Accident

Sis Rosnah (Cikmina as she is fondly called) fell on the pavement while walking with other sis Aya last Thursday and dislocated her arm. She was immediately admitted into Ampang hospital and was told that after what was supposed to be a simple procedure, would be discharged today. Had gone to visit her yesterday after class. She seemed ok then with her bandaged arm after the elbow relocation but today we were told that due to a slight fracture and torn ligaments, the relocation would not hold and that she would have to undergo operation on Monday to insert a metal facilitator on the cast. Aya had stayed with her for the last 2 nights so it is my turn tonight.

Changing of the guards took place at 10.30pm. I brought my laptop to work on my coming workshop programme, but the room is so cold, all I want to do is wrap myself with the thickest blanket and curl up. Even my brain seems to freeze as I can’t bring myself to read. So I’m joining the 2 chairs together and squeeze inside…pray they don’t come apart!

Wish list for Mr. Right

For my weekly English class today, I had prepared 2 articles for reading, comprehension and discussion – “Waiting for Mr Perfect” (The Star) and an extract on suitable styles for various body shapes. They jumped on the first one and seemed to be bent over with amusement as they took turns to read, not stopping to ask about any difficult words or phrases. Well, I’ve always told them not be deterred by these anyway, rather to read for the general ideas or story first. In this one-hour class, the best I can do is to selectively go over some difficult words and subtle expressions. What is more important is the discussion the article stimulates as the main objective of the class is to get them to speak in English. They were so involved with the topic that they started talking excitedly at the same time. It was one of the rare times that they were quick to give opinions and to disagree with the author or to elaborate on his ideas. Yes, in unison they disagreed that honesty, trust and faithfulness are not the most important criteria for the perfect guy, but money, money and money are firsts on the wish list! For loyalty, somebody suggested a yearly contract. Author says you can’t dream for a humorous guy if you are not humorous yourself….Su said she didn’t need a guy as chirpy as herself and others agreed they’d prefer their opposites. Whatever they felt, they were not self-conscious expressing themselves and that’s when they usually speak best.

There were 4 new students today who were actually trainees from the group’s nursing college, 2 men and 2 ladies. It must have been quite an intimidating first day for them because I saw them bewildered most of the time the ‘‘seniors” were laughing their heads off. For their benefit, I went over some words for correct pronunciation and discovered that not everyone knew what “mustache” is or what you actually mean when you say someone is “not drop-dead gorgeous”. More hilarious was when we played hot seat to recall vocabulary in the article….the person in hot seat, tested for the word “moustache” said the word was ‘big boobs”! The class had to end at that point, 20 minutes over schedule.    

Haven

It's grandma’s day out with the golden girls! I had planned this a few days earlier with Juanita and Marina who live on the same street.. We are each usually kept very busy with our own daily routines and see each other only when we walk out together for taichi, so I had missed them for nearly a month then.

I promised to take them to Haven on ampang hilir as I had enjoyed a couple of meals there earlier and knew they are into healthy food and organic stuff which Haven signifies. We had pumpkin soup, broccoli soup, pesto with chicken, chicken and mushroom pie and pancakes. They were perfect including the muesli bread that went with the soup. Good to the last crumb, they were downed quickly enough and we were quite caught up too with the recipes, so spared ourselves of sinful gossip…well, maybe just a little. Anyway, what I do remember is baby spinach makes pesto look and taste better and cucumbers are bad for lactating mothers. Somebody has taken a second wife?...can’t remember, doesn’t matter. Then we had a leisurely browse through their grocery store where we discovered many items which we will need to return for later…manuka honey, beans, organic fish balls and lots of pure stuff to repair drying skin and other degenerating parts. Call us suckers for such promises, but we’d read up enough (especially Juanita) on the ingredients to know that they are not bluff….expensive yes, but genuine too.

Juanita bought organic noodles, Marina got herself a bar of organic soap( coconut based) and I got a bag of mineralized rock salt and organic raisins. I also took away an order of pesto for Alman’s mummy for lunch. A wholesome trip for our stomachs and for our souls.

Lullaby

I’d been on the stepper for just about 10 minutes when mummy came downstairs with her bundle looking like she’d been walking with it for 2 miles. Alman refused to settle down after his feed, it seemed, and was just fretting. My own mother used to tell me to hug them (babies) close in the early morning and at maghrib. Mummy flopped on the sofa like a big baby while I happily took Alman with my sweat and all. Two lullabys later (mine range from Sound of Music to the Beatles) Alman was fast asleep, contented to be laid down in his napper on the playpen placed in the centre of our living room.

Big baby had corned beef on toast, strawberries and cream, horlicks and orange juice when she woke up.

Awakening

It is the third day into my new resolution to bring back exercise into my daily routine and I am still at it! I feel good and I’ve been getting the old gush of enthusiasm each time before I start so I know it’s going to get better and better.  

I’d been mulling over the idea of getting back into fitness two weeks after I stopped going for taichi and walks around taman TAR. In actual fact, after the birth of Muhammad Alman, my first grandson, on 31st March 2012, I had abandoned the 6.45am roll out with the girls at the clearing on “The Peak” with the two sifus conducting the workout. How I miss stretching and swaying with the aunties gang and the fresh morning air, the open sky, the surrounding green backdrop of the forest reserve…the best things in life are free (rise and shine sleepy joes!). But little Alman comes first and I have resumed the role of “confinement lady” for my daughter….a million things to do to make sure mummy eats hearty well-balanced meals and gets enough sleep so she can nurse well and baby gets a healthy feed always. Daddy can’t be neglected too as he does get up to tend to the baby at night and has to go to work as usual. The house has to be clean and cosy with baby things giving a new character to the various spaces in the house. Sure we have an excellent part-time housekeeping maid, but she comes only 3 times a week, 4 hours each time. Regardless, it has been an exhilarating experience every inch of the way.

Something I’m not proud about but have had to accept is the gnawing ache at middle of my back on the right side that started in the second week after my entitlement as grandma. For the first time in my life, I started trying out analgesic plasters like acustok and ketutok, hot rubs and ointments besides sleeping with heat pads on by back. I got better after two days but it set me thinking…that I cannot let this happen again and again if I want to take proper care of Alman, carry and cradle him when he wants to be held,  and to be walking and running with him as he grows up.      


Fast rewind…..I had started gym in 1993, religiously going 3 times a week after a freak fall on the tennis court landed me in hospital with an acute back sprain. I stayed absolutely still on the bed with a heat pad all night only because I couldn’t even sip from a straw without wincing. Doctor was shocked to see me upright again the next morning. I was determined to never let that happen again and so started light `gym workouts to be limber and flexible and continued playing tennis (something I was neurotic about at some periods during my younger life) until about 5 years ago when I had a bad muscle sprain or something in my right arm which kept me away from the courts for a year. I only went for walks during that year. I tried playing again but always came back with some injury or other and could not keep up with the rest any more especially the guys. Truth always hurts but to accept it is to earn wisdom. If even  marathon runner Murakami at 59 ( in “what I talk about when I talk about running”) can humbly deal with the fate of his weakening knees and embrace nature’s whims, why couldn’t I? But while Murakami continued running international marathons with more realistic targets, I only got lazy. Maybe it was the hormones, maybe it was work but laziness only made me depressed. For about 3 years I only did walking a few times a week and only got hooked on taichi about 1 ½ years ago. I ought to be thankful my weight has remained stable in the “ideal” category.

So a week after Alman came home, I realized that taichi is not enough. I have to rebuild myself so that I can give my best to Alman, as much, if not more than, what I gave to my own three children who wanted me to stay young forever for them ( I believe they also appreciate the beauty of old age too by now). Yes, they were my motivation for keeping fit and trim and now  it is Alman….before he can even recognize me. Call it awakening. Awakening doesn’t always come like a thunderbolt or overnight, does it? This one had been seeping in ever since those lonely restless walks.  


So back to where I started my diary today…..I’m exercising. I first went back to the gym for 35 min last Saturday. I cannot steal time out in the mornings regularly though, have to find something more convenient. Took out my old stepper (a manual stepping exerciser which I bought through a mail catalogue some 20 years ago!)  out on the back porch, a set of dumb bells and a battered pair of tennis shoes. I love my little gym overlooking my disheveled back garden. I  can listen to the radio from the maid’s room. I’ve started taking vitamins again too and since I have to prepare plenty of fruits and juices for my daughter, I take them myself instead of procrastinating like before. With the back gym, I can be flexible with my exercise times. So far I’ve started at 7.45am and gone on till about 8.15am. This is after I’ve put the clothes in the machine and cleared last night’s leftovers. I stop just in time to prepare breakfast. I‘ve had to make some adjustment to my part-time help schedule…to give me some pockets of time for relaxation and for work (as I still need to earn some). Alman is a gift from heaven, to be nurtured and loved. Some sacrifices will have to be made, new routines to set up but I believe I don’t have to cut myself off completely from other things that I have to do and things I love to do. Then my life will be truly enriched and I myself am responsible for realizing that.