Sweet tooth...

When I was young oral care is the last thing on my mind. I mean my mom had to think of so many ways to ensure that I have good well aligned teeth.

I vividly remember 3 particular incidents.

The first 2 had to do with my baby teeth as they were slowly being replaced by permanent teeth but I was really nervous about it.

In fact even though this baby teeth could be swaying and I can rock and twist them a bit, I will not pull it out nor let anyone near it.

So my ever wise mom will offer me sugar cane to eat. Having a sweet tooth, I am a sucker for anything sweet. So before long, out comes the tooth, nailed in between the sugar cane.

Then there was this particular front baby tooth of my which refused to budge even though my mom could see the tip of a new tooth coming out.

Sugar cane did not work this time, so she schemed with my uncle and a few other cohorts (which included my aunt and a few others) and when I was walking by the corridor of my grandparents house minding my own business, 2 pairs of strong arms will suddenly grabbed me and in a second I would be on the floor pinned down by these hooligans and my mom with a handkerchief will grabbed and pull out this baby tooth.

It was a swift and successful operation for their record as I was too shock to register any reaction.

My last memorable incident was my trip to the dentist in Ampang Park. The dentist was japanese. I could remember him clearly because my parents made sure I know that I was getting the best dentist and not just any average dentist cos he's japanese.

But before reaching there, we will make a detour to a pastry shop on the ground floor, my personal favorite.

It was a japanese sweet snack in shape of fish. Now with the help of google I managed to find it's name of these long years of not knowing. It's (ta-da-da-da...)

Taiyaki (たい焼き)
A snack in the shape of a sea bream. (A sea bream is a freshwater fish in Japan.) A mold is made in the likeness of a sea bream, and batter is baked in the mold. Then the sweet bean paste is used as filling.

I wonder why no one sells this snack anymore... Perhaps the price of red bean had gone up drastically.

Anyway my mom will use this as bait to get me onto the dentist's chair but I wont sit there without a fight. And by fight I really mean fight. I'll be screaming, kicking and swinging my arms so much that the poor japanese dentist had to call in reinforcements.

So picture me being pinned down by 6 people including my mom and dad and the dentist extracting the tooth hastily and with much force and determination.

After putting on such a fight, my dad will then have to carry me in his arm and I will be slumped over his shoulder, looking ever so betrayed and forlorn with a gauze in my mouth to stop the bleeding and carrying my precious taiyaki.

The cause of my downfall... blame it on my sweet tooth.

But it's funny how I cant remember any of my other doctors but I can remember all the dentists I went to. Maybe it's cos going to the dentist has and always will be traumatic. Even right now, I am dragging my feet to have my belated annual dental checkup. Sigh... where is the taiyaki shop when you need one...

Guys without tooth... Eeww...

There are many occasions of travelling to Indonesia that I meet guys who were impeccably dressed, having good physique but the moment they open their mouth to smile I cant help but grimace at their missing or cracked and decayed front tooth or in some cases teeth. Some decays are so extensive that all that's left are the mere root of the tooth.

So on hindsight I really appreciate my mom's concern and efforts in bringing me to dentists when I was young. Our malaysian government was also to be thanked to making oral checkup mandatory during my primary school time but how I HATED these check ups.

I would try to make a lot of excuses but somehow the school dentist always get to us. Blame it on the close proximity of the clinic to the school canteen. To us that place was more like a torture chamber than a clinic.

Later I heard rumours of these dentists having been paid by the government based on the number of fillings or extractions that they performed will indiscriminately performed such procedure on us poor students especially on those with below average oral care ones... I mean chocolates and sweets are staple food in a child's mind.

Come to think of it, I do find some truth in it cos I had these innocent growth kind of like moles, if tooth can have moles like skin, then that was what I had at the back of my tooth which is not visible at all when I smile. So till today I dont know if the growth is black colour like mole or just that my tooth at the back is not even.

Anyhow this dentist saw it, drilled it and filled it. And this mole growth thingey is not just on 1 tooth but on 2 of my teeth. Did I mentioned that the drill did not have water squirting at it as it drilled? It's basically just a drill, without any extras like water, suction thingey, piped in music, air-con, pain killer so you can just imagine the pain and agony for her to hurry up and finish the job.

Thank God she did a good job in the filling as after 20 over years, this filling have not been giving me any trouble. Goes to prove that old stuffs are still the best just like electrical appliances.

This is just one of the many close encounters I have had with dentists. Will blog more about them next time. Children nowadays have it so nice and easy so there's no excuses not to have sparkling and complete set of teeth, from top to bottom, front to back.

The shocking truth about electricity

Recently had power cut in my house. It did not really bothered me until the battery ran out on the notebook. Drat!! So I was reduced to caveman lifestyle that night.

So what do you do in times like this? No tv, no astro, no computer, no air-con or fan... Battery dead on mobile phone. Double drat!!

But when the electricity's gone, you realised there's a stillness in the room... everything seems very quiet. Too quiet. Gone are the whizzing sound from the air con, the soft buzzing from the notebook fan and even the water dripping sound was gone as all the air cons are not working.

So what do you do in times like this? Well this was what I did. I sat down with my mom and sis and we began to talk. Just about everything.

I guess with all the technology that electricity brings, it also took away our interaction with fellow human beings. Even as I blog, who am I communicating with?

There is a wonderment in technology but will it ultimately cause the downfall in civilisation too? So I hope I will not see the day where people know more about their "friends" on facebook than people in their office or even in their very home.

The Expendables

Recently watched The Expendables. Really enjoyed some of the wisecrack between the characters especially the ones involving Jet Li. Blame it on my asian genes but I am really proud of him, what he stands for and his achievements.

You can see from the poster he was the shortest among all the "kwai lo" but he made it up with his presence. I also liked the fact that he continue to wear his trademark 2 long sleeve shirts over a white tee. Hehe so conservative considering the rest were all showing off their biceps with sleeveless or short sleeves.

It was also interesting to note that some of them had made some plastic surgeons filthy rich especially Sylvester Stallone. He look so good now. Everything's firm and in place ;D

Some may say this is a guy's show but it's not too bad for gals. After this show I am thinking of watching RED. Kind of nostalgic to watch all these familiar faces on the golden screen again. At least I know I am not alone in growing old ;D

Friends... for life!

Just had lunch with a long lost friend recently. She found me in Facebook and we met up after 15 to 16 years of not seeing or talking to each other. So I am really grateful that technology helped me find a piece of my history.

Being a W or X generation person, without any mobile phone, emails during our schooling days, it is inevitable that I lost contact with friends from school or college. I think children of this generation are so blessed cos they can keep in touch with friends through so many ways.

Also you can tell which generation a person is from their text messages cos I still use full sentences. I just cannot bring myself to use too-short forms... I do use the usual BTW, FYI, OIC but I have many friends who have yet to catch up with LOL and other latest acronyms out there.

Actually when this friend call me up for a 2nd lunch date, I was actually quite reluctant to go cos I have gotten too used to my schedule - in my comfort zone and was content with just communcating through facebook messages but I am glad I did as it was good to meet up with friends to talk and basically see each other face to face.

So if you are thinking of catching up with your friends by just communicating through the computer screen, just remember that no avatar nor any technology in the world (gmail yahoo facebook twitter skype blog and etc) can take the place of direct human interaction.

 

Driving etiquette in KL

Just an observation that I believe many would concur:- generally drivers in KL love to stop and look at accidents or anything that remotely resembles an accident or police stopping a pedestrian or car.

Everyone seems so curious about the extent of the accident, how it happen, any fatality or basically just trying to get the plate numbers to buy 4D later.

Another interesting observation is that drivers no longer have any respect for ambulance. The siren could be blaring from far away but no cars will give way. Every driver will suddenly turn deaf or mute. Otherwise they will take the opportunity to tail the ambulance so that they can beat the traffic jam.

I remember those days when there will be short documentaries on tv1 and tv2 (that's the only tv channels we had then) teaching drivers how to react to ambulance emergencies. It also explain why the word "AMBULANCE" cannot be read directly but through the mirror so that drivers looking at their rear mirror will immediately pull over but I forgot which side of the road, either to the left or to the right to give way to ambulance. Meaning you actually have to stop your car at the side of the road to give way to the ambulance.

But in reality nobody does that anymore. Really pity the patient in the ambulance as well as the ambulance drivera. I think the retirement age for ambulance drivers must be really low given the amount of stressful maneuverings through KL traffic they had to endure.

This brings to memory an incident in Turkuaz in year 2009 when one of our staff who was not having an easy pregnancy fainted in the shop. We immediately called for an ambulance and fortunately KL general hospital was nearby. So the ambulance arrived in less than 10 minutes.

The thing that was amazing was the immediate scene the very loudly blaring ambulance created. Within seconds, there were throngs of people at the shop. We had to form a human barricade to stop the nosy people from entering the shop and looking at our pregnant staff being transferred to the stretcher.

Amazing despite all the commotion, one person manage to get into the shop and we did not even realised when he entered the shop! Boy he was fast and that guy was the indian mamak stall cook from next door. He was grinning from ear to ear, so proud of himself for getting the latest gossip news of the day.

So to all the "sam pat" (chinese saying for busy body) people out there, we would greatly appreciate it if you could just mind your own business and not create traffic jams for the rest of us ;D

Talent... must you been born with you for it to count?

Was really intrigued by a dialogue in a japanese drama which I watched recently. From it I realised that there is a statement which is oh so so true. The statement is "If you are 5 year old and you can play the piano well - you are considered a genius but the same cannot be said when you are 20 year old". I guessed it meant you cannot fall into the category of a child prodigy anymore.

How great is it to burst out into the world with all your talents and gifts when you are young and talented - like Messi in the recent world cup, Jaden Smith but if you are old, then you are expected to retreat into the shadows and not be seen nor heard till you are no more.

The world even laughs at Susan Boyle when she took the stage. She was too old to have any talent... so they think.

It may be that we already have this talent within us but amazingly dont give much thought to it. We always think that our talents are never good enough. So we never take the time and effort to improve it.

Well I hope before the end of 2010 you will find the resolute within you to improve on your talent and never let age be a factor to stop you from discovering yourself.

If you think that you do not have any talent, then why not learn a new one. One is never too old and time is never right nor wrong to expand your horizons. It could be piano, typing, dancing, setting up a online shop or even a new language as language has always been the most effective bridge in getting to know people from another part of the world.

Everyone should find something to learn from this world as there is always something new to be learned every day and hopefully one day you would have mastered it to such an extent that it can be appreciated by others as well ;D