Little did I know the shoes were the culprit this time.

There shouldn’t be any excuses but…. Maybe my thin socks were too thin? Or maybe I cannot play golf on a weekly basis yet? Or maybe I am kidding myself thinking the shoes suit me. Sigh… Whatever it was, my Nike just couldn’t do it for me that Saturday morning.

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Don’t mind the wrinkled toe but see the beautiful full blown blister?

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The Right Package

21 Sep

Right after I lamented about hubby’s box arriving ahead of mine, my parcel arrived and the size is about right for what I ordered. Usually my orders are little soft packs, unlike his, coming in boxes of various sizes.

This time the item I ordered has nothing to do with carving but more for well-being to play better golf. It’s a hand-held battery-powered Acupuncture Meridian Pen and I thought it’d be a good and useful device to treat the recurring nagging pain on the left wrist and thumb.

Let’s see how I feel after using it a few times.

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Our Frangipani Tree, Part 2

13 Sep

The last few days the garden was looking a bit messy with potted plants everywhere and air plants hanging at wherever possible. They had to be relocated when the gardener came to treat the Frangipani tree; we kept the branches intact but the poor tree’s looking pretty bald without any leaves.

During those few days out in the open, the poor plants were burnt by direct sunlight because no other parts of the garden have shades to protect them like the Frangipani tree.

So after the anti-fungal medication settled on the tree, it’s time to move the plants back to their original location and hubby had to improvise to create a temporary shade for the delicate air plants and bromeliads.

This is the end result. I think it works.

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Our Frangipani Tree

7 Sep

We have a lovely garden at the back of the house. And in the corner, facing the garden patio is our lovely Frangipani tree. Over the years, the tree blossomed and is perfect for hubby to hang all his air plants on its branches.

Years passed and the corner thrived. But recently, our tree fell sick, noticeable with most of the leaves having orange splotches – rust fungus. Yikes.

Now all this while, the tree has been treated with organic anti-fungal spray but perhaps it’s not effective enough resulting in its state today. So it was either we chop down the tree as an easy solution to get rid of the fungus or trim it and treat with a super strong poisonous anti-fungal spray to contain the situation.

We opted for the latter because we can’t bear to lose the tree and now it is looking rather bald. Poor tree! But we hope the treatment will do wonders and the tree will regain its full beauty. Only time can tell.

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Looking lush and looking bald

Frangipani leaves

Orange culprit be gone!

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Resistance is Futile, Part 2

20 Aug

I must say my food fancy have changed ever since the discovery of Endometriosis. It’s sad that I have to give up certain food but some things I just cannot give up.

Top on the list of food I avoid these days are dairy, wheat, onions and caffeine or should I say coffee. As for eggs and beef, the less I eat them, the less pain I would have to deal with. And so far, it’s been manageable.

I thought I could still do sunflower seeds after that last ordeal a month ago, dismissing it as an isolated case. I couldn’t be more wrong as I had some recently and suffered the consequences miserably. I guess I have to give this up too. Sigh…

I was at the grocery store over the weekend and the chocolate bar called out to me again and I couldn’t resist because it is one of the two things I can’t give up. I picked it up without hesitation. As I have said before, resistance is futile.

Although chocolate contains dairy, I manage and consume in moderation, so it’s bearable. It doesn’t cause as much pain as cheese or even the sunflower seeds. I would be terribly miserable if I can’t have my chocolate. Shudder…

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Intense Heat

16 Aug

We are experiencing an intense heat wave of late, it’s unbearable. The biting heat certainly makes life uncomfortable and it’s no fun to carve in such weather, what more to do so out in the garden terrace with the sun in the background. When the wind blows, it’s as if we are standing in front of an opened oven with the heat gushing out. Phew.

Several months earlier when it rained, we’d wished for dry weather but we get dry weather now, we wish for the opposite! I guess we have to deal with the situation.

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A New Problem

26 Jul

Besides avoiding dairy and caffeine, these days I also avoid onions, eggs and beef if I can help it. Life as a cow (consuming just greens) sometimes can be very bland and boring. So in between meals, I would munch on seeds and nuts because they are supposedly good for me.

Recently, I discovered I can’t eat sunflower seeds! Oh dear. I like sunflower seeds and have been eating them my whole life but of late, these puny seeds make me bloated and a horrible discomfort would ensue. It looks like food listed as good will not necessarily be good for me. Every Endometriosis sufferer is different and it’s a matter of trial and error, or rather eat and suffer, to discover.

I then checked again the symptoms for Endometriosis and sure enough, bloating is right there after the back pains and cramps. So maybe it’s not the sunflower seeds after all. Somehow this bloating was never so pronounced before and was mistaken for something else at the beginning of the year which then led to the discovery of Infectious Colitis.

Still, this bloating issue is a new problem to deal with. I have to monitor and see if this is cyclical. Sigh…

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